Detroit Tigers Newest Reliever Not Celebrating Hot Start Quite Yet

This Detroit Tigers' relief pitcher is off to a hot start with his new team, but he's not getting ahead of himself just yet.

Detroit Tigers pitcher John Brebbia (49) throws against Chicago White Sox during the eighth inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Saturday, April 5, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers took the second game of a three-game weekend set against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, winning by a final score of 7-2.

It was the fourth victory of the new campaign for a team trying to build momentum in 2025, and for their newest reliever the victory held a bit more weight,

Right handed reliever John Brebbia came in for the eighth and ninth innings and retired the White Sox in order across both frames to cap off the win. The righty was actually a member of Chicago's bullpen last season, ultimately being cut by the team in the midst of one of the worst seasons in MLB history.

Despite the unceremonious departure from his former team though, Brebbia wasn't holding any grudges on the mound. According to Evan Woodbery of Michigan Live (subscription required), Brebbia laughed at the notion that his stellar performance was any sort of revenge against the team that cut him.

“It should be revenge for the White Sox,” Brebbia said. “I let them down last year, not the other way around. I was atrocious. If anything, they were trying to get revenge on me and score 100 runs.”

Brebbia is being a bit tough on himself here, but a 6.29 ERA in just under 49 innings of work is far from what most would consider to be elite. It's also far from what he's shown in a Tigers' uniform thus far.

Tigers reliever John Brebbia, released by the White Sox last summer, has retired all 12 batters he's faced so far this year, including a scoreless 8th and 9th inning on Saturday.

— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) April 5, 2025

Across four innings of work so far in Detroit, the righty has been absolutely dominant. He's retired all 12 batters he has faced, including the six aforementioned White Sox hitters on Saturday night to seal the deal on a dominant win.

There's no question that Brebbia is off to a fantastic start in 2025, but he's not getting ahead of himself just yet. As he tells Woodbery, his less than stellar 2024 campaign is still fresh in his mind. Because of that, small sample sizes don't amount to much in the grand scheme of things in his view.

“In small pieces, you can find some of the good, but on the whole, it was atrocious,” he said of his 2024 season. “So I’m going to keep waiting until we see what a month, two months, half a season looks like before we start making any crazy determinations.”

While there's certainly a ways to go in the 2025 season, there's no denying that Brebbia has been lights out for the Tigers so far. If he is able to maintain this form over the course of the season, then he might be on the verge of a career resurgence that nobody saw coming.