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How Matt Vierling became essential to Detroit Tigers' success — on and off the field
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- How Matt Vierling became essential to Detroit Tigers' success — on and off the field
Matt Vierling is one of the most important players to the success of the Detroit Tigers .
He might not have the highest batting average, and he probably won't hit the most home runs. But he provides invaluable stability — both on and off the field.
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The 28-year-old's leadership was on full display in the 2024 season. He hit .257 with a career-high 16 home runs while helping the youngest team in baseball journey to the postseason and beyond as the only position player with previous playoff experience.
Once again, Vierling will be key to the Tigers' success in the 2025 season.
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Vierling talked to the Free Press — joining the Jan. 13 episode of the "Days of Roar" podcast — about team culture, struggling as a young player, taking on a leadership role, developing pull-side power, how he game plans for starting pitchers and playing multiple positions, among other topics.
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[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Days of Roar" your go-to Detroit Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ) ]
How did you see yourself grow into a leadership role with the Tigers in 2023 and 2024?
"I didn't really try to be a leader. I'm more of a one-on-one type guy, just trying to show the young guys how to go about their business. As far as leader, I never really tried to be that guy. We have so many of those guys in the locker room, like (Jake) Rogers is so good, and some guys on the bullpen side like Vesty ( Will Vest ), and obviously Skubs ( Tarik Skubal ) in the rotation and Casey (Mize), all leading the young guys along the way. And then going to the playoffs, I really was the only guy that had been to the playoffs. The guys were coming up to me asking what it was like, so I told them what it was like and what they were going to feel. Now everybody's got a taste of that. It's really good that we were able to do that. Now we can move forward this year with that experience."
Jun 7, 2022; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pinch hitter Matt Vierling (19) is congratulated big left fielder Kyle Schwarber (12) after hitting a home run during the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Did playing for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2021-22 with veterans Kyle Schwarber , J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper shape how you helped young players with the Tigers in 2023-24?
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"One of the biggest things I learned from those guys was treating everybody the same. As big of names as those guys are, they treated the young guys the exact same as they treated the older guys. That year (in 2022), we really meshed well. All the young guys got along with the older guys. The pitchers got along with the hitters. The whole locker room really meshed well together. Those guys, the biggest thing was how they treated everybody. You felt like you could talk to them about anything. Just being around them and seeing how they went about their business, and things that they said during critical points of the season, I remembered those and tried to apply them to our team when we got to those critical points."
How does Tigers manager A.J. Hinch help players develop the culture?
"He is just an incredible communicator. He will let you know what he's thinking, what's on his mind, what's going on, where he's thinking about playing you, what he's thinking about doing down the road. It's almost like he brings everybody into the office and his office is right next to the locker room, where we can go in and all of us can talk to him. He's a huge help for us."
MORE ABOUT HIM: Tigers' Matt Vierling has always been team-first player, just ask former coaches
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How do you help young players overcome adversity in the big leagues, especially when they first arrive?
"It happened to me when I was in Philly. I came up in 2021, and I played really, really well for about a month, and then was slated to play a lot in 2022, and I completely fell flat on my face for the first month, then they sent me down. I had all those feelings, like, Oh, man, I suck. I don't know if I can do this . Putting too much pressure on myself was probably the center of the whole thing. I ended up going down to Triple-A to Lehigh Valley. It took me two or three weeks down there to figure it out and get some confidence back, but once I got that back, I was able to come back up and have some success. It was a wild year, just coming back and playing in the World Series. I take that experience with a lot of the guys that I see come up. I'm in my fourth year. I'm still kind of going through all that, dealing with the ups and downs and the adversity. I'll probably never stop dealing with the adversity that comes with the game, but going through that tough experience my rookie year, I've seen that happen a lot in baseball. When these young guys come up, a lot of them struggle to begin with, and just being able to go through that experience, I know what they're thinking and know what they're going through. I also know sometimes you don't play, sometimes you play. How do you manage that? It's the little things that come with getting yourself into the lineup or getting on the roster, especially for a guy that was on the bubble a little bit. Some guys who are projected to be stars, they can come up and have a lot of leeway to play. Some guys really gotta fight to get in the lineup, and I feel like I was in that position in Philly, so I can also help guys in that way. Just through past experiences I'm able to help these young guys, and I'm still going through that stuff myself, so they help me, too."
Detroit Tigers center fielder Matt Vierling (8) celebrates his solo home run in the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
How do you reflect on your 2024 season? You were worth 3.0 bWAR. You hit a career-high 16 home runs without sacrifice batting average or on-base percentage. You unlocked the pull-side power consistently for the first time in your career.
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"I was really happy with it. I felt like I made some pretty good steps. I went into last offseason knowing what I wanted to do, and that was obviously pull the ball in the air more — and definitely pull velocity more in the air. That's always been something I've struggled with in the past and always something I've tried to work through. This year, I finally felt like I was able to make some adjustments mechanically to get to that. The other half is mentally making the adjustments to get to that, especially with the velocity and trying to pull balls more. I was able to stay consistent in the other areas too, along with increasing the performance in my power. I was really happy with it. What we did with the team was probably what I was most fired up about, just to see everything come together and contribute more to the team and have a big role going into the playoffs."
LEADING THE WAY: Matt Vierling is leader of young Tigers in postseason race
What are you working on this offseason?
"Trying to build off that, trying to keep that going. I felt like I had a lot of success with that. I really do want to keep pushing: keep getting the ground ball percentage down and have bigger splits to the pull side. Obviously, I would love to have more power to the right side of the field, as I think 44 of my 49 (extra-base hits) were to the pull side, but I'm OK with that. I don't really want to give that up. I still want to do that. It's just working on what I did last offseason, trying to pull the ball in the air and trying to get my body moving right to do that. I'll make adjustments as they come, but I'm taking the same approach I had last year and keeping that going."
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What is your strategy for game planning against the starting pitcher before every game? Let's use Houston Astros left-hander Framber Valdez as an example.
"Framber is a great example. The lead person on all that is (hitting coach) Michael Brdar. He really breaks down almost everything statically about the pitcher. I'm sure he goes over it with Keith (Beauregard, hitting coach) and Lance (Zawadzki, assistant hitting coach). But then we have a hitting meeting every day. I guess that would be your team approach because it's a team meeting about what the guy is going to feature that day. Our hitting analyst, Jonah Simon, is great. They're able to make a video, dumb all the stats down to very easy levels for all of us to understand. This is how hard he throws, these are how much he throws his pitches, this is what the ball is going to do, these are the spots in the zone where the ball is going to be. And then there's some video associated with that showing all of the pitches and everything. Individually, I can overthink at times about guys, and I can overthink on certain things. I've learned that about myself, so I try to keep things very simple. I try to see how hard the guy throws, where he throws his pitches. Some guys like to sit on certain pitches in certain counts. I've started to do that a little bit more. Just with how hard guys throw and how nasty some of the pitches are, it's hard to cover three nasty pitches. Framber, for example, he's got a nasty two-seam sinker, and then he's also got a changeup that plays off that, and then he's got a breaking ball that picks up speed almost once it hits its turn coming down. Those are three pitches that you have to worry about. It's better to pick two of them that he likes to throw a lot and be ready for those, and then look in a certain location for those. I don't want to give away everything because I like hitting off Framber. But some pitchers you definitely have specific approaches for. Certain guys like to know more about the movement of the pitches. Certain guys like to know more percentage-based stuff. I try to keep things simple by being ready for a certain pitch at a certain time. I can definitely overthink, so I've learned that I can't really dive too deep into the weeds."
Detroit Tigers third base Matt Vierling (8) throws towards first base against L. A. Dodgers during the third inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
You play multiple positions, so are you doing more work at third base or in the outfield this offseason?
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"I'm doing outfield and third base and a little bit of first base. I'm doing a lot of third base work, kind of like last year. I'm doing a ton of third base work and hand stuff to prepare for the infield, but I'm also doing some outfield stuff. I know how this goes. I know I'll probably be at third base at times. I know I'll probably be in the outfield in other times. Who knows, honestly? I'm preparing for everything, but I'm mainly taking a lot of groundballs at third base and just trying to prepare for that right now."
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Can you describe the Tigers' culture?
"Extremely fun, a ton of good people. That's my biggest thing with this team. It doesn't matter who it is. Every guy is a good person. The egos are minimal. Everybody is on the same level. Everybody is cool with each other. Everybody vibes with each other. It's just a lot of fun. We're a young team. A lot of the guys are right around the same age. I think that has a big effect on the team because a lot of those guys came up together, and then you sprinkle in a couple of other people that are on the team as well, like me, that got traded over, and you mesh right in. It's a fun group. Everybody gets along. When we went on that run last year, the confidence in the room was incredible. It didn't matter who we were playing, I showed up to the field that day and felt like we were going to win. You don't always feel that way. Sometimes, you show up, and you're like, Man, I don't know . During that stretch, and a lot of that year, we were showing up knowing we were going to win. One last thing: We never give up. I felt like that showed itself throughout last year. Late in games, it didn't really matter, we were the same team and kept pushing. A lot of credit to that goes to the coaches and the way they coach us with Joey (Cora) on the base paths, George (Lombard) with the base-stealing stuff or in the outfield, and Gary Jones on the infield. Everybody had a hand in everything. A lot of credit goes to the coaches for how our locker room has developed."
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Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
Listen to our weekly Tigers show "Days of Roar" every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Matt Vierling became essential to Detroit Tigers' success
