Welcome to “Five Things We Liked From Last Week”, a weekly list of… five things we liked from last week:
1. Wenceel Pérez
Eight years, 10 months and 29 days ago, the Detroit Tigers signed a wiry 16 year old infielder out of the Dominican Republic named Wenceel Pérez.
At the time, Baseball America had him ranked #23 in his international free agent class. The Tigers GM back then was Al Avila, and here’s what Al had to say about the youngster after his signing:
“He’s fast – a quick-twitch athlete, with a plus arm and defensive skills. He’s a good athlete, and a plus runner. He’s got the tools to be a plus hitter, and a gap-power guy. He projects to be a top-of-the-order bat.”
Wenceel began his professional career in the Dominican Summer League in 2017, and showcased the tools that Avila raved about, slashing .314/.387/.358 in 258 plate appearances. He continued his strong start to his career in 2018, starting in rookie ball and working his way up to Low A, and hitting a combined .312/.363/.429 in 251 PAs.
In 2019 Pérez began to face some adversity for the first time in his baseball career. His production took a step back during a full year in Low A, and in 2020, the minor league season was cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Tigers started Wenceel back in Low A to begin the 2021 season, where after a hot start to the year, he was promoted to High A after 107 trips to the plate. In his first taste of High A, Pérez posted a .245/.313/.348 line in 369 PAs, and some questions about just how much damage was in the bat started to creep in.
Wenceel responded with a monster 2022 season, hitting .295/.369/.534 and launching 14 home runs in 407 plate appearances between High and Double A despite battling some injuries. After quieting some concerns about his power during the ’22 campaign, Pérez had another solid season in 2023 between AA and AAA but ended the year on the injured list.
In 2024 things got weird, but in a good way. After years of playing on the dirt, the Tigers decided to make Wenceel a full time outfielder for the first time in his career, after he saw some action in the grass late in 2023 in order to increase his versatility. Pérez started the ’24 season back at Triple A Toledo, and things weren’t going great. But the Tigers needed reinforcements in early April, and called on Pérez to fill in for the big league squad, allowing Wenceel to make his professional debut. And he again responded in a big way.
Pérez became a regular for Detroit, and his .242/.300/.383 slash resulted in a 95 wRC+. He again battled some injuries, but he also gained enough confidence from manager A.J. Hinch that he was often batting 5th in the order in the postseason.
Coming into the 2025 season, the arrow was pointing up for Wenceel. And after spring training injuries to Matt Vierling and Parker Meadows, it appeared that Pérez would get a chance to be the Tigers starting center fielder to begin the 2025 season. But back issues crept up again, and Wenceel was forced to begin the year on the injured list; a tough break for the now 25 year old.
Pérez worked his way back during the months of April and May, and finally returned to the Tigers on Tuesday, after Vierling was put back on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. And in his first at bat, he hit a line drive home run over the right field wall, sparking the Tigers to a 3-1 victory over San Francisco.
It’s been a long road for Wenceel, but he continues to provide solid depth for the Tigers, and show why A.J. Hinch and company have a lot of respect for his abilities in the field and at the plate.
2. Chase Lee
Speaking of long roads, Chase Lee is familiar.
Lee was part of the Tigers return in the Andrew Chafin trade last July, but his road to Detroit started long before that.
Cody Stavenhagen wrote a great feature for The Athletic detailing Lee’s winding journey to professional baseball. Coming out of high school, Chase got just one offer, from a D3 school, as a shortstop. Instead of taking that offer, Lee went to the University of Alabama on an academic scholarship, but didn’t give up on his dream of playing collegiate baseball.
Chase tried out for Alabama his freshman year, but with the team needing pitching, he hopped over from the infield to the bullpen. But he was apparently sitting in the low 80s and throwing over the top, like everyone else. He didn’t make the team, but the coaching staff suggested Lee try throwing sidearm.
After studying big league sidearmers like Darren O’Day on YouTube, Chase put in the work during the winter, and eventually made the Alabama club roster the following spring. He dominated, and that next fall, after boosting his velo to the upper 80s, Lee cracked the roster for the Crimson Tide.
The rest was history, as Chase laid waste to the SEC for the next 3 years, eventually settling in as Alabama’s closer. He showed enough for the Texas Rangers to draft him in the 6th round of the 2021 MLB Draft, and Lee’s dreams of becoming a big leaguer were kept alive.
Chase continued to pitch well in the minor leagues in 2022, 2023 and 2024, enough that the Tigers targeted him in the Chafin deal. Upon his arrival from Texas, Lee reported to Triple A Toledo and put up a 3.27 ERA in 22 innings.
The sidearmer was back in Triple A to start the 2025 season, but with the Tigers needing a fresh arm, he got the call to the bigs on April 22nd. He tossed 1.2 scoreless innings in his professional debut, and didn’t allow his first run until May 8th.
Lee has been up and down between Toledo and Detroit since then, but in his time in Detroit, he’s been nothing short of awesome. In just over 14 innings, Lee has a sparkling 1.26 ERA, with a 25.9% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate, 41.2% groundball rate and 0.00 HR/9 backing up his low ERA.
Chase gives the Tigers a unique look out of the ‘pen, and is slowly but surely gaining the trust of A.J. Hinch, Chris Fetter and Scott Harris. On Tuesday night, Lee was the setup man for the Tigers, tossing the 7th and 8th innings of a two run game and holding the San Francisco Giants scoreless, bridging the gap to sometimes closer Will Vest.
Lee currently has the best ERA of any Tigers reliever, and like those weird shirts from the ‘90s, has No Fear. Who would have thunk it after that fall tryout in Alabama.
3. Alex Cobb
At the start of spring training 2025, it felt like the Tigers had more pitching depth than they knew what to do with.
Tarik Skubal. Jack Flaherty. Reese Olson. Casey Mize. Jackson Jobe. Alex Cobb. Keider Montero. Kenta Maeda. Brant Hurter. Ty Madden. Matt Manning. Sawyer Gipson-Long.
That’s 12 dudes for those that lost track, and with teams generally utilizing just 5 starters at a time, it appeared that Detroit had two full rotations plus of starting pitchers to work with.
But we know that teams can never have enough pitching, and that has proven true for the Tigers. Cobb and Madden got hurt, Maeda got released, Hurter and Manning moved to the bullpen, and Gipson-Long has understandably needed some time to ramp up after coming off surgery in the 2024 season.
That left Keider Montero as the sole “depth piece” left of the original 12, with Skubal, Flaherty, Olson, Mize and Jobe comprising the starting rotation. And even that has been put to the test, with Olson currently on the injured list, and Mize having just returned from his own stint on the IL.
However, it appears that things may change soon, as Sawyer Gipson-Long is getting closer to a return, and word on the street is that Alex Cobb is nearing a rehab assignment as well.
It’s easy to forget how good Cobb was as recently as 2023, and how important of a piece of the rotation he was meant to be.
In 2023, Alex posted a 3.51 xFIP in just over 150 innings, which ranked 13th in all of baseball among starters who threw at least 100 innings (just ahead of names like Zack Wheeler, Shohei Ohtani, Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell, George Kirby and Aaron Nola). He backed that up with a 57.6% groundball rate, which ranked second among that group of starters, as well as a 5.7% walk rate that ranked 17th within that group of starters.
Despite coming off an injury-filled 2024 season, Cobb was expected to step in as the Tigers 3rd or 4th starter for the ’25 campaign. But a hip injury from 2024 lingered into spring training, and the righty was forced to go on the injured list for the first two months of the season.
With a rehab assignment on the horizon, the hope is that Alex has put the hip issue mostly behind him. If so, he should give the Tigers another viable option in the starting rotation, and the truth is that they’ll probably need him, based on the attrition rate of Major League starting pitchers.
Scott Harris and A.J. Hinch clearly value what Cobb brings to the table, otherwise they wouldn’t have offered him a one year, $15 million deal this offseason. And even though there’s been some frustration online from Tigers fans regarding Cobb’s availability, that frustration may soon turn to appreciation if the veteran starter is able to get on track, and give the Tigers the meaningful innings they were hoping for.
4. West Michigan Whitecaps Top of the Order
Imagine being a starting pitcher in High A.
Chances are, it’s your first or second year in professional baseball. Your body is still likely maturing, you’re still learning your pitch mix and what works, and you’re still getting used to the rigors of a six month season.
Now imagine you’re facing the Tigers High A affiliate, the West Michigan Whitecaps. You check out the lineup card, and the first three names you see are Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle, and Josue Briceño. Three of the Tigers top five or so prospects, and arguably three of the better hitters in the entire Midwest League.
That was the privilege that Dayton Dragons starting pitcher Nestor Lorant earned this past Tuesday.
Max Clark has become a prototypical leadoff man this season, with an on base percentage well north of .400, and a unique ability to cover the entire strike zone. Kevin McGonigle is simply one of the best pure hitters in the entire minor leagues. And Josue Briceño offers a unique blend of hitting ability, plate discipline and impressive raw power that he is now getting to in games.
When Nestor Lorant toed the rubber for the start of the game Tuesday night, that’s what he was up against. And he was met with a Max Clark walk, Kevin McGonigle double, and Josue Briceño bomb over the right field fence.
There’s a world where Clark, McGonigle and Briceño are hitting one-two-three for the big league Detroit Tigers in the not-too-distant future. You can’t help but feel bad for the opposing High A starting pitchers that have to run that gauntlet.
5. Tyler Mattison
Relief pitching has never been more important in baseball than it is today.
Starters are covering less innings, and teams are turning to their bullpens earlier and earlier in games. And when they do, the relievers that come in are also nastier than ever.
The Detroit Tigers saw this first hand last week. In a tough matchup with the Cleveland Guardians, the Tigers were down 3-0 in the bottom of the 8th. Detroit was able to load the bases with no outs, and the tide was starting to turn. But then Cleveland turned to shutdown reliever Cade Smith, who proceeded to strike out the next three hitters, and stop the Tigers in their tracks.
It was a perfect example of not only how important relief pitching is, but how important relief pitching is with swing and miss.
That leads us to Tyler Mattison.
Mattison was the Tigers 4th round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Bryant University. Tyler was a starter at Bryant, and a fairly successful one at that, but Detroit decided immediately that his best role would be out of the bullpen.
After seeing no action in his draft year, Mattison started the 2022 season in Low A Lakeland. He ultimately tossed just under 33 innings after battling some injuries, with a middling 5.23 ERA but impressive peripherals: 33.3% strikeout rate, .208 BAA, 0.55 HR/9 and a 3.52 xFIP.
In 2023, Tyler was promoted to High A, where he posted a massive 43.3% strikeout rate and tiny 2.06 xFIP in 26.1 innings despite again battling some injuries. He was ultimately promoted to Double A Erie 13 days after returning from the injured list in June, and was again lights out: in just over 33 innings with Erie, he struck out 33.8% of hitters leading to a 1.62 ERA / 3.56 xFIP.
Outstanding performance aside, that marked the second straight year Tyler hit the injured list, which was an unfortunate precursor to his 2024 season, where he missed the entire season due to UCL reconstruction. It was a tough blow for Mattison and the Tigers, as he looked poised to help the big league bullpen as soon as late 2024.
This past offseason, Detroit thought enough of his talents to add him to the 40 man roster despite coming off an injury. And after a full year of rehab, Tyler finally returned to action on Wednesday with the High A West Michigan Whitecaps.
Mattison expectedly dealt with some rust in his first game back, but was able to pitch a scoreless inning in his first time on the mound in over a year.
It’s easy to see why the Tigers added Tyler to the 40 man roster in the offseason. His strikeout rate has never been less than 32.9% in full season ball, his batting average allowed has never been higher than .213, and his xFIP has never been higher than 3.56. He has electric stuff, and while a big league debut this season may be a tough ask, with good health, the big righty has a shot at breaking camp with the Tigers as soon as Opening Day 2026. If that happens, he’ll give the Tigers a swing and miss option that they’ve been lacking the past few years.
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Chris Brown 
Ashley Couturier