Lakeland, Fla. — If you want something bad enough, you chase it with all your might.
That’s always been Alex Lange’s MO. He wanted to be a Friday-night starter at one of the elite college baseball programs in the country, and as a freshman in 2015, he went 12-0 in 17 starts at LSU. He wanted to be drafted in the first round, and the Cubs made him the 30th overall pick in 2017.
Once he was traded to the Tigers (for Nick Castellanos in 2019) and transitioned to the bullpen, he set his sights on working high-leverage, late-inning situations, which he did last season as the primary set-up man for closer Gregory Soto.
You can guess, with Soto traded to the Phillies, with Joe Jimenez traded to the Braves, with Andrew Chafin still on the free-agent market, what Lange is hunting this spring, right?
“I’m just going to go out here and show what I can do and see where we end up,” Lange said Friday, after throwing a light bullpen ahead of pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training on Monday. “It’s a big role, and I’d love to help in any way I can. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Manager AJ Hinch has artfully steered clear of the closer question, both at the Winter Meetings in December and last month in a brief session with reporters at Comerica Park.
“We’ll have someone close out games, I promise,” he said.
In 2021, his first year in Detroit, Hinch waited well into the season before officially tabbing Soto as the closer. So, Lange still has a long road to travel and a lot of work ahead of him before anything is secured.
But, if you want something bad enough, chase it with all your might.
“I focus on my own map,” Lange said. “But, someone is going to do it. We will see what happens. I’d love to take that role on and help the team any way I can.”
His infatuation with the high-intensity closer role goes back to when he was a kid. One of his earliest baseball memories was being at Yankee Stadium and seeing the great Mariano Rivera close out a win for the Yankees.
He grew up admiring the likes of Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman. He marveled at the consistent brilliance of Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman, who amassed an unfathomable 601 saves over his career.
“Those are the kinds of guys I looked up to,” he said.
Lange has always brought a closer’s intensity to the mound, regardless of the situation. It’s worked for him and at times, it’s hurt him. Channeling his adrenaline, though he’s much more in control now, is still a work in progress.
Which is at least partly why he reached out to Hoffman, an imperturbable presence on the mound, this winter. Tigers Triple-A pitching coach Doug Bochtler, teammates with Hoffman in San Diego, put the two in touch.
“I got to pick his brain quite a bit and learn about those later-inning roles,” Lange said. “We talked about a lot of stuff, anything from pitching the last three outs to routines. He’s a good shoulder to lean on and I learned a lot. He’s been a good resource.
“I’m excited to put some of the stuff together that we talked about.”
Speaking of stuff, even Hoffman, who possessed one of the nastiest changeups the game has ever seen, had to be impressed with the arsenal Lange brings to the table. With a 96-mph seam-shifting sinker, a breaking ball that breaks wickedly into left-handed hitters and a changeup that dips away, Lange last season posted a 30.3% strikeout rate (top-13 percentile in baseball), a 35% chase rate (top-5 percentile) and a 44% swing-and-miss rate (top-1 percentile).
He limited hitters to a .190 batting average with his breaking ball (57.8% whiff rate) and .118 with his changeup (56% whiff rate).
A high swing-and-miss rate and a low hard-hit rate (37%) is a good blueprint for a closer. Soto, by contrast, had a 43% hard-hit rate and a 25.7% whiff rate last season.
Lange, though, isn’t satisfied. His 11% walk rate is too high. And even though he struck out 57 of the 197 hitters he faced in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings last season, his numbers in high-leverage situations were skewed by a rough 13-game run in August, when hitters slugged .551 (three of the five homers he allowed all year) with a .937 OPS against him.
“I’ve been throwing bullpens since November,” Lange said. “Just filling up the zone and trying to get strikes. If you are in the zone attacking hitters, that’s kind of my thing.”
He’s also been working to reincorporate a four-seam fastball back into his mix. He threw the four-seamer 45% of the time in 2021. It was his most-used pitch. Last year, he threw exactly 34 of them, abandoning it early in the year.
“It’s back,” he said. “We just have to pick our spots when to use it. Had to clean up some movement profiles on it. But, I think it’s something we can definitely add back to the arsenal to keep left-handed hitters off, keep it above right-handers barrels, tie righties up inside and elevate. Maybe steal strikes at the bottom of the zone.
“I think it’s a good pitch. I used it early last season then we noticed the seam-shifting sinker was better. I commanded it better. But, I’ve spent a lot of time this offseason working on getting the four-seamer back.”
Lange had a chance to pitch in the World Baseball Classic for Team Puerto Rico. But, if you want something bad enough, chase it with all your might, right? Landing the closer role with the Tigers is the primary quest.
“I just wanted to stay here and work with the guys,” Lange said. “With a lot of the bullpen guys moving on — Chafin leaving, Soto and Joe-Joe being traded — I just thought it would be better to stay with the boys, get in shape and get going.
“I talked with my agent and my family, and we decided the best decision was to stay here, keep working, keep growing.”
Sounds like a new bullpen leader is emerging.
Twitter: @cmccosky