Getting To Know The 2023 Detroit Tigers Non-Roster Invitees (Day 4): LHP Chasen Shreve

We’re sticking with lefties for Day 4. One additional day of pitchers before we’re on to the hitters!

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**Previous Posts**

* [Day 1 – RHP Kervin Castro](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/10x0vi1/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 2 – RHP Brenan Hanifee](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/10xvqgb/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)
* [Day 3 – LHP Zach Logue](https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcitykitties/comments/10yt00h/getting_to_know_the_2023_detroit_tigers_nonroster/)

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**Chasen Shreve – LHP**

6’4, 180

07/12/1990

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**Last Year**

|Year|Team|W|L|ERA|G|IP|H|R|ER|HR|BB|SO|
:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
|2022|NYM|1|1|6.49|25|26.1|27|19|19|6|10|29|

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**Overview**

The oldest of the Non-Roster Invitees, Chasen Shreve was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 11th round of the 2010 MLB Draft after a college career in which he was teammates with Bryce Harper. He made his Major League debut with the Braves in 2014 as a 23-year-old before being traded to the New York Yankees in a deal that brought back once-highly touted propsect Manny Banuelos. Shreve had perhaps the best season of his career upon arriving in New York where he had a 3.09 ERA (132 ERA+) across 58.1 innings.

Shreve’s time in New York came to an end in 2018 when he was traded to St. Louis for Luke Voit. Since that point he’s bounced around the Majors, pitching for the Cardinals, Mets, Pirates and the Mets once again this most recent season. After being released mid-season by the Mets, Shreve latched on with the Yankees AAA-affiliate to close out the season before hitting free agency this offseason and signing with the Tigers.

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**The Good**

Much the previously discussed Zach Logue, Shreve is a lefty that doesn’t have overpowering stuff to turn to. His fastball sits in the low 90s, which forces him to turn to his secondary pitches to get outs. His career K/9 of 9.9 is somewhat middle of the road, but he does induce quite a few swings and misses. Looking just at last year, batters swung at 217 of his pitches and missed 29% of the time, compared to the league average of 24.9%. Looking specifically at his split-finger, he’s had Whiff% of 42.5% this most recent year, as well as other years at 54.4%, 42.8% and 45%. [His splitter](https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1295523148482437120) has consistently been his most reliable pitch, but he can also cause hitters to [miss on his slider](https://www.mlb.com/video/lewin-diaz-strikes-out-swinging-dzv0bz?q=Chasen%20Shreve&cp=CMS\_FIRST&qt=FREETEXT&p=0) at times.

2022 was a tough year for Shreve overall, but 2021 was one of the best of his career. He appeared in 57 games for the Pirates and posted a 3.20 ERA (134 ERA+), while his slider stood out as the best pitch he’s ever had, notching 5.4 runs above average with it and holding batters to just a .149 average against it.

**The Bad**

Unfortunately for Shreve, 2022 was not a repeat of his 2021 performance with the Pirates. Signed by the Mets prior to the season to shore up their bullpen, he found himself out of a job in July and for good reason.

Like Logue, Shreve was absolutely drilled throughout the year to the tune of a 12% barrel rate, a career-high 21.3% line drive percentage and had over 80% of his pitches hit for either medium or hard hit. When he wasn’t being hit hard, Shreve had some trouble finding the zone — as he has throughout the majority of his career.

He threw nearly 58% of his pitches out of the zone, which is right in line with where he has been as a Major Leaguer and is far above the league average of 51%. Without a ton of speed on his pitches it’s crucial for Shreve to throw strikes, but he just hasn’t shown the ability to do so on a consistent basis.

**The Outlook**

2022 was hideous, but that’s probably not the level of pitcher that Shreve is going to be this coming season. His underlying numbers (5.01 FIP, 3.68 xFIP, 4.91 xERA compared to 6.49 actual ERA) indicate that at times he might have gotten unlucky, but with that being said I’m not overly hopeful for Shreve to be an important piece of the Tigers bullpen. The most likely scenario sees Shreve pitching a majority of the season in Toledo with occasional appearances in Detroit where he posts a middling (4.20 – 4.60) ERA.