Jason Foley polished up his game last offseason.
The primary focus was his mental game, evident when he entered spring training overflowing with confidence. His sinker, velocity, pitch movements, arm angle and ground-ball rate have intrigued the Detroit Tigers for a few years, and after an 11-game taste of the big leagues last season, he prepared himself mentally and physically for a bigger role.
By the end of 2022, Foley had one of the most productive seasons of any player on the roster. The 6-foot-4 right-hander took a significant step forward on his development path by throwing strikes, avoiding walks and initiating contact — all examples of an improved confidence in his abilities.
The next step in his evolution is missing bats with a better breaking ball.
“I’ve done a better job of proving I can pitch in this league,” Foley said in August. “Last year, I thought I pitched OK, but I was a little shaky. I feel like I’ve just grown as a pitcher, and I’m going to continue to grow and learn from all the guys around me.”
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The 26-year-old seemingly saw it coming.
“This year is a little different,” Foley said in late March, about two weeks before spring training ended. “I expect to be a part of the team, and I think I deserve to be on this team. I came in with a different mindset.”
Indeed, Foley deserved to be on the team, and he was rewarded as such with a spot on the Opening Day roster. Foley, whom the Tigers signed in August 2016 as an undrafted junior, also talked about wanting to establish himself in the big leagues.
He did that, too.
“I feel like I’ve solidified a little more of a role here,” Foley said. “I’m going to continue to work hard each day and pitch the best I can, but not really looking over your shoulder every day to see if you’re going to get sent down, it’s a pretty comforting feeling. I think that helps a lot.”
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The Tigers optioned Foley to Triple-A Toledo in April, but he returned to the majors in May and appeared in a total of 60 MLB games. He logged a 3.88 ERA with 11 walks and 43 strikeouts over 60⅓ innings. He was asked to pitch to contact by aggressively throwing strikes, and when he followed instructions, success often followed. Moving forward, that will remain his style as a late-inning reliever.
Foley throws hard with movement, but he doesn’t need to be a strikeout king.
“I like where I’m at with my stuff,” Foley said. “I need to clean up the command and make sure I’m locating that sinker down-and-in and backdooring it, and really making sure I’m getting that slider down-and-away and being able to throw it in the dirt when I want and for a strike when I want. That’s pretty important.”
Getting into leverage counts is a product of throwing strikes, which explains Foley’s success this season. His walk rate improved to 4.3% in 2022, ranking fourth among 83 relievers with at least 60 innings pitched. Nearly 58% of balls in play were ground balls. When Foley gets to two strikes, though, he would benefit from having multiple weapons to get a strikeout. This season, he registered a 15.4% strikeout rate and 16.7% swing-and-miss rate.
His strikeout rate ranked 82nd among the same group of relievers.
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Foley, better against righties than lefties, fits the profile of a sinker-slider reliever with a changeup for left-handed hitters. His elite sinker has arm-side run, sits around 96 mph and reaches 99 mph. He threw 60.8% sinkers and 23.5% sliders this season, but his slider — although effective at times — didn’t feature consistent movement or a high swing-and-miss rate.
“Foley was nasty,” manager A.J. Hinch said July 29, after Foley struck out two batters and retired the Toronto Blue Jays in order in the sixth inning. “I mean, electric stuff. Turbo sink, pretty good slider, swing and miss. They looked very uncomfortable, which was a good sign.”
A dependable breaking ball should take Foley over the top, but while he works on mastering his slider, it’s important to remember his development over the past two seasons. A few downward blips aside, Foley pitched his best baseball throughout the summer months and thrived in situational outings in the sixth and seventh innings.
Most importantly, he has set the foundation for the next step in his evolution.
“I have pretty good confidence in my stuff,” Foley said. “It’s more of execution. When I’m getting ahead of guys and really executing my pitches, it’s generally good results. I try to simplify the game as much as possible. A well-executed pitch is probably not going to get hit in this league. Maybe a select few hitters will, but more often than not, good things are going to happen.”