Connor Seabold illustrates why the Tigers signed him

All throughout spring training, a tough question in Detroit Tigers camp was who would take the last spot in their bullpen. Their seven best relief options were pretty obvious, other than the question of whether Keider Montero would stay stretched out to start or not, but no one stepped to take the last right-handed spot in the pen. Beau Brieske got hurt, Brenan Hanifee wasn’t sharp, and the hoard of minor league signings and post-prospect farm hands never made a move to seize the role. Enter right-hander Connor Seabold.

The 30-year-old reliever was in camp on a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays this spring, and there were some interesting developments in his stuff. When the Blue Jays planned to send him to Triple-A to begin the season, Seabold utilized his opt-out clause and signed a major league deal with the Tigers instead.

It was certainly fair to wonder what the Tigers were doing here. Seabold was drafted by the Phillies out of Cal State Fullerton in the third round of the 2017 draft. A starter originally, Seabold never made it to the show in Philadelphia and was instead dealt to Boston as part of the Nick Pivetta trade. He debuted in 2021 with the Red Sox, and was basically a replacement level reliever through parts of four major league seasons, bouncing to the Rockies, Rays, and Braves in those years until signing a minor league deal with the Blue Jays during the offseason.

The past few years, Seabold has worked with a fourseam fastball, slider, and circle changeup. None of these pitches has been above average, and Seabold’s command wasn’t sharp enough to make it work. Instead, he’s run mediocre strikeout and walk rates, giving up way too many home runs.

The change he worked on over the offseason and in spring camp was to get his arm slot higher, looking to produce more vertical break on the fourseamer. That worked out, but he’s also throwing harder so far this year. After averaging 92.6 mph on the fourseam fastball from 2023-2025, he’s averaged 94.5 mph this spring. At the same time, he’s getting an average of 17.2 inches of induced vertical break, whereas from 2023-2025, he averaged just 13.2 inches. Now, 17.2 inches is still fairly average, but an extra four inches is a lot. Trust me, I’m telling you four inches is way more than you think.

The other effect of the higher arm slot, is that he’s also getting another four inches of depth on his 83-84 mph slider. It remains to be seen whether that will produce a signficant bump in whiffs at the major league level, but it obviously helps. In isolation, meaning with no other changes to the movement profile, more depth is always better. So far this year, with spring training and his outing on Saturday all included, the whiff rate on the slider is a monstrous 61.5 percent. His whiff rate from 2023-2025 in the majors was just 26.3 percent.

The whiff rate on Seabold’s fourseamer so far this year, with spring camp included, is 29.4 percent. Over the previous three seasons, that whiff rate was just 19.9 percent. So, these are small samples, and in spring action to boot, but his whiff rates are showing some very good signs all around.

Seabold also has the circle changeup, and the effect of the added velocity has extended to the changeup as well, and he’s throwing that 3 mph faster than he used to as well. That stands to reason, but what’s good to see is that he’s throwing it harder, but still has 11 mph separation between the fourseamer and his changeup. That differential is still good, but at higher velocities, which is always a plus.

These are all modest changes for Seabold this spring, but the improvements go all the way through his whole repertoire of pitches. He already has a little deception in his short, quick arm stroke, and now he’s hiding the ball better behind his head with the higher slot, giving him some invisiball vibes, where hitters pick it up late out of his hand.

It’s way too early to suggest that Seabold is now going to function as a solid, setup level reliever. He may not even work out as the mop-up guy in the pen. However, these are all tangible, positive developments that are still pretty recently implemented. There’s at least a chance that as he gets more and more comfortable with the new arm slot and sees success, that he can air it out a little more and pitch with a minor margin for error that he’s never had before.

Right now, the Tigers options for relief help aren’t that great. They have Enmanuel de Jesus, Drew Anderson, and Brant Hurter in the pen, giving them three guys with deep pitch mixes and proven command who can provide good depth to the rotation. Keider Montero is also a helpful depth piece. But right now, the relief core is thinned out by injury and the fact that guys like Tyler Mattison and Dylan Smith haven’t been able to break through and command their stuff consistently.

Scott Harris told reporters on Sunday that Troy Melton is on track to return before Jackson Jobe, and that they’re hopeful they’ll have Jobe back in August. The Tigers also have some young prospects at the Double-A level like Moises Rodriguez and Marco Jimenez who could break out, as well as an older, talented former prospect in Tanner Kohlhepp who has good stuff but hasn’t been able to stay healthy and refine his command. There are others in the same boat. So the Tigers have some hope for help before Brieske, or Melton, or Jobe, is ready to contribute again, but they really need a solid presence in the 8th spot in the pen for the near future.

Perhaps Connor Seabold can give them that much.