He doesn’t garner a lot press — no less than not outdoors of Tigers territory — however Will Vest has developed into one among baseball’s higher relievers. The 30-year-old right-hander has appeared in 181 video games for Detroit over the previous three seasons and logged a 2.93 ERA and a 2.71 ERA over 187-and-a-third innings. Furthermore, he’s at present the staff’s nearer. Vest’s 2025 ledger contains 23 saves to go together with a 3.01 ERA and a 2.71 FIP, and he recorded the ultimate out in each of the membership’s Wild Card wins over Cleveland. If the Tigers go on to beat the Mariners within the ALDS, Vest will doubtless have performed a key function.
He may simply be pitching for Seattle. As associated by Dan Hubbs in a chunk that ran right here at FanGraphs two weeks in the past, the Mariners took Vest in December 2020’s Rule-5 draft, solely to return him to the Tigers the next July. Hubbs had departed as Detroit’s director of pitching improvement by the point Vest was reacquired, however he was, and stays to at the present time, bullish on the righty’s uncooked capacity.
Vest was one among three pitchers (Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal have been the others) whose improvement course of the now-Athletics’ bullpen coach seemed again on within the September 23 article. Spin charges that have been “off the charts” was an attribute Hubbs noticed within the then-under-the-radar prospect, as have been “good motion profiles on every little thing he threw.” For the younger hurler, success at baseball’s highest degree “was only a matter of him getting comfy competing within the strike zone.“
What are Vest’s reminiscences of working with Hubbs, and through which methods has he continued to develop within the years which have adopted?
“I knew that I had stuff,” Vest informed me within the waning days of the common season. “It was extra about homing it in, extra in regards to the pitch-ability. There was some uncooked stuff he noticed in me that we’d work on. Velo. Growing a changeup. Refining my slider. I may spin the ball fairly effectively; I simply didn’t have good command. That’s what I refined all through the minor leagues, and he helped me try this.
“After I bought into professional ball, the nuances of analytics had type of taken over,” added Vest, whom the Tigers took within the twelfth spherical of the 2017 draft out of Stephen F. Austin State College. “We have been all studying how one can use it to assist us as pitchers. [Hubbs] was on the forefront, main that cost in our group, bringing analytics to the pitching workers.”
A newer improvement has paid big dividends. Vest used to spike his slider, however he stopped doing so across the midpoint of final season. The numbers that adopted stand out like a sore thumb. Whereas the pitch was too typically punished in 2024, this 12 months it has elicited a .206 BAA, a .286 slug, and an eyebrow-raising 43.7% whiff price. Thrown tougher (88.7 mph vs 86.9 mph) and with extra spin (2,748 rpm vs 2,381), it has misplaced some form, however gained by way of deception.
“The full motion is slightly bit much less since I finished spiking it, however that’s not essentially a foul factor,” Vest defined. “You need it to look as very similar to your heater as you’ll be able to, and that had type of been my downside. Generally my slider would get too massive. It could pop, and simply not appear like my fastball. I noticed what hitters have been telling me. I’d throw a fairly first rate slider in first rate places, and it appeared like they have been on it. Now I’m throwing one which pairs higher with my fastball. I’m additionally commanding it higher.”
The command and pitch-ability that Hubbs as soon as helped Vest to refine are integral to his success, and the underrated nearer is aware of that in addition to anybody.
“All of it comes all the way down to execution,” mentioned Vest. “You are able to do little issues to make particular person pitches higher, however on the finish of the day, in case you’re throwing 95 with an excellent journey heater, and it’s proper down the center, it’s going to get hit on this league. You want to have a mixture of good things, however there’s additionally figuring out the place to throw it and when to throw it. You want to be executing your pitches.”
He executed to perfection final evening. Vest pitched the ninth and tenth innings, retired all six batters he confronted, and was credited with the win because the Tigers edged the Mariners 3-2 to seize ALDS Sport One. The hassle wasn’t an anomaly. In 9 profession postseason outings, Vest has allowed one run over 11 innings.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Dan Wilson went 10 for 17 in opposition to Justin Thompson.
Edgar Martinez went 10 for 16 in opposition to Mariano Rivera.
Kevin Seitzer went 12 for 22 in opposition to Richard Dotson.
Ichiro Suzuki went 12 for 19 in opposition to Aaron Sele.
Alvin Davis went 17 for 30 in opposition to Dan Petry.
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Ceddanne Rafaela’s breakout with the bat got here to a screeching halt in midseason, and it coincided with a questionable resolution. Brief within the infield resulting from harm and nonperformance, the Pink Sox started shuttling the sport’s finest defensive centerfielder between that place and second base. As I identified in a mid-August column, Rafaela had a 114 wRC+ earlier than being taken out of his consolation zone — and that quantity slid to 91 by season’s finish. Whereas ten factors greater than final 12 months’s 81 wRC+, it wasn’t what it may need been.
Is he joyful together with his season total? I requested him that query after recreation 162.
“You possibly can say I’m joyful, however it’s extra so I’m joyful that I helped the staff in any method I may,” the 25-year-old outfielder informed me. “My protection. A part of the season with my offense. So yeah, I’m joyful.”
Which brings us to the crux of what I wished his ideas on. Did having to shuttle forwards and backwards have a damaging affect on his efficiency?
“I don’t know,” Rafaela responded. “Possibly. Possibly yeah, perhaps no. I didn’t take note of it. I simply wished to assist the staff. However whenever you’re enjoying a place daily, it helps.”
I associated to Rafaela how I’d supplied that as one of many causes for my bullish expectations because the season was about to begin. Solely enjoying heart would assist him carry out higher with the bat.
“Yeah, in fact,” he mentioned to my reasoning. “I believe in case you solely play one place, that may occur. However it’s what it’s. I can’t look again. I’m in a playoff spot now, so all I can take into consideration goes on the market to win. That’s the mindset.”
As a second baseman, Rafaela had one DRS and a minus-21 wRC+ over 79 plate appearances. As a centerfielder, he had 20 DRS and a 109 wRC+ over 508 plate appearances.
Seemingly coming to their senses, Alex Cora & Co. as soon as once more started enjoying the doubtless Gold Glove winner solely in heart on the the tip of August. Not lengthy thereafter, he started to rebound with the bat. Over his final dozen video games, Rafaela registered a .364 BA and a .927 OPS. Was the surge one thing that would have been anticipated?
“Yeah, as a result of it’s baseball,” Rafaela mentioned. “It may occur.”
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A quiz:
The Seattle Mariners have been of their fifteenth season once they first completed with a successful report. Who led that 1991 squad in dwelling runs? (A touch: he has essentially the most strikeouts of any hitter in Mariners historical past.)
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NEWS NOTES
The common time of a nine-inning MLB recreation was 2:38 this season, up two minutes from a 12 months in the past. In 2022, the final 12 months earlier than a pitch clock was instituted, the common time was 3:04.
The 2026 Ford C. Frick Award finalists have been introduced this previous week. They’re Brian Anderson, Joe Buck, Skip Caray, René Cárdenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper, John Rooney, Dan Shulman, and John Sterling. Extra info could be discovered right here.
Ray Lane, a legendary Detroit sportscaster whose profession included calling Tigers video games alongside Ernie Harwell from 1967-1972, died final weekend at age 95. Followers of a sure age will recall that Paul Carey was then Harwell’s broadcaster associate from 1973-1991.
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The reply to the quiz is Jay Buhner, who homered 27 instances for the Mariners in 1991. Ken Griffey Jr., who was then in his third MLB season, went deep 22 instances.
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Left on the cutting-room flooring from my current dialog with Dillon Dingler was what the Detroit Tigers catcher informed me once I requested what’s going by his thoughts when he walks behind the plate to begin a recreation.
“The primary inning is essential — it’s normally three of their finest hitters — so I’m actually simply attempting to calm down, actually,” Dingler admitted. “There’s plenty of emotion that goes together with the sport, particularly at the beginning. You’re amped up, so you are taking that point to relax slightly bit and get within the movement. I’d say that I’m fairly even-tempered, however on the identical time, there’s adrenaline. It’s the frenzy, and it’s a must to management that.”
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Sticking with the Tigers, a current piece I put collectively on Cleveland’s pitching group included the angle of Detroit reliever Paul Sewald, who was with the Guardians for the primary half of the season. I additionally requested Sewald about his present membership’s pitching group.
“Fet [pitching coach Chris Fetter] is wonderful at determining our game-planning,” he informed me. “That’s a necessary a part of the job, and determining which pitches you’re going to throw may be very tough earlier than a recreation ever begins. After which, [assistant pitching coach] Robin Lund is a physicist at coronary heart. He’s the man who’s going that will help you with, ‘Hey, you’re not transferring the best way you have been in 2022 and 2023. We have to get you transferring the best way you used to, as a way to throw with the identical velocity you probably did then.’ We even have [assistant pitching coach] Juan Nieves. There are occasions you want any individual who is aware of what it’s wish to be on the mound in entrance of 35,000 individuals and throw strikes. Juan is that man. It’s vital to have individuals who have specialties and may help in any scenario.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The LG Twins had the very best report within the KBO, ending atop the standings at 85-56-3. The Hanwha Eagles have been shut behind at 83-57-4.
The Pacific League’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks had NPB’s finest report at 86-52-4. The Central League’s Hanshin Tigers had the second-best report at 85-54-4.
Masahiro Tanaka recorded his 2 hundredth profession win — 122 in NPB and 78 with the New York Yankees in MLB — earlier this week. The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants right-hander joins Yu Darvish, Hiroki Kuroda, and Hideo Nomo as Japanese pitchers who’ve reached that quantity between the 2 leagues.
With CPBL season about to come back to a detailed, the CTBC Brothers have the very best report in Taiwan at 70-49. The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions are subsequent finest at 65-53.
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A random obscure former participant snapshot:
Charlie Neal recorded the primary hit in Los Angeles Dodgers historical past. A center infielder who’d damaged in with Brooklyn as Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese have been closing out their careers, Neal singled off of Ruben Gomez at San Francisco’s Seals Stadium because the newly-located rivals clashed on Opening Day 1958. The speedy Longview, Texas native was then at his finest in 1959. Not solely did Neal complete 60 extra-base hits, win a Gold Glove, and make the All-Star staff; he excelled within the Fall Traditional. Neal went 10-for-27 with a pair of dwelling runs because the Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox in six recreation to seize LA’s first World Sequence title.
A couple of years later, he made extra historical past again East. In 1962, Neal recorded the primary RBI in New York Mets historical past, driving dwelling Richie Ashburn within the growth staff’s first-ever recreation. That very same day, he turned the primary Met to log a three-hit recreation, with a kind of knocks leaving the yard. One inning earlier than Neal went deep, Gil Hodges hammered the primary dwelling run in Mets historical past.
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The Houston Astros missed the postseason this 12 months following eight straight seasons of October baseball, half of of which got here with Dusty Baker on the helm. Taking on after the sign-stealing scandal value A.J. Hinch his job, Baker went on to guide the erstwhile Colt .45s to their second World Sequence title in six years, in 2022. Houston’s 2024 playoff look got here beneath present supervisor Joe Espada.
Alex Cora was Hinch’s bench coach when the shenanigans happened, ensuing within the now-Pink Sox skipper’s being suspended for the 2020 season. Cora was requested for his ideas on the Astros’ postseason streak having come to an finish.
“The factor that I actually respect out of the group, with Dusty and Joe, is that they turned the web page on our mistake,” Cora informed reporters at Fenway Park. “They did a tremendous job of placing that behind. It can at all times be, not on them, however on me and the remainder of us… It’s exhausting to do that again and again and over, and so they did it very effectively. [Jose] Altuve is available in there from the start, and he led that staff. Alex [Bregman] did the identical factor.”
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Jane Leavy’s Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Fallacious With Baseball and How To Repair It contains numerous passages that function Dusty Baker. One in every of them, which has nothing to do with the guide’s title, addresses the now-76-year-old renaissance man’s days as a minor-league outfielder within the Atlanta Braves system.
“That fall [1969], the Braves despatched him to the Arizona Fall League, the place he noticed Janis Joplin play a gig of their dwelling ballpark in Tempe,” Leavy wrote. “Within the uncooked caw of her voice, he heard the pressure of upheaval and rage that stuffed that American season. He frolicked with the hippies. He preferred them as a result of despite the fact that that they had stormed the fence to get in, they have been peaceable about it… When the Braves informed him he had to surrender his scholar deferment and report back to spring coaching earlier, he joined the Marines relatively than the State or Nationwide Guard. The way in which he noticed it, Marines weren’t more likely to be referred to as upon to fireside on hippies and scholar protestors. It was 1970. He noticed what the Ohio Nationwide Guard did at Kent State.”
Baker has lengthy been a baseball treasure.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
Who drew the comics that was discovered on the backs of Topps baseball playing cards? Tiffany Babb addressed that query at The Fan Information.
Doing a crossword puzzle is an enormous a part of Tarik Skubal’s pregame routine. Jason Beck has the story at MLB.com.
Julian McWilliams wrote about the rejuvenation of Toronto’s George Springer for CBS Sports activities.
Andscape’s William Weinbaum introduced us with an oral historical past of Satchel Paige’s remaining MLB recreation, which got here at age 59 in 1965.
How energy ages may shock you. Travis Sawchik shared a number of the numbers in a weblog article at Driveline Baseball.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
The Seattle Mariners had 31 one-run wins this season, essentially the most of any staff. The Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins tied for the fewest one-run wins with 15 apiece.
The Los Angeles Dodgers led all Nationwide League groups with 825 runs scored. Additionally they topped the circuit in dwelling runs and hit the ninth-most singles. The Milwaukee Brewers have been second within the NL with 806 runs scored. They topped the circuit in singles and hit the ninth-most dwelling runs.
Houston Astros catchers mixed for 178 hits and a .286 batting common this season; each have been MLB bests. Tampa Bay Rays catchers mixed for 95 hits and a .185 batting common; each have been MLB worsts.
Toronto Blue Jays catchers have been charged with 15 throwing errors, essentially the most of any staff. Kansas Metropolis Royals catchers had only one throwing error.
Don Newcombe turned the primary Black pitcher to begin a World Sequence recreation when he took the mound for the Brooklyn Dodgers in opposition to the New York Yankees on at present’s date in 1949. The lone run Newcombe allowed that afternoon was a ninth-inning homer by Tommy Henrich, the primary ever walk-off blast in Sequence historical past.
On at present’s date in 1944, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the St. Louis Browns 3-2 in 11 innings to even up the World Sequence at one recreation apiece. The Cardinals went on to win that 12 months’s Fall Traditional, with all six contests happening at Sportsman Park.
Gamers born on at present’s date embody Randy Bockus, a right-hander who appeared in 37 video games for the San Francisco Giants throughout the 1986-1988 season, and in two video games for the Detroit Tigers in 1989. A Canton, Ohio native who attended Kent State College, Bockus went 2-1 with a 4.23 ERA over 61-and-two-thirds profession innings. Taking part in in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers on September twenty eighth of his rookie season, Bockus struck out as a pinch hitter within the thirteenth inning, moved to the outfield the next body and was later pinch-hit for by fellow pitcher Mike Krukow.
Additionally born on at present’s date was Jim Bagby, who helped pitch the Cleveland Indians to a World Sequence title in 1920. A right-hander from Barnett, Georgia, Bagby bagged 31 wins in the course of the common season, then bested Brooklyn Robins righty Burleigh Grimes in Sport 5 of the Fall Traditional. Notable in that contest was Bagby’s changing into the primary pitcher to hit a World Sequence dwelling run, and Cleveland second baseman Invoice Wambsganss turning the one triple play in World Sequence historical past.