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Detroit Tigers' Tyler Mattison is underrated prospect to know after joining 40-man roster
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- Detroit Tigers' Tyler Mattison is underrated prospect to know after joining 40-man roster
Detroit Tigers right-handed reliever Tyler Mattison will never forget what happened late in November.
Mattison — an underrated prospect due to an elbow injury and his bullpen role — spent the day, Nov. 19, throwing and lifting as part of his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery, all while checking his phone constantly in hopes of a phone call from Tigers assistant general manager Ryan Garko .
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"But I knew it was going to be a last-minute ordeal," Mattison said.
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Detroit Tigers right-hander Tyler Mattison with Double-A Erie.
Teams had a 6 p.m. deadline to protect players eligible for the Rule 5 draft by adding them to the 40-man roster , an indication the team thinks the player will contribute in the big leagues at some point in the near future.
For Mattison, the phone rang at 5:30 p.m.
It was Garko.
"I was super pumped and honored to be one of the names that got added," Mattison told the Free Press, joining the Dec. 2 episode of the "Days of Roar" podcast . "Everyone's got to get on it to get to the bigs. It's another step in the right direction."
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Mattison — one of three pitching prospects added to the 40-man roster , joining trade deadline acquisitions Tyler Owens and Chase Lee , before the Rule 5 draft protection deadline — hasn't pitched in a game since September 2023, but he could provide a massive boost to the Tigers in 2025's late innings.
The 25-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2024 to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and missed the entire 2024 season. He is on track to pitch in games in the first half of the 2025 season.
"The goal doesn't change of getting to the big leagues," Mattison said, "but it's not just getting there. It's trying to stay there and helping the Tigers win at the highest level. Before I can get there, I got to get healthy."
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Riding the fastball to whiffs
Mattison showed his potential in 2023.
He registered a 2.41 ERA with 28 walks (11.7% walk rate) and 91 strikeouts (37.9% strikeout rate) across 59⅔ innings in 41 games for High-A West Michigan (19 gams) and Double-A Erie (22 games). At the Double-A level, he had a 1.62 ERA with 18 walks (13.2% walk rate) and 46 strikeouts (33.8% strikeout rate) in 33⅓ innings.
His fastball averages 95 mph and maxes out at 98 mph, featuring ride and deception to generate swings and misses at the top of the strike zone. It's one of the best fastballs among relievers in the Tigers' farm system.
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"I'm a four-seam guy," Mattison said.
"And then I throw a harder curveball over the top that plays off it," Mattison continued. "I throw a little bit of a changeup that fades down into a righty and away from a lefty. When I pitch, I'm more of a north-south type of guy."
All three of his pitches — fastball, curveball, changeup — are capable of missing bats. He averaged 13.7 strikeouts per nine innings across both levels in 2023, including 12.4 strikeouts per nine in Double-A Erie. Having three swing-and-miss pitches opens the door to becoming a high-leverage reliever for the Tigers.
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That's the role he wants.
"I want to be a high-leverage guy," said Mattison, who has leaned on Chicago White Sox reliever James Karinchak for advice over the past few years. "I want to be the guy that skip can trust to put in big situations when you need big-time outs. That's what I try to get my stuff to be like and get in those situations to get comfortable, so that way, when they do happen, it's not anything new for me."
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Taking his cue from James Karinchak
Both Mattison and Karinchak attended Bryant University. They're two of 27 players from Bryant to be selected in the MLB draft, with Mattison as the highest draft pick and Karinchak as one of three players to reach the big leagues.
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Karinchak, a 29-year-old who owns a 3.10 ERA with a 36.3% strikeout rate in his 174-game MLB career, was selected by the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth round (No. 282 overall) of the 2017 draft. Four years later, Mattison was selected by the Tigers in the fourth round (No. 104 overall) of the 2021 draft.
They're practically the same pitchers: Both right-handed relievers throw 95 mph fastballs at the top of the zone and hard low-80s curveballs at the bottom of the zone from high arm slots.
"When I was getting recruited to college, the coach there said, 'This is the guy you want to emulate, this is the guy you want to be like,'" Mattison said. "He is a hard worker and his stuff is really good, so anytime he's pitching, I always try to turn the game on to watch him pitch. We're super similar with how we throw. I take little pointers or cues from him. It's pretty cool."
Detroit Tigers right-hander Tyler Mattison pitches for Double-A Erie in the 2023 season.
Moving to the bullpen
After the draft, the Tigers didn't waste any time shifting Mattison from a starter to a reliever. He spent his entire college career as a starter, but the Tigers envisioned him as a high-leverage reliever, so the transition happened immediately.
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A conversation with Gabe Ribas , the Tigers' director of pitching, helped Mattison settle into his new role in mid-August 2022 toward the end of his first season in the minor leagues. Before then, he felt afraid to challenge hitters and allowed too many walks.
Ribas told Mattison to attack hitters inside the strike zone.
So that's what Mattison did.
"From then on, my mentality has been to attack, attack, attack," said Mattison, who still needs to improve upon his 2023 walk rate of 13.2% in Double-A Erie. "If I'm going down, I'm going to go down with my best stuff."
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The mentality shift led to a boost in fastball velocity, from the low-90s in 2022 to the mid-90s in 2023. He also benefitted from adjustments to his pitching mechanics, such as keeping his front side closed for longer in his delivery, implemented by pitching coaches, including Ribas.
He added 2.5 mph.
"It's the mindset of not being passive and trying to spot up every pitch," Mattison said. "I think the biggest change for me is just mentality — being a fierce competitor. It's believing that deep down inside and having that conviction."
His rapid development hit a roadblock March 15 during spring training in 2024.
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That's the day he underwent Tommy John surgery.
"The mentals were down for a little bit, I'll be honest," Mattison said. "It sucked seeing everybody else playing and competing. Not having that was really weird. But then you have to shift your mentality to dominating my rehab so I can hit the ground running and be back to who I was. I'm in a great place right now."
Entering 2025, Mattison is one of the most underrated prospects in baseball.
Now that he's on the 40-man roster, he has an opportunity to become the next key contributor to high-leverage situations in the Tigers' bullpen — possibly sooner rather than later.
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"The exciting part is being adding to the 40-man," Mattison said. "It shows they do really believe in me, so let me get healthy so I can get back to who I was, and then I can show them that I can help you at the big league level. That's where my mindset is right now."
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: Tyler Mattison rising as underrated Detroit Tigers prospect
