Welcome to “Five Things We Liked From Last Week”, a weekly list of… five things we liked from last week:
1. Reese Olson
Well that was impressive.
Coming into the 2025 season, the Tigers’ rotation was expected to be a major strength of the team; and thus far, those expectations have met reality.
Entering Wednesday, 4 of the 5 Detroit Tigers’ starters had ERAs at or below 2.83, with the exception of Reese Olson. Then on Wednesday, Olson put on what can only be described as a clinic.
Dr. Reese dissected the San Diego Padres’ vaunted lineup two days ago, and the following numbers don’t do his outing justice: 7.1 innings pitched, 7 strikeouts, and no runs allowed on just 2 hits and one walk.
It felt like the Padres had absolutely no shot against Olson, who was mixing fastballs, sinkers, changeups and sliders and making the Padres look like a high school team in the process. The Baby-Faced Assassin needed just 85 pitches to get his 22 outs, and was ahead in the count all game. It’s hard to remember an outing where so many Major League hitters took so many ugly swings.
Olson’s start lowed his ERA to 3.29 for the season, and if the Tigers’ starters can keep this up, look out AL Central.
2. Detroit Tigers’ pitching staff
Speaking of the Tigers’ starters, through 25 games, they’ve just been awesome.
In 137 innings, Detroit’s rotation ranks 2nd in Major League Baseball with a tiny 3.09 ERA. Their batting average allowed ranks 6th, their barrel rate ranks 3rd and their hard hit rate ranks 8th; while their strikeout rate, groundball rate and home run rate all rank in the top half of the league as well.
And luckily for the Tigers, it’s not just their starters who’ve been awesome.
While Detroit’s bullpen so far hasn’t struck out a ton of batters, and ranks in the middle of the pack in home run rate, they’ve been great at almost everything else: ranking 5th in all of baseball in bullpen ERA, 3rd in batting average allowed, 3rd in walk rate, 2nd in groundball rate and 1st in barrel rate.
Add it all together, and here’s where the Tigers’ pitching staff ranks as a whole:
ERA: 3
FIP: 11
BAA: 5
K%: 14
BB%: 9
GB%: 6
HR/9: 11
Barrel%: 2
Hard Hit%: 15
In other words, awesome.
3. Ricardo Hurtado
MLB Pipeline comes out with a farm system ranking every spring, which provides a solid snapshot on how some respected evaluators regard all 30 minor league systems.
Since 2023, the Detroit Tigers have risen from 25th in those rankings (2023), to 5th in 2024, all the way to 1st place in 2025.
Other outlets do similar rankings, and while not all have the Tigers ranked first, the consensus is that Detroit has a top 5 farm system in the game; based primarily on the strength of their young hitters.
So far in 2025, many of the top prospects in the Tigers’ organization are off to hot starts. But who leads all Tigers’ minor leaguers in OPS to start the season? What if I told you it was 21 year old catcher Ricardo Hurtado?
Hurtado signed with the Tigers way back in 2019 in international free agency, and has slowly but surely risen up the minor league ladder since then, on the strength of an excellent eye at the plate (career OBP of .408) and solid defense. This season with Low A Lakeland, he’s taken his offensive game to the next level, with a massive .368/.419/.605 slash. He’s already hit two home runs in 40 plate appearances this year (after hitting 3 in 186 PAs last season), and while he won’t sustain a .500 average on balls in play, he has hit safely in 10 of 11 games this season, with 4 multi-hit games.
Players like Hurtado don’t often get enough love, and while the jury is still out on whether he will become a contributor at the big league level, Big Hurt has had a solid start to his professional career so far. If he can keep his hot start to the season alive, a promotion to West Michigan should be in short order.
4. Josh Randall
The 3rd round of the MLB draft has been a bit of a mixed bag for the Detroit Tigers, to say the least.
From 2001-2020, the Tigers had 19 3rd round picks (they forfeited their 3rd round pick in 2016 due to signing the J’s, Justin Upton and Jordan Zimmermann). On one hand, the fact that 12 of the 19 (63%) made the major leagues is good; per a 2019 Baseball America article, around 40% of 3rd round picks reach the bigs. On that same hand, those 12 Detroit 3rd rounders have accumulated 48.3 fWAR to date, which also feels pretty good. On the other hand, however, 2002 3rd rounder Curtis Granderson accounted for a whopping 47 of the 48.3 fWAR so far.
Just four Tigers 3rd rounders from 2001-2020 have (or had) a positive fWAR in their major league careers: Jack Hannahan (4.5), Jeff Frazier (0.1), Drew Smith (0.6) and the aforementioned Curtis Granderson (47). Which brings us to 2024 3rd rounder Josh Randall.
Randall was selected with the 85th overall pick of the 2024 MLB draft out of the University of San Diego. He is currently rated #31 on TMLR’s top prospect list, and here’s what our own Ashley Couturier had to say about the big righty:
Randall has the build of a workhorse, back-of-the-rotation starter and the makings of a viable three-pitch mix. He has very few innings on his arm and could theoretically improve rapidly with pro instruction. If his pitches fail to develop he could work as a solid reliever.
As is the case with most Tigers pitchers, Randall saw minimal action in his draft year (just two starts of two innings each). So far this season, he has made three starts; and while the first two were fairly average, his most recent start was definitely something to write home about, or at least write a “Five Things” about.
This past Saturday, Randall fired 5 innings of one run ball with 5 strikeouts and just 2 hits allowed (with no walks) against the Dunedin Blue Jays. Even more impressive than the numbers was the arsenal.
Randall averaged 95 MPH on his bowling ball sinker, maxing out at 97.7 with a lot of horizontal movement (averaging approximately 15 inches of run). He also showed good feel for spin, unleashing a slider reaching 2,913 RPM (with an average of 2,771) and a cutter reaching 2,797 RPM (with an average of 2,539).
Randall’s pitch mix is reminiscent of former Tigers’ 2nd rounder Spencer Turnbull, who although currently unsigned, has carved out a solid Major League career. In fact, looking at Turnbull’s ’23 and ’24 season averages, Randall’s Saturday start featured a sinker with higher average velocity and more run than Turnbull’s on average, and a slider with more spin than Turnbull’s on average.
Randall is just getting his professional career started, like the next Lakeland pitcher in this article, but Saturday’s start was one to build off of.
5. Hayden Minton
Do you remember when your heart was broken for the first time?
For me, it was June 2, 2010. I was in my brother’s basement, watching the Tigers play the Cleveland Indi Guardians. That day, Cleveland had gone to the plate 26 times, and 26 times, they failed to reach base. One Armando Gallaraga was on the mound for Detroit, and on pitch 83, Jason Donald hit a grounder to first. Gallaraga covered the bag and beat Donald to first, Miguel Cabrera threw him the ball, and the perfect game was complete; until well-respected umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe.
As Joyce’s hands split to call safe, my heart split into two.
Later, we learned how terrible Joyce felt about the call; but eventually, all parties appeared to have moved on, except myself, clearly.
Gallaraga leaned on a sinker-slider combo that wasn’t overpowering, but was certainly effective. Effective enough to pitch a perfect game in the big leagues, and effective enough to appear in exactly 100 Major League games.
Armando’s best season came in 2008, when he threw just shy of 179 innings, and ended the year with a 3.73 ERA. This despite a fastball that averaged just under 89 MPH.
Gallaraga came to mind recently while watching Hayden Minton pitch for the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Like Gallaraga, Minton is not overpowering; relying on a low 90s sinker and four-seamer, potent slider and serviceable changeup and curveball.
Minton was the Tigers’ 9th round pick in the 2023 draft, and on the heels of a solid but unspectacular 2024 season in Lakeland, he has been dominant in 3 starts with the Flying Tigers to begin the ‘25 season: 13 innings pitched, a massive 37% strikeout rate, a tiny 2.2% walk rate, and no home runs allowed. In fact, he’s allowed just one run total.
Like Gallaraga, Minton has not been highly rated as a prospect. But also like Gallaraga, there appears to be some pitchability to Minton’s game. The saying “there are many ways to skin a cat” comes to mind, and when it does, you not only think about where that phrase came from, but also about how not all pitchers need to have dominant stuff to make a living in the big leagues.
Minton is only in Low A, so he has a long way to go. But the man knows how to pitch, and with some further development, he could eventually help the Tigers; just like Armando Gallaraga.
Emily Waldon 
Rogelio Castillo