Tigers Willingly Weakened Bullpen Optioning Brenan Hanifee To Triple-A Post-Deadline

The Detroit Tigers left a lot of people disappointed with how they handled business ahead of the MLB trade deadline.

They had several areas of their roster that needed to be addressed, including the left side of their infield and depth for their entire pitching staff.

A hitter wasn’t acquired, but the team did add several arms to the starting rotation and bullpen for the stretch run of the season.

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Helping compensate for the losses of Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe in the rotation will be Chris Paddack and Charlie Morton, acquired from the Minnesota Twins and Baltimore Orioles, respectively.

Both are capable innings-eaters to round the rotation out behind Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize.

Alas, the only issue was that none of the acquisitions were true needle movers.

With high-end bullpen arms flying around, the Tigers opted for quantity over quality.

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Tigers Bullpen Has Been Major Weakness

The most impactful addition they made was Kyle Finnegan from the Washington Nationals, their former closer. Rafael Montero, who was acquired from the Atlanta Braves, is the only other player who is currently on the Major League roster.

Paul Sewald, who came over from the Cleveland Guardians, is on the injured list. Codi Heuer was acquired from the Texas Rangers and put in Triple-A.

Needing to make room for their newest pitchers on the roster, Detroit doubled down on the head-scratching decisions.

Brenan Hanifee was optioned to Triple-A Toledo after the MLB trade deadline, which meant the Tigers were actively making their bullpen worse.

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Their relief staff has not been performing at a high level - a 5.03 ERA has been compiled since June 1, which ranks No. 27 in baseball.

Since that point, six of the Detroit relief pitchers have thrown enough innings to be considered qualified relievers.

Hanifee had the best ERA of the bunch at 2.92 and was throwing the ball well, but he found himself squeezed out in the roster crunch.

Since June 1, the #Tigers' bullpen ranks 27th with a 5.03 ERA.

Qualified relievers in that stretch:
Brenan Hanifee: 2.92
Brant Hurter: 3.42
Tyler Holton: 3.76
Will Vest: 3.80
Chase Lee: 5.87
Tommy Kahnle: 9.15

The Tigers optioned Hanifee to Triple-A after the trade deadline. https://t.co/rHCkVcctdX
— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) August 7, 2025

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It was a decision that made very little sense at the time and hasn’t aged any better with the team losing four out of six games since the deadline passed.

Montero imploded in his lone appearance thus far, frustrating a fan base because he essentially took the spot of a player who was producing in Hanifee and proving that quantity isn’t always better than quality.

It will be interesting to see how manager A.J. Hinch navigates this because he has to find answers from within with the trade deadline gone and the opportunity to add an impact arm now behind them.

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