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Detroit Tigers' Casey Mize dominates with an edge as competition heats up: 'I'm a starter'
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- Detroit Tigers' Casey Mize dominates with an edge as competition heats up: 'I'm a starter'
LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers right-hander Casey Mize , the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft, is battling Kenta Maeda and Keider Montero for the fifth and final spot in the Opening Day starting rotation, with Jackson Jobe all but locked in as the fourth starter.
The three-man competition has intensified halfway through spring training.
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And there's an edge to Mize.
"It's tough when you don't know where you stand, and you're (expletive) giving it everything you got," Mize said after Friday's win over the Baltimore Orioles , in which he threw three scoreless innings. (He later simulated a fourth inning in the bullpen to complete his workload requirements.) "Excuse my French there. But I want to keep competing. I want to go out for the fourth inning. I need to have a good showing. I don't know where I stand. When you have good stuff, and nobody's touched second base in spring, you want to keep going."
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Detroit Tigers pitcher Casey Mize poses for a photo during picture day of spring training at TigerTown in Lakeland, Fla. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.
On Friday , Mize came out of the bullpen to pitch the fifth, sixth and seventh innings against the Orioles as part of his build-up for a starting role. It was arguably the best Mize has pitched in his professional career.
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Mize wanted to pitch another inning of real action.
He didn't think his bullpen work truly simulated what it would've been like to keep facing hitters, especially considering dominance through three innings.
"It's a little eyewash, I guess you could call it that," said Mize, who threw 35 pitches in the game, then more in the bullpen. "Nah, that's good. I know (other) guys got to throw, but I have to build up. I'm a starter, so I got to build up."
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Manager A.J. Hinch explained.
"He was so efficient we sent him down to build some volume," Hinch said after Friday's game. "It's abnormal for him to have to wait until the fifth to pitch. I felt for him having to wait. The stuff was really good."
Facing the Orioles after Keider Montero 's start, Mize missed bats at an elite rate for the first time in a long time. He generated 11 misses on 19 swings for a 57.9% whiff rate — a big jump from last season when he ranked in MLB's 21st percentile with a 22.6% whiff rate.
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His single-season whiff rate has never been above 24% in his four-year MLB career, just as his single-season strikeout rate has never topped 20%. Missing more bats has always been the key to generating more strikeouts.
On Friday night against the Orioles, he finally did. His fastball produced four whiffs, with one on his slider and six on his splitter. As a result, he struck out five of 10 batters, allowing just one hit and one walk.
"Splits, really good," Hinch said. "Better sliders."
Mize leaned on his fastball and splitter in Friday's game more than the three variations of his slider. He developed two of those — the sweep slider and the depth slider — at Driveline Baseball in the offseason , while the third is his traditional slider, which is confidently throws for strikes.
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In his 35-pitch outing, Mize threw 17 fastballs, nine splitters, eight sliders and one sinker.
"The samples have been so small, it's hard to fit everything in," Mize said of his sliders. "When I throw 100 pitches, we'll get more of an idea of what these pitches are. It's hard to do it two, three innings and 30 pitches, especially when the heater and split feel good, I want to keep pressing that button."
His splitter was especially ferocious.
It generated six whiffs on six swings.
"I'm not sure it's been better in my time as a professional," Mize said.
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The split can still be his calling card.
This year, he increased its velocity to 90 mph.
"I can command it better," Mize said of the velocity boost, which he started implementing last September when he increased it from 86 mph to 88 mph. "It's sharper. It looks more like the fastball the harder I throw it. I'm thinking over the plate, down, and letting it rip."
In the fifth inning, Mize executed his fastball-splitter plan to perfection against the first batter he faced, striking out left-handed hitter Jackson Holliday on three pitches.
He started with a 94.9 mph fastball on the up-and-in corner of the strike zone, forcing a foul ball. Then, he painted a 95.3 mph fastball at the bottom edge of the zone for a called strike. Finally, he followed up with a 90 mph splitter in the exact same spot, this time getting a swinging strike.
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It was a perfect sequence.
"I think that just shows the heater down, what it can do," Mize said. "I think that just masks the split a little bit. It makes that pitch look similar. We'll have results like that more often than not when you can execute the heater like that."
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Mize is already looking forward to his next game.
But it's unclear if he will work as a starter or a reliever.
"I'm always itching for that, unless I really suck," Mize said, smiling. "I love to play. I love to pitch. That's the bad thing about starting pitchers. You got to wait five days. But I'm looking forward to it."
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Not only is Hinch noticing better performance, he also sees beyond pitch shapes, pitch counts and box scores. By the way Mize walks and talks, he's separating himself from his competitors in the three-man race for the final spot in the Opening Day rotation.
Simply put, Mize looks determined to win.
"He has a focus to him that's pretty apparent," said Hinch, who has managed Mize for the past four years, "and I love that edge to him, knowing that he's trying to maximize every outing."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers Casey Mize on splitter: 'Not sure it's been better'
