[Underdog] Rosenthal: Tigers among teams considering Ryan Helsley as a starter.
November 23, 2025
[Underdog] Rosenthal: Tigers among teams considering Ryan Helsley as a starter.
36 comments
What
Yes as the last closer turned starter worked real well, cough clay holmes cough
isnt he more of a strikeout guy with big velo? seems like a weird profile for a starter
Helsley is pretty 1 dimensional as a pitcher, really just slider and fastball and his fastball has regressed significantly to the point where it’s basically just slider.
xwOBA by pitch:
Slider: .187
Fastball: .404
Curveball: .445
Cutter: .353
Very similar in profile I guess to a guy like Spencer Strider which we saw is not always the most sustainable or successful formula. Especially when the fastball isn’t elite
Makes sense, he was pretty bad down the stretch and most starters are just failed relievers.
wait.
He hasn’t started a game since 2019 in the minor leagues
He throws the fastball or slider 93% of the time. How many starters do well with that little pitch variety?
Also, his fastball is legitimately terrible. 2nd percentile run value according to Statcast. He makes his money off the slider, at 90th. He won’t make it past 3 innings especially with diminished velocity on the already very hittable fastball.
But I’m not a front office, so who knows. He’s gonna turn in a 3.24 ERA across 160 innings and I’m gonna look like an idiot.
For the Tigers, this doesn’t really mean too much. Aside from Skubal and Flaherty, don’t most of their starters just pitch around 3 innings or so? Or was that just a 2024 Special?
His arm is going to get destroyed as a starter.
The Tigers are not a serious team.
Oh boy I feel like the front office is really trying to stretch how magic Chris Fetter is
skubal replacement /s
helsley must have been spending a lot of time with clay holmes in the dugout after he blew a bunch of games for us.
Not a guy I’d want as closer in the playoffs regardless we’ve seen how that’s gone
They must really believe they can teach him a changeup or something
I lol’d
Seth Lugo has done permanent damage to the mind of every MLB GM
> Helsley, 31, hasn’t started since 2019, when he was at Triple A with the St. Louis Cardinals.
> The Cardinals selected Helsley as a starter out of Northeastern (Ok.) State in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. All but 18 of his 87 appearances in the minors were as a starter. The Cardinals made him a reliever upon promoting him to the majors in April 2019.
Nah this ain’t real
Yeah I don’t think making him a starter instead of a closer or putting him at the eighth inning is really wise but I’m not a big league manager so…
um ok
Huh? This has been a great strat for Jordan Hicks so far
Jordan Hicks first handful of starts as a Giant were pretty good, then they were really bad. Then he was part of the trade package for Devers.
He struggles to get through 1 inning. Let’s see if he can manage 5 or 6.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One thing I’ve noticed with Rosenthal is that he sometimes make statements/articles that seems to come from agents. I remember him writing a long article about Lorenzens free agency last year ( [https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6005197/2024/12/19/michael-lorenzen-two-way-player/](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6005197/2024/12/19/michael-lorenzen-two-way-player/) ), which felt like an article from the agent pushing a narrative.
I saw him pitch an almost no hitter in AA as a starter. Just sayin.
There’s no way
Did I read that right
I hope someone in the Tigers organization leaked this in the hopes they’d embarrass the FO out of the idea.
????????????? Why
Well, he did hard carry the Cincinnati Reds to a playoff berth after the deadline….
85ERA in one inning of work isn’t good enough for some teams
What’s with teams turning Closers into starters? Mike King, Clay Holmes, Mason Miller and now this felt like all my life starters became relievers not the other ways around
36 comments
What
Yes as the last closer turned starter worked real well, cough clay holmes cough
isnt he more of a strikeout guy with big velo? seems like a weird profile for a starter
Helsley is pretty 1 dimensional as a pitcher, really just slider and fastball and his fastball has regressed significantly to the point where it’s basically just slider.
xwOBA by pitch:
Slider: .187
Fastball: .404
Curveball: .445
Cutter: .353
Very similar in profile I guess to a guy like Spencer Strider which we saw is not always the most sustainable or successful formula. Especially when the fastball isn’t elite
Makes sense, he was pretty bad down the stretch and most starters are just failed relievers.
wait.
He hasn’t started a game since 2019 in the minor leagues
He throws the fastball or slider 93% of the time. How many starters do well with that little pitch variety?
Also, his fastball is legitimately terrible. 2nd percentile run value according to Statcast. He makes his money off the slider, at 90th. He won’t make it past 3 innings especially with diminished velocity on the already very hittable fastball.
But I’m not a front office, so who knows. He’s gonna turn in a 3.24 ERA across 160 innings and I’m gonna look like an idiot.
For the Tigers, this doesn’t really mean too much. Aside from Skubal and Flaherty, don’t most of their starters just pitch around 3 innings or so? Or was that just a 2024 Special?
His arm is going to get destroyed as a starter.
The Tigers are not a serious team.
Oh boy I feel like the front office is really trying to stretch how magic Chris Fetter is
skubal replacement /s
helsley must have been spending a lot of time with clay holmes in the dugout after he blew a bunch of games for us.
Not a guy I’d want as closer in the playoffs regardless we’ve seen how that’s gone
They must really believe they can teach him a changeup or something
I lol’d
Seth Lugo has done permanent damage to the mind of every MLB GM
This would be really fucking stupid.
[Rosenthal/Stavenhagen/Woo][Tigers among clubs looking at free-agent pitcher Ryan Helsley as a starter: Sources](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6830980/2025/11/23/ryan-helsley-starter-detroit-tigers/)
> Helsley, 31, hasn’t started since 2019, when he was at Triple A with the St. Louis Cardinals.
> The Cardinals selected Helsley as a starter out of Northeastern (Ok.) State in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. All but 18 of his 87 appearances in the minors were as a starter. The Cardinals made him a reliever upon promoting him to the majors in April 2019.
Nah this ain’t real
Yeah I don’t think making him a starter instead of a closer or putting him at the eighth inning is really wise but I’m not a big league manager so…
um ok
Huh? This has been a great strat for Jordan Hicks so far
Jordan Hicks first handful of starts as a Giant were pretty good, then they were really bad. Then he was part of the trade package for Devers.
He struggles to get through 1 inning. Let’s see if he can manage 5 or 6.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One thing I’ve noticed with Rosenthal is that he sometimes make statements/articles that seems to come from agents. I remember him writing a long article about Lorenzens free agency last year ( [https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6005197/2024/12/19/michael-lorenzen-two-way-player/](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6005197/2024/12/19/michael-lorenzen-two-way-player/) ), which felt like an article from the agent pushing a narrative.
I saw him pitch an almost no hitter in AA as a starter. Just sayin.
There’s no way
Did I read that right
I hope someone in the Tigers organization leaked this in the hopes they’d embarrass the FO out of the idea.
????????????? Why
Well, he did hard carry the Cincinnati Reds to a playoff berth after the deadline….
85ERA in one inning of work isn’t good enough for some teams
What’s with teams turning Closers into starters? Mike King, Clay Holmes, Mason Miller and now this felt like all my life starters became relievers not the other ways around