Will Vest Leads Tigers Bullpen That Saw a Lot of Work Once Again in 2025
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For the second year in a row, the Detroit Tigers lost the series in Game 5 of the ALDS. It was the same story, with Tarik Skubal being the dominant number one and the bullpen carrying a bulk of the load behind him without a bonafide second or third starter.
Luckily for the Tigers, the bullpen was very good once again. They didn't have a dominant closer or elite strikeout pitcher, but as a whole they were all solid. They threw a lot of innings, with five pitchers throwing 60 or more innings.
AJ Hinch and the staff asked a lot of the bullpen because they didn't have a whole rotation for most, if not all of the season. With Will Vest leading the way, there were solid enough once again.
Detroit Tigers 2025 Bullpen in Review
Closer: Will Vest (6-5, 3.01 ERA, 64 G, 68.2 IP, 23 SV, 75 K, 22 BB, 1.209 WHIP, 1.7 bWAR).
Other Notable Relievers: Tyler Holton (6-5 3.66 ERA, 70 G, 78.2 IP, 64 K, 22 BB, 1.042 WHIP, 0.8 bWAR), Tommy Kahnle (1-5, 4.43 ERA, 66 G, 63 IP, 9 SV, 50 K, 31 BB, 1.302 WHIP, -0.1 bWAR), Brant Hurter (4-3, 2.43 ERA, 43 G, 63 IP, 2 SV, 68 K, 27 BB, 1.333 WHIP, 0.7 bWAR), Brenan Hanifee (3-3, 3.00 ERA, 54 G, 60 IP, 40 K, 14 BB, 1.317 ERA, 0.0 bWAR), Kyle Finnegan (3-0, 16 G, 18 IP, 4 SV, 23 K, 4 BB, 0.722 WHIP, 0.8 bWAR), Rafael Montero (1-1, 20 G, 22 IP, 19 K, 14 BB, 1.182 WHIP, 0.2 bWAR),
Season Notes
Will Vest took over the closer roll from Jason Foley in 2025. The right-hander set career highs in bWAR (1.7) and strikeouts (75). He pitched at least 64 games for the second year in a row as well. Vest was tied for 17th in baseball with 23 saves. He was tied with starters Casey Mize and Reese Olson for the second most bWAR on the pitching staff.
Tyler Holton was the most used pitcher on the team, pitching in 70 games and throwing 78.2 innings, the lowest in the last three years. He regressed from 2024 when he had 3.1 bWAR, and his 3.66 ERA was a career hight. Holton struggled with the long ball, allowing 1.7 per nine compared to 0.7 per nine last season. He went more than one inning 26 times.
Tommy Kahnle had the least amount of bWAR and the worst ERA among Detroit relievers. After a 2.11 ERA in 2024, he regressed heavily with an ERA of 4.43. His ERA+ fell from 192 to 94. He threw the second most innings of his career with 63. He was second on the team with nine saves.
Brant Hurt had arguably the best numbers in the Tigers bullpen. He had a team best 2.43 ERA in 63 innings, which was the third most in the bullpen. He was second with 68 strikeouts and 9.7 K/9 behind Vest. He saved a career high two games.
Brenan Hanifee was the least used of Detroit's main bullpen with 60 innings pitched. His 3.00 was the second highest of the main five, but he didn't accumulate any bWAR. Hanifee also had the fewest strikeouts with 40.
Kyle Finnegan was acquired in a trade at the deadline. He was dominant in his short stretch, allowing just three runs in 18 innings, a 1.50 ERA. He struckout 11.5 batters per nine and saved four games in his short amount of time. His 0.8 bWAR was tied for second with Tyler Holton.
Rafael Montero was acquired from via trade at the deadline, Detroit was his third team on the year. He was also very good in his 20 game stint, posting a 2.86 ERA. He struckout 19 in 22 innings, but struggled with command, also walking 14.
Closer Role
It would be pretty shocking is Vest wasn't the closer again next season. He had a worse ERA as a closer than he had in the two seasons prior to 2025, but his FIP was right around the area it normally is at 2.71. With a FIP discrepancy that wide, he was getting pretty unlucky throughout the year.
He was more valuable than he had ever been and was a great save artist for a team that was the best team in baseball for a big chunk of the year. He had a 58.2 percent ground ball rate, which was top ten in baseball.
Vest's chase rate rose from 29.2 percent to 29.9 percent and his whiff rate also rose from 24.3 percent to 26.7 percent.
He is under control until 2028 and should be considered the closer until a drastic change has been made.
An Early 2026 Bullpen
Vest, Holton, Hurter, Hanifee, Beau Brieske,
All three of Kahnle, Montero and Finnegan are set to be free agents this year. Finnegan recently made some comments stating how much he loved pitching for Detroit, so he could be an option to re-sign in November. He could be a great longer term addition behind Vest as the set-up man.
However, Vest willl be the closer again and Holton will continue to be the team's innings eater in the bullpen. He took a pretty big step backward after a 3.1 bWAR 2024, but if he can bounce back, he'll continue to be one of the most valuable relievers in baseball.
Hurter and Hanifee will keep their roles as the early inning relievers, bridging the gap to Vest. Brieske could be the x-factor coming back from an elbow injury that ended his 2025 season. He threw 67.2 innings as both a starter and reliever in 2024 and posted 0.7 bWAR.
The free agent class is solid this season, and if the Tigers want to boost their overused bullpen it would be a good year to do so. That will be seen at a later date, but for now, the bullpen is pretty solid as is if they run it back.
