Detroit Tigers Hopeful Star Pitcher Throws Second Strong Spring Training Outing

The Detroit Tigers got another strong spring training start from one of their presumptive main pitchers in the rotation.

After encouraging signs from Tarik Skubal, Jackson Jobe and Kenta Maeda throughout the spring, right-hander Reese Olson got his second start of camp on Wednesday afternoon against the Philadelphia Phillies.

While the bats were understandably the story in the blowout 17-7 victory, it was another quality start for someone who has the chance to be extremely critical to the team's success this season which is perhaps the biggest item of note on the afternoon.

In three innings of action, Olson gave up just one hit. He threw 47 pitches, 31 of which went for strikes with 10 whiffs on 27 swings. With no walks, no runs and four strikeouts, it was another strong day for a Tigers starting pitcher on the mound.

For the spring as a whole, Olson has a 3.60 ERA with six strikeouts in five innings pitched, also posting an impressive WHIP thus far of 0.600.

He is one of three locks to be in the Opening Day rotation, assuming he is healthy, along with Skubal and Jack Flaherty. The ceiling of the rotation is highly dependent on what kind of season the 25-year-old can put together on the heels of battling through injury during the last campaign.

When he was on the field, however, the righty was very strong.

In 22 starts, Olson pitched to a 3.53 ERA and a WHIP of 1.184 with 101 strikeouts over 112.1 innings pitched. A shoulder issue derailed a large portion of the second half of the season for him, but there were times during the year when he looked like he could be a star in the making.

If Detroit could get the version of Olson they had in 2024, the Tigers top half of the rotation is in the kind of spot teams dream of.

The final spots still have to fill themselves out with two of Jobe, Maeda, Casey Mize and likely Keider Montero, but with all four performing strongly in spring training, as well, the Tigers are in a wonderful position to have one of the better rotations in all of baseball.

Having too many options for the starting rotation is not a problem every team in Major League Baseball has, though it's certainly not a bad one.

Olson has put himself in a spot over the last year when he is not one of the question marks, and he further proved that on Wednesday.

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