Former No. 1 Pick Casey Mize Cashes In After All-Star Season with Tigers
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The Detroit Tigers were once again one win away from moving on to the American League Championship Series in 2025's edition of the MLB playoffs. Following the exit, the front office has stayed busy in adding and retaining players to ensure they're still in the hunt for 2026.
With a ton of arbitration moves being made all across the MLB, the Detroit Tigers find themselves busy securing several key players under contract for the 2026 campaign. Of the arbitration-eligible players, starting pitcher and former No.1 overall draft pick Casey Mize leads the way.
Casey Mize Reaches a Deal
According to Detroit Free Press' Evan Petzold, the Tigers and Mize reached an agreement on a $6.15 million contract for 2026, avoiding arbitration. This process went much smoother for Mize compared to last season's arbitration offer, but he eventually turned that into arguably his best season yet in 2025.
While Mize hasn't exactly lived up to the number one overall pick expectations, he's still a valuable arm in the rotation for Detroit. Last season, Mize started in 28 games and pitched to a 3.87 ERA, eventually earning the first All-Star nod of his young career.
With Mize now making more money, the Tigers will have to start to consider which key players they have on the roster currently are still a part of the plan long term. Mize, going into his age 29 season, will have the chance to prove he's still the pitcher the franchise wants him to be.
One area that Mize will have to work on to be dominant this season is putting hitters away. Countless times last season, he would get ahead of a batter with an 0-2 count, then the next thing you know, it would be full at 3-2.
His splitter generated 33.2% whiffs on pitches thrown and was his put-away pitch 22% of the time last season, according to Baseball Savant. However, opponents hit .297 against the pitch last season, which isn't ideal for a pitch he was known for coming out of Auburn.
Behind Tarik Skubal, Mize was considered by some to be the second-best starter for the rotation last season, as Jack Flaherty struggled in his return to Detroit.
But if Mize can replicate his 2025 success, along with Flaherty returning to how he was in his first stint with the Tigers in 2024, Detroit's got a starting rotation to fear in the AL Central.
