Lakeland, Fla. — Say you are Rony Garcia and you’ve been told before camp started that your best path to making the Tigers’ Opening Day roster is as a bulk-inning reliever in the bullpen — which he was, as manager AJ Hinch said on Friday.
Given how crowded that particular path is, it’s hard to know if that’s good news or bad news for Garcia.
If you figure incumbents Alex Lange, Jose Cisnero, Jason Foley, Tyler Alexander and Will Vest will keep their spots — and that’s not set in stone — that puts Garcia in a fight for one of three spots.
Also in that fight are Beau Brieske, Garrett Hill, Joey Wentz, Mason Englert, Brendan White, Edwin Uceta, Tyler Holton and non-roster players Matt Wisler, Chasen Shreve, Jace Fry, Trey Wingenter and Miguel Diaz.
Brieske, Hill, Englert, all right-handed pitchers, and lefty Wentz are being stretched out as starters. Englert, being a Rule 5 pick, will likely get a longer look this spring. Shreve, a lefty, and Wisler are established bullpen arms. Lefties Holton and Fry, plus right-handers Uceta, Wingenter and Diaz have big-league experience.
Diaz is out of minor-league options.
“It’s important for us to have a dynamic pen that does it a little differently,” Hinch said. “They can’t be all vert fastballs (high vertical ride through the zone) or all power breaking balls. We have some guys with unique characteristics that we signed so we can offer a different dimension in the pen.
“The best bullpens have a variety of arm angles and stuff and metrics that allows us a choice to make when we attack a lineup.”
Shreve has a split-fingered pitch that can neutralize hitters on both sides of the plate. Wisler has one of the nastiest sliders in the game. Wingenter has a power arm. Diaz has an elite changeup.
And Garcia?
“He has some really interesting impact on hitters with the angle he throws at, the way his ball moves, the four-seam fastball at the top of the zone can be good and he can spin it,” Hinch said. “One time through the order, we saw some pretty effective outings for him.”
Garcia, 25, made eight starts and eight relief appearances last season before being shut down in August because of a shoulder injury. In the eight relief appearances, he allowed just four runs in 14 innings with 17 strikeouts and four walks. Opponents hit .146 against him.
His money pitch is the curveball, which he throws from a low, three-quarters arm slot. Hitters were 6-for-43 with 21 strikeouts and a 36.5% swing-and-miss rate. Uniquely, too, Garcia has reverse splits. He dominated left-handed hitters (.183). They were 0-for-19 with 14 strikeouts against his curveball.
Imagine, for example, being able to play matchup games with Garcia’s curve and Wisler’s slider. Right-handed hitters batted .188 against Wisler’s slider last year.
“Commanding the strike zone is a good place to start,” Hinch said when asked what criteria he was looking for in filling the bullpen spots. “That’s an easy answer. We need guys who can get into leverage. Missing bats will help, too. But a lot is going to be how we want to configure the bullpen.
“Who stands out as versatile enough to handle different roles? The multiple innings will be important. It’s not one single thing. But, the guys who throw strikes with all their pitches and get into leverage counts are the guys who put themselves in position to perform better.”
The emphasis on bridge relievers, guys who can throw 50-60 pitches and get through a lineup at least once, brings Brieske, Hill, Englert, Wentz and Garcia into play. Hinch was asked why he was putting such a premium on carrying multi-inning relievers.
“One, to give a variety of different looks to the hitters,” he said. “Two, we have a lot of versatility we want to maximize. If we end up with some of our young starters in the bullpen, if Englert makes the team, those are guys we don’t want to just put in the bullpen and use for three outs.
“And three, we are going to be very disciplined with our ramp-up with our starters to start the season.”
The projected rotation of Eduardo Rodriguez, Matthew Boyd, Spencer Turnbull, Matt Manning and Michael Lorenzen all missed extensive time last season. Turnbull hasn’t pitched since June of 2021, coming back off Tommy John surgery.
“If we can team up with some of those (long relievers) as we get into the season, that can be a strategy.”
Most likely, the configuration of the bullpen will be in flux throughout the season. Whoever doesn’t win the long-relief spots this spring will probably start the season in the rotation at Triple-A Toledo. And that includes, possibly, Garcia.
“I never say never,” Hinch said. “There were some starts last year when he was pretty effective, until the middle part of the game.”
Twitter: @cmccosky