Closer Kyle Finnegan ended up being one of the star acquisitions of the 2025 trade deadline. The right-hander was one of the most dominant relievers in the game after coming over to the Tigers from the Nationals. Finnegan is now a free agent, but he’s open to returning to Detroit, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. “Getting traded over here was big for me. I unlocked a lot of things that will help me moving forward in my career, and that’s a testament to the people that this organization has,” Finnegan said.
Finnegan will officially become a free agent after the World Series wraps up tonight. As Petzold points out, he won’t be eligible to sign with a new team for five days, giving the Tigers an exclusive window to negotiate with him. Finnegan signed a one-year, $6MM deal with Washington last offseason.
Detroit landed Finnegan on July 31, sending righty pitching prospects Josh Randall and R.J. Sales back to Washington. He immediately took the lead in the Tigers’ closer committee, notching saves in his first three appearances. Finnegan didn’t allow a run in his first month with the club. His strikeout rate spiked from 19.6% in 39 innings with the Nationals to 34.8% in 18 innings with the Tigers.
The postseason began as more of the same for Finnegan. He tossed three scoreless innings in the Wild Card round, earning the win in the series clincher. The ALDS didn’t go as smoothly. Finnegan was charged with runs in three of his four appearances against Seattle, including the game-tying tally in the seventh inning of Game 5.
Washington took a flyer on Finnegan as a minor league free agent following the 2019 season. He received a major league deal and soon emerged as a crucial part of their late-inning relief corps. Finnegan piled up 108 saves over the past five seasons with the Nationals. He slammed the door a career-high 38 times in 2024, earning an All-Star nod. Washington surprisingly non-tendered Finnegan after that season, only to bring him back on a one-year pact in February of this year.
Finnegan hasn’t posted shutdown closer numbers, or at least he hadn’t before coming to Detroit. He’s typically been around a strikeout per inning with fine control numbers and a few too many home runs allowed. Even in his standout 2024 campaign, Finnegan ranked in the first percentile for average exit velocity and in the second percentile for hard-hit rate.
Detroit overhauled Finnegan’s pitch mix, having him favor the splitter over the fastball. He used the heater just 40.9% of the time with the Tigers. That number had never been lower than 67.6% for a full season. Finnegan’s swinging-strike rate jumped from a mediocre 9.2% with Washington to an elite 14.3% with Detroit this year.
The new approach might help Finnegan find more suitors in free agency than he did last offseason. He’ll have plenty of competition, though. Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, and Raisel Iglesias are the big names on the market. Edwin Díaz and Robert Suarez could join them if they opt out of their current contracts. Emilio Pagan, Luke Weaver, and Shawn Armstrong are coming off strong seasons. Kenley Jansen and Kirby Yates have lengthy track records as strong backend relievers.
If Finnegan doesn’t return, Detroit can replace him with several in-house options. Will Vest was effective in a closing role for much of the season, and tag-teamed the job with Finnegan following the trade. Tyler Holton, Brenan Hanifee, and Brant Hurter all had strong seasons in multi-faceted roles. Former closers Jason Foley and Alex Lange remain in the organization. Free agent Tommy Kahnle would be the only other notable bullpen loss if he isn’t re-signed.
Of course he’s open to returning…… for the right price.
Bring him back and go get Devin Williams too!
Devin Williams was infuriatingly awful this season, no thanks.
And he was phenomenal before that. I’m betting he does better somewhere other than NY, with the best pitching coach in the league to help him.
Not a great endorsement of the Nats.
Just came to say this, it’s a shame a player could spend that much time in an organization and have his skills stagnate or otherwise not reach his capacity. Kudos to the Tigers staff for quickly unlocking those untapped potentials in Finnegan.
He should be the most affordable of the closer options…and considering we have Vest, Foley, and Lange that would make it four closers for the pen next year. I’d also try and get Sewald back as well…that would be a fairly deep pen
Foley, Lange, and Sewald can’t be bet on to be good major leaguers. Maybe Foley can be a solid reliever again, but he doesn’t have the strikeout stuff to be a true backend guy. Lange is more likely to be dfa’d than pitch meaningful innings for the Tigers. And Sewald might retire. His stuff has fallen off a cliff.
Foley seems like the only “potentially” viable arm of the 3. I suspect Lange and Brieske will be dropped from the 40 man if and when the Tigers need space.
Sewald won’t be retained.
Brieske projects @1.3. makes sense to keep him and see what he has in ST. If he looks cuttable Tigers are out like 216k
Who knows what Foley and Lange will be like? Foley had shoulder surgery last spring, amd Lange was unimpressive coming off core muscle surgery in summer 2024.
Mentioning Kenley Jansen and Kirby Yates in the same sentence is confusing apples and oranges. Jansen has 24.4 career WAR and 476 career saves, fourth (soon to be third) all time. Yates has 8.5 career WAR and 98 career saves. Yates has two seasons with more than 12 saves. Jansen has 25 or more saves in all of the last 14 seasons except the pandemic year, in that season he had 11.. Last season Jansen had 5 Ws, 29 Saves and a WHIP under 1, for 2.4 WAR (second to Edwin Diaz among full time closers). Last season Yates was below replacement level. Yates is six months older than Jansen. Last off-season the Dodgers signed Yates to a one year, $13 million contract. The Angels signed former Dodger Jansen to a one year, $1o million contract. I guess its possible that teams will make the same mistake again this offseason, but other than Diaz and Robert Suarez it’s hard to predict that any of the free agent closers will have a better year than Jansen.
Would love to keep him!
A light seems to go on for Finnegan once he moved from the abysmal Nats to a Tigers team that seemed playoff bound at the deadline. I don’t watch enough of either team to know what changes he made, but it was day and night.
While I don’t think players openly dog it when they’re on losing teams, there’s something about playing in meaningful games with a contender that lights guys up. Some guys wilt under the bright lights. Finnegan is not one of them.
Sure. But really he started throwing his splitter at a way higher percentage, which is by far his best pitch. That was the difference in strikeouts and overall performance
Bring him back!
Then I hope he’s cool with a one-year contract with a team option for 2027 because that’s probably the most Detroit will offer.
And the sky is blue.. of course he will say that. Bet he would be fine going to the Nats if they pay up.
Something to remember in contract negotiations…..
Hire the Superfife!
He’ll remember!
Finnegan is at least as good as Tommy Kahnle was. And he was way better down the stretch. He should get somewhere in the Kahnle contract money….I think around $7 million. I’d be OK with that.
“You throw too many Fastballs down the middle of the plate, throw more Splitfinger pitches”. Best staff ever!!! Anyone remember what the last pitch was he threw in a Tiger uniform?
Hopefully, the tightwad Tigers give him the money he deserves.