Detroit Tigers Rotation: Who Wins the Last Two Spots for Opening Day?

Published On: March 6, 2025By 0 Comments on Detroit Tigers Rotation: Who Wins the Last Two Spots for Opening Day?

After the Tigers enacted the wildly controversial yet successful “pitching chaos” down the stretch of the 2024 regular season and post season run, most Detroit sports fans are happy to see that the team has a plethora of options heading for the rotation heading into 2025. The Tigers have a whopping TWELVE viable starting pitching candidates battling for rotation spots. The laundry list of names includes: Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Alex Cobb, Casey Mize, Keider Montero, Kenta Maeda, Matt Manning, Brant Hurter, Sawyer Gipson-Long, Ty Madden, and Jackson Jobe. This is the polar opposite of what the Tigers utilized following the trade deadline last season, so the team took it seriously to make sure that they were in a better position and much deeper heading into a season with playoff expectations. But who will round out the rotation to start the season? What will happen to the other options come Opening Day? Will any players be dealt? We will dive into the guys who are on the fringe of the rotation and a case for their role for the Tigers in 2025.

For the sake of everyone reading, I think we can set in stone that these three guys will be firmly in the rotation to open the year:


1. Ace of the staff and 2024 American League Cy Young Award Winner, Tarik Skubal (horse)

2. Recently re-signed free agent starter, Jack Flaherty

3. Rising star and vastly underrated, Reese Olson


We also know that free agent signing Alex Cobb will be opening the season on the IL due to hip inflammation (shocker), so he will likely take up the fourth spot upon getting healthy at some point this spring. So that leaves the last two spots being a dog fight between eight other guys.

Casey Mize

Former number one overall pick Casey Mize is a logical pick for the rotation, as he is entering his age 28 season and looking to finally meet the potential that has surrounded him his entire career since being a top draft choice out of Auburn. He has consistently struggled to get swings and misses on his off-speed pitches and has never truly found consistency out of the famous splitter in the majors that he was so highly touted for throwing in college. His serviceable 4.49 ERA might not tell the full story of his 2024 campaign, as he had a 3.95 FIP (fielding independent pitching) which shows Mize had a little bit of bad luck in actual results vs. expected results being about a half run worse than what is typically followed on the back of his baseball card. Mize had a less than ideal K/9 in 2024 showing only 6.9 strike outs per nine innings. Mize has been saying he has been tinkering with his slider, offering two different grips this spring to help get better results/swings and misses. Mize has always been a guy that works his tail off trying to improve and be a better pitcher. Hard to fault him for some of the bumps in the road but at the end of the day he needs to show up in a big way this spring to earn a spot in the rotation. 

Kenta Maeda

Kenta Maeda had a quite disastrous 2024 campaign, eventually being moved to the bullpen mid way through the season. Maeda, entering his age 37 season in the 2nd year of a 2 year/$24 million deal, is a notorious slow starter in the April and May months of the season. He is getting paid no matter what this season, and the team intends on giving him some runway to prove the contract he signed in the 2023 offseason was worth it. Maeda last season did not throw heading into the 2024 spring training, trying to ramp up and get up to speed with the Tigers by the time he arrived in Lakeland. Obviously that did not work well, so the Tigers pitching staff and development team put together an entire off season program for Maeda to work with this past offseason to come to the 2025 spring training in “the best shape of his life” and hopefully help him to regain form. The Tigers brass brought Kenta in for a reason and their pitching staff certainly feels like they can get something out of him, otherwise the team could be cutting him by May 2025 if results do not improve. 

Keider Montero

Keider Montero was a bit of an unsung hero of the 2024 season. Coming up mid way through the 2024 campaign, him and Skubal were the only two true starters that were in the Tigers rotation down the stretch leading to the post season. He gave the team valuable innings to disburse the consistent bullpen days that the team was utilizing, and the soon to be 25 year old starter is looking improve heading into the 2025 campaign. Montero has some polishing up to do overall, but the team loves his slider and change up combination and believes that he can be a viable big league starter for a long time. Will he crack the 2025 rotation to start the season? We will see. 

Matt Manning

Former first round pick Matt Manning is coming off a season to forget in 2024, as he was up and down from Toledo to start the season last year, had a lat strain and missed significant time, and was never recalled for the Tigers down the stretch run to get to the playoffs when the team desperately needed starting pitching. Manning is now 27 after being a first round 9th overall draft pick out of high school for the Tigers back in 2016. He has struggled to develop much success with his off speed pitches at the major league level, which is somewhat surprising given the success he once had in the minors with his breaking ball. Manning has always had elite extension and life on his fastball, but has been frustrating to watch develop. The talent is seemingly there to be a very capable big league starter, but the success has always so-so. It is wild to think that Manning was the starting pitcher tied towards the Tigers combined no hitter back in the 2023 season given the other frustrations he has faced in the major leagues. Could Matt Manning be utilized in the bullpen? A trade piece? 

Brant Hurter

The lone south paw of this group fighting for a rotation spot, Brant Hurter had a very successful 2024 campaign upon being called up to debut. He was a viable “bulk guy” in his swing man role for the Tigers in their quest for the post season in 2024. The Georgia Tech product is in his age 26/27 season after sporting a 2.58 ERA in a modest 45 and a third innings pitched this past season. Hurter had 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings in 2024, but also a very low walks per nine innings at 1.2 upon entering the big leagues. Hurter has been known to have tinkering with his delivery with help from the Tigers pitching staff to help improve his mechanics and his results clearly showed it down the stretch for the Tigers. Hurter likely serves as the swing man option for the Tigers in their bullpen to start in 2025, but who is to say that the ceiling is not higher for the young lefty? 

Sawyer Gipson-Long

The 27 year old Sawyer Gipson-Long was acquired by the Detroit Tigers back in 2022 season for former AL Rookie of the year and phenom Michael Fulmer in a deal with division rival the Minnesota Twins. SGL made his big league debut with the Detroit Tigers in the 2023 season making four impressive starts with a 2.70 ERA and a very impressive 11.7 strike outs per nine innings. An incredibly small sample size, but people were very optimistic about him heading into the 2024 season, with Tigers brass speaking very highly of his abilities and pitching aptitude. Unfortunately, SGL had an elbow injury leading to the modified Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2024 season. He likely will not be ready for the 2025 opening day roster still, but he could very easily be a viable option for the Tigers rotation by mid season as a lot of people are sleeping on this guy.

Ty Madden 

Former Tigers 32nd overall first round pick in the 2021 MLB draft out of Texas, Ty Madden finds himself in a curious spot in the 2025 Tigers rotation mix. Madden has been a highly touted pitcher with a large pitch mix, but has consistently gotten hit around in the minor leagues for the Tigers across multiple levels. However, upon debuting in 2024 for Detroit amongst the injuries and trades made at the 2024 deadline, Madden had a quite impressive showing for the Tigers similar to Montero giving the team viable innings as a starter and swing man leading to the playoff run. Despite having an ERA over seven in Toledo in 2024, Madden had a serviceable 4.30 ERA upon his debut in the show. The big league coaching staff has been able to claim a lot of success stories, but upon making his debut Madden struggled until getting to Detroit. Maybe he is best suited to be in a similar swing man role to Hurter, however his success with the Detroit pitching staff makes you wonder if he continues to work with the trio of Chris Fetter, Juan Nieves, and Robin Lund in Detroit, his story could continue to blossom. 

Jackson Jobe

Last but certainly not least, the darling of the Detroit Tigers current prospects, former number three overall pick in the 2021 MLB draft is Jackson Jobe who is the current best pitching prospect in all of baseball. The phenom has some of the most elite stuff of any arm in baseball, notably with a slider going over 3,000 revolutions per minute, along with a fastball that sits at a floor of 96 mph that can touch 100. Jobe notably added a devastating change up in the 2o23 offseason heading into the 2024 season that was on display for much of the year in the minor leagues. Jobe has had a few injuries causing concern (back and hamstring) causing him to miss some time in his professional career, but luckily (KNOCK ON WOOD) no severe arm injuries to this point since being acquired by Detroit. Jobe notably did not solely pitch until the end of his high school tenure, as well as the Tigers have very slowly played up the actual amount of innings that he has had in his workload in the minor leagues, attempting to preserve Jobe’s arm and health to the best of their ability.

Jobe across all levels in 2024 had a 2.36 ERA and a strike out per nine of 9.4 and eventually debuted for the Tigers in 2024 and pitched out of the bullpen in their run to the playoffs. Jobe had limited success in Detroit getting hit around a bit and struggling to get swings and misses but in a incredibly small sample of only 5 and two thirds innings in both the regular season and playoffs. Jobe, knowing this and attempting to bolster his arsenal, has added a couple variations of a curveball to his pitch mix heading into the 2025 season. Experts anticipate that Jobe could have as high of a ceiling as current rising super star Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jobe is one of the most electric talents in baseball, and the organization is looking to inject him onto the 2025 roster in any way that they can to help propel the team into the playoffs in 2025. Given the amount of starting pitching options heading into 2025, it is possible that the Tigers attempt to manipulate Jobe’s service time and stash him in Toledo to start the year to get an additional season of club control over Jobe going forward and pushing out his eventual free agency. However, Jobe’s talent may be too much to hold him off this roster. Jobe is also a potential AL Rookie of the Year candidate in 2025, and if he does eventually win this award, the Tigers as a team would be awarded an additional first round pick in the 2026 MLB draft as a reward for promoting Jobe. So the team will have to decide which option is more fruitful for the near term and long term future and success of the Detroit Tigers. 

The Tigers are in a great spot having this many options for the rotation heading into the 2025 season. Most teams have maybe 6 or 7 options heading into season, let alone 12 potential starting pitchers. It is an embarrassment of riches for one of the best pitching coaching and development staffs in MLB. Time and injuries will tell the story of who will be needed at the start and throughout the marathon of the 2025 season. However my projected starting five to open 2025 for the Tigers would be below: 

Skubal – Flaherty – Olson – Mize – Maeda (Jobe to Toledo to manipulate service time unfortunately in my opinion)

Any and all other options will head to Toledo or work their way back from injury. However, all TWELVE of these guys will be used in some capacity in 2025 and having an army will give the Tigers the best chance to survive any circumstances that are thrown their way as they have their eyes set on winning the American League Central Division this year. 

Nick Spillane // @NeekSpills8

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