Tuesday, November 15th was the last day teams had to protect rule 5 eligible players from the 2022 rule 5 draft. The Tigers added IF Wenceel Perez, OF Parker Meadows, RHP Reese Olson, IF Andre Lipcius, and RHP Brendan White to the 40-man roster. 

Most Tiger fans expected to see the likes of Perez, Meadows, Olson, and Lipcius get protected, so it was a bit of a shock to the fan base to see Brendan White on that list. Many fans didn’t even know who Brendan White was. He had never been on any prospect lists and hadn’t really been talked about at all in the Tigers prospect community. 

Who is Brendan White? What do the Tigers see in him?

Brendan White grew up in Mahopac, New York, a small town on the south-eastern side of the state about an hour and change away from New York City. It was there that he fell in love with baseball at a young age.

After a successful high school career, White spent 3 seasons at Siena College in Loudonville, NY. He posted a 4.01 ERA over 249.1 innings while starting in every game he appeared in. It wasn’t until his junior year that White realized he could get drafted.

The goal for Brendan was always to play professional baseball.

Something really clicked for Brendan in his third season of college ball. He cut his ERA by an entire point, dropping it from 4.08 to 3.00. He also saw a spike in his strikeouts, punching out 32 more batters than he did in his previous season with slightly fewer innings pitched.

The Tigers noticed White’s improvements and drafted him in the 26th round of the 2019 First-Year MLB Player Draft, 772nd overall. Wow, that’s crazy to think about. The draft doesn’t even have 26 rounds anymore.

His professional career was underway, pitching in the since-discontinued Gulf Coast League (rookie ball) for what was left of the 2019 season. The right-hander posted solid numbers, including a 3.77 ERA and 29 strikeouts over 31 innings. He made 4 starts but was mostly used out of the bullpen. This was a good start to his pro days but more was needed to put a 26th-round pick on the map in the eyes of a front office.

White kept at it.

The entirety of the 2020 MiLB season was canceled for obvious reasons. As a result of that, many minor league players did not have a season. It was no different for Brendan. 

Coronavirus hit the county where Brendan was living very hard, and strict governmental regulations came into effect. This made it impossible for the 24-year-old to get his training done, he could not stay in New York. 

Consequently, Brendan and his friend Kolton Ingram (LHP on the Angels’ 40-man roster) moved down south to a town near Woodstock, Georgia. There they were able to throw and work out to stay in baseball shape.

After the pandemic, the Tigers assigned White to A+ West Michigan, where he stayed for the whole 2021 season. He started 18 of 26 appearances and struck out 107 batters over 101.1 innings along with a 4.17 ERA. Again, a solid season, but not enough for the Tigers’ front office to really see him as a legitimate prospect. 

Similar to his third year of college ball, White’s third professional season was also a breakout season.

White spent the entire 2022 season in AA Erie, where he was moved to the bullpen full-time and would occasionally close games. Saying this season was a success, would be an understatement. He truly broke out by posting a 2.67 ERA and a 2.94 FIP. White joined Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee and Joey Castillo as the only pitchers in the Eastern League to have a sub-3 ERA and FIP (min. 60 IP.)

White was giving up less hard contact and missing more bats. He cut his 2021 home run to fly ball ratio (12.7%) almost in half to 7.0%. Perhaps the thing the Tigers are most excited about was his increase in strikeouts as he posted a career-high in K rate at 27%.

When you begin to dig into the analytics, it’s easy to see what the Tigers saw in him. White’s low release point allows him to get tremendous amounts of spin on his pitches, which would explain why he is most known for his slider.

White’s slider is his best pitch by far. It is said by scouts to be the second-best slider in the entire organization, just behind Jackson Jobe. The ridiculous spin rate he can generate makes the pitch so good. While there is no publicly available data on the spin rate for minor league pitchers, there are multiple videos posted on Brendan’s Twitter of the pitch reaching over 3,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). For reference, only 3 MLB pitchers averaged over 3,000 RPM on their sliders in the 2022 season. 

Slizzy 🙂 Spin – 3068rpm
Axis – 8:20
Efficiency – 44% @tomhousesports @TeamMSTRD @NPA_Pitching pic.twitter.com/BOY23WsV38

— Brendan White (@BWhite37_) March 7, 2021

“The spin that’s on it seems natural,” Brendan said. “All I know is squeeze the ball and let it rip.” 

White’s pitch arsenal also includes a low 90s, high-spin 4-seam fastball that plays well at the top of the zone with the potential to miss bats at the major league level. As well as a sinker that has a gross amount of arm-side run and also sits in the low 90s. And last but not least, a splitter that acts as a change up. All of these pitches tunnel together very well, which is why he is able to miss so many bats without having a power fastball.  

As for 2023, he will compete for a bullpen spot in spring training but will likely start the year with AAA Toledo. Tigers president of baseball operations, Scott Harris, said that White could impact Detroit ‘sooner than later’. 

‘“I’m excited about the future of this organization and the direction it’s headed,” White said. “I know the front office as well as us players are working tirelessly to bring back winning baseball to Detroit!”