Brendan White’s status as a phantom ballplayer appears to be coming to an end.

The Detroit Tigers brought White up from Toledo to serve as the 27th man during their May 3rd doubleheader against the Mets. But White didn’t pitch in either game, and he’s been with the Mud Hens ever since.

Now he’s back in Detroit for real, having been summoned to bolster the Tigers bullpen in place of Garrett Hill.

The Tigers have announced the following roster moves:

*Following last night's game, optioned RHP Garrett Hill to Triple A Toledo
*Recalled RHP Brendan White from Triple A Toledo

— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) June 13, 2023

Today’s doubleheader means there’s a strong chance fans get to see White make his official MLB debut. He’ll be the fifth member of Detroit’s 2019 draft class to play in the bigs, joining Riley Greene, Ryan Kreidler, Kerry Carpenter, and Beau Brieske. So let’s take a look at what to expect from our 15th-ranked Detroit Tigers prospect.

Brendan White’s Background

Brendan White has a pretty cool story ($). He grew up in the picturesque lakeside community of Mahopec, New York, and then went to play baseball and study pre-med at Siena College near Albany (definitely not near Utica). White was an anchor of Siena’s rotation for three years, compiling a 3.93 ERA over 44 starts and nearly 250 innings.

But the MAAC isn’t a particularly strong baseball conference, and White was an undersized pitcher, so he lasted until the 26th round of the 2019 draft. He made 14 appearances in rookie ball after the draft, but then had to travel to Georgia to train during the COVID-shuttered 2020 season. White began the 2021 season as a reliever for High-A West Michigan, but then transitioned back into a starting role.

Though White was solid in the Whitecaps’ rotation, he was moved back to the bullpen with Double-A Erie in 2022. And that’s when he really started to excel. White posted a 2.67 ERA over 48 games and 67.1 innings with Erie, and he closed out the first playoff series win in SeaWolves history.

The Tigers added White to their 40-man roster last November, and he has been pitching to mixed results for the Toledo Mud Hens this year. He’s producing a career-high 29.3% strikeout rate, but his ERA stands at 4.78. Batters are hitting .333 against White, though part of that could just be horrendous luck, as his .466 BABIP is the highest in all of minor-league baseball.

Brendan White threw two perfect innings of relief last night for Toledo. Here they are. pic.twitter.com/mTnszcYWpG

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) April 23, 2023

Brendan White’s Stuff

Stories are great, but stuff gets you to the big leagues. And Brendan White has consistently improved his stuff for the last five years. With an uptempo delivery and a low-3/4 arm slot, White delivers five different pitches, though more than 80% of them are fastballs or sliders. His heater sits around 95 mph with above-average bore into the hands of right-handed hitters, and he can run it as high as 98.

White’s high-spin slider is his signature pitch, with above-average two-plane break and an average spin rate of more than 2,800 RPMs. His 87-mph cutter is a distant third offering for him in terms of usage, but early returns on the pitch are promising. Thanks to the tireless data collection of Jerry McKennan we can get a better look at how White’s pitches move and perform:

For all its movement and spin, White’s slider isn’t really a putaway pitch for him. But he does get a lot of called strikes because hitters tend to give up on it. White gets a good number of whiffs with his fastball, though, and the average exit velocity on both his four-seamer and his slider is about 88 mph. He throws plenty of strikes, and he peppers in enough of his cutter, sinker, and change to keep hitters off balance.

Based purely on movement, spin, and velocity, Brendan White’s stuff looks very similar to that of Padres reliever Steven Wilson. Wilson isn’t exactly a household name, but for the past two seasons he has been a very effective and reliable middle reliever. But of course, there’s a lot more to pitching than just raw data…

What’s Up with Brendan White’s Numbers?

That’s a good question, subheading. White’s stuff looks good and his strikeout rate is higher than ever. But, as we mentioned above, he currently sports a 4.78 ERA and a ghastly 1.72 WHIP. He has allowed 45 hits in 32.1 innings this year, which is already one more knock than he gave up in all of 2022.

Certainly some bad luck is involved, as his .466 BABIP suggests. And that’s probably exacerbated by the Mud Hens playing some questionable defenders on the infield.

But, as you might have suspected, the big culprit here seems to be location. When White locates his fastball inside to righties and his slider below the strike zone, hitters don’t do much of anything against him. He also gets a good number of whiffs when he elevates his fastball. But so far this year there have just been a few too many pitches in the heart of the zone.

The Verdict

Brendan White has the stuff to get big league hitters out on a consistent basis. But, like most young pitchers, he’s probably going to take some lumps while he refines his command and learns to make adjustments.

Chris Fetter and Juan Nieves (and now Robin Lund) have a pretty strong track record of maximizing their bullpen arms. We expect Brendan White to bounce back and forth between Detroit and Toledo this year, before ultimately settling in as a solid middle reliever over the next few seasons.

Here’s Brendan White’s full inning of work from this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/DT8Ru9DZsp

— Chris Brown (@ChrisBrown0914) March 11, 2023

The post Detroit Tigers: What to Expect from Brendan White appeared first on Tigers Minor League Report.

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!”

The post Get to know Brendan White appeared first on Tigers Minor League Report.