One of the few minor league relievers the Detroit Tigers needed to bring back for 2026 was RHP Tyler Mattison. On Monday, they got it done, signing the 26-year-old to a minor league deal that will be worth $830,000 if he makes it to the major leagues. The deal includes an invite to major league spring camp.
Mattison was the Tigers fourth round pick back in 2021 out of Bryant University. Known for his good riding fourseam fastball, Mattison has been one of their best pure relief prospects ever since. Going into the 2024 season, he was Triple-A bound and expected to get his first look at the major leagues. Instead, he blew out his UCL and missed the whole season, as well as a big portion of 2025.
His control was badly lacking when he did get back on the mound late last May, but by the end of the season, the stuff that made him the Tigers best hope for a high strikeout relief prospect was coming back into form. The Tigers removed him from the 40-man roster this offseason in advance of the Rule 5 draft, but always had intentions of bringing him back on a minor league deal.
The big right-hander will add a new dimension to the Tigers’ bulllpen if he can get build on his return this offseason. He produces elite vertical movement on his fourseamer with a very high spin rate of 2655 rpms, and most of that is active spin out of his high overhand arm slot. As a result, he regularly gets 20-21 inches of induced vertical break with a fourseamer that averaged 94.1 mph in 2025 and topped out at 96.6 mph. He had a bit more in the tank pre-surgery, and it’s pretty likely he’ll get a little more of his old juice back in 2026.
In 2025, he drew 30 percent whiffs on the fastball at the Triple-A level, and he can sustain something very close to that at the major league level if a healthy offseason helps him take the next steps. Still, he has subpar extension because of that arm slot, so getting back to sitting 95-96 mph is important considering how heavily he relies on the heater.
Mattison threw the fourseamer 64 percent of the time in 2025, and that’s pretty typical for him. It draws a lot of whiffs and a lot of weak contact in the air. He backs it with a pretty unique low spin slider at 81-82 mph that still gets plenty of depth and doesn’t look like a typical breaking ball out of his hand. He had a lot of trouble spotting that pitch this year and his whiff rate was only 24.1 percent, which is pretty modeset for a breaking ball against Triple-A hitters. When he commands it well it can really play up, but without more consistency it’s just an average pitch in terms of effectiveness.
Mattion has a hard changeup that he’ll use against lefties but it’s decidedly a third pitch. He can fool hitters with it here and there but it didn’t draw that many whiffs this year. He throws it at 88-89 mph and it’s more of an offspeed sinker than anything, tailing away from left-handers with a lot of horizontal action.
He’s a great candidate to throw a splitter out of that arm slot, and the Tigers have gone splitter happy over the past two years. Understandably, they didn’t seem to mess with Mattison’s stuff much coming off of Tommy John surgery, but it would certainly be worthwhile to try and get him throwing one this offseason. If he could even throw an average split it would play up because of his style of fastball.
Mattison punched out 37.8 percent of hitters faced at the Double-A level back in 2023 before the injury. This year his strikeout rate was down to 29.9 percent at the Triple-A level. That’s still good, particularly considering that his control was a mess for much of the year and didn’t start coming around until September. He’ll need some improvement this offseason to hold that rate into the major leagues, but pitchers often level up the next year after returning from UCL surgery so there’s reason for optimism.
We’re probably not looking at a future ace reliever here, but if Mattison’s command improves, he’s going to rack up plenty of strikeouts. That’s something the Tigers’ bullpen could really use. It also doesn’t hurt that he features a very different arm slot and fastball type compared to the rest of the likely relief corps.
It’s taken Tyler Mattison a long time to live up to his potential, but Tommy John surgery will do that to you. He’s no sure thing to take the next step, but it would’ve been a real shame to let him walk and another team potentially get the benefit of his first full season after UCL reconstruction surgery. He’s a good option to have in the Tigers’ back pocket, and it’s a positive that they were able to get him back on a minor league contract. The bullpen needs all the help, and all the minor league depth, it can get.
Here’s a look from 2023, prior to his surgery.