TODAY: The Tigers have officially announced the selection of Hurter’s contract. Left-hander Sean Guenther was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Hurter on the active roster.
AUGUST 3: The Tigers are planning to select left-hander Brant Hurter to pitch in tomorrow’s game against the Royals, AJ Hinch told reporters (including The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen) earlier this afternoon. Hurter is not yet on the 40-man roster, but the Tigers still have a space open after shipping Mark Canha, Jack Flaherty, and Andrew Chafin out on the day of the trade deadline so a corresponding move will only be necessary to add the southpaw to the club’s active roster.
Hurter, 26 in September, was a seventh-round pick by the Tigers in the 2021 draft out of Georgia Tech. Hurter reached the Double-A level in his first professional season back in 2022 and went on to dominate the level in 2023, with a 3.28 ERA in 118 innings of work across 26 starts. He struck out an impressive 26.7% of batters faced while walking just 6.6%, but the lefty has not been able to carry that success in Double-A over to his first taste of Triple-A action this year. In 19 appearances (18 starts) at the highest level of the minors in 2024, Hurter has been lit up to the tune of a 5.80 ERA in 71 1/3 innings of work. His strikeout rate has dropped to 21.7% while his walk rate has crept up slightly to 7.1%. Perhaps more notably, Hurter has struggled to keep the ball in the park as often as he did last year, allowing more home runs already this year than he did last year despite a nearly 50-inning gap in terms of volume.
As he prepares for his MLB debut tomorrow, Stavenhagen notes that Hinch made clear that he will not be starting the game and will instead act as a bulk arm following an opener. While Hurter has generally been used as a typical starter in the minors to this point in his career, he did have some success as a bulk pitcher earlier this year, when he threw six scoreless innings at Triple-A against the Reds’ Louisville affiliate after coming in as a reliever in the third inning.
With a rotation mix that currently features only four pitchers (Tarik Skubal, Kenta Maeda, Bryan Sammons, and Keider Montero), it would hardly be a surprise if a strong showing from Hurter tomorrow earned him a more extended look in the majors as the club tries to piece together a rotation, whether that be in a proper starting role going forward or simply as a bulk arm. The club’s rotation depth took a massive hit in recent weeks between the deal that shipped Flaherty to L.A. and recent injuries to Reese Olson, Casey Mize, and Matt Manning. There was some suggestion prior to the All-Star break that right-hander Beau Brieske could be considered for a rotation role in the second half, though that has not yet come to pass as he’s remained in a multi-inning relief role out of the bullpen.
Keider not Kreider.
Maybe he’ll have a good MLB run, after a bad AAA run. like Gipson-Long last year. Excited to see what he has.
At 6’6″ and 250 lbs. Brant Hurter is one big boy!
The new “Big Hurt”
Now, THAT I like ….
At minimum, he should be a high-leverage lefty out of the bullpen who we can trade to the Padres in 3 years for their entire draft class.
If he can keep his ERA over 4.0 the O’s will surely want him.
Hopefully Brant stays healthy unlike Dodgers pitcher Kyle Hurt.
Never before have I seen a team near .500 at the break take such a dive as this one. With injuries, trades, and straight up AWFUL pitching (Maeda)! The dog days of summer is going to get ugly in Detroit this year. Atleast we got the Lions to look forward to.
Even the trade deadline is disappointing.
As always
Brant Hurter? I’m afraid he did.
Trevor Bauer’s a fan
Best comment.
Cuz he likes to hurt people. That would be myb guess
Might as well pull names out of a hat to start at this point, august is going to be brutal
Next year, we always have next year in Detroit. S.G.L, AND JOBE, will be talked about a lot, and we hope the perennial injured get healthy. It’s the hitting that needs to improve. Yes they have the big sticks on the sidelines, but they need to all get better. Next year they’ll get em.
They will likely sign someone needing some fixing like Lorenzon and Flaherty to add to the rotation as well. Maybe they can fix Maeda….
Marx’s is a 37 year old $24M project.
Well the coming out of the pen seems to be helping him, and like with Javy they’ll keep trying to fix it for him to be playable.
Sean Guenther faced 7 batters, allowed 1 hit and hit 2 batters.
Ouch!
Hurter and Manning have been a matched set for awhile and while Manning has better stuff, Hurter has MLB tools and was chosen to come up first. Since the Flaherty debut for the Dodgers, it’s important I guess for a young Tiger hurler to excel. Speaking of that trade, Sweeny had a good first game with the Hens and the other guy in GR had a bunch of walks in a double-header….always a good sign of patience in a young hitter.
Oops…should read MADDEN, not Manning. I’ve been very surprised Madden has struggled in Toledo…not that much difference between AA and AAA hitters…pitchers yes, but not hitters. Like Torkelson, Manning doesn’t care for Tigers coaching and will probably be dealt over the winter….Hinch will not tolerate different viewpoints…..sure sign of a guy who knows he’s a fraud.
Tigers like to take on reclamation projects in free agency… Michael Soroka is available next year. Shane Bieber? Lucas Giolito?
Shane Bieber will likely come very expensive.
That was a nice debut for Hurter: 3.0 IP, 2 H 0 R 0 BB 3 SO against the feisty Royals. He had good stretches for Toledo as well, but hot hammered if not.
Gruß,
BSHH
But AJ lost us the game today with his strategy of making it illegal for any of his “late inning” BP arms pitch more than one inning. Vest should have started the 9th, but NO…..
How many those games lost because an RBI gets slapped past the infielders at SS or 2nd because he has shifted them too far up the middle……check it out. ?
Huge openings in the infield. People that actually know how to play baseball will score a run every time.
Congratulations Brant!
Hurter is almost a side-winder, very deceptive, hides the ball well…surely can replace Chafin in the pen or start with an effective 3rd. pitch. I was impressed with his calmness during his debut in The Show.. BIG FELLA….. handy should a brawl break out.
Pretty nice debut for Hurter. Kept calm, threw strikes, got outs, held good team quiet.
R Campos used to be what? our #7 prospect.
that’s the way that works….