Amid frustrating week, Tigers’ bullpen deserves a round of applause

Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Jose Cisnero fields the out hit by Chicago White Sox's Gavin Sheets during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)AP

PHILADELPHIA -- Amid all the gloominess of the last week of Detroit Tigers’ baseball -- injury after injury, an anemic offense, a five-game losing streak -- the bullpen has been one consistent bright spot.

And Tuesday was its night to shine.

On a pre-planned "bullpen day" against the Philadelphia Phillies, four Tigers relievers combined to allow just a single run in eight innings of work. After a leadoff home run by Kyle Schwarber, they were nearly perfect.

"In my view, we have one of the best bullpens in the league," said veteran right-hander Jose Cisnero in an interview in Spanish. "We have young guys with good arms and good breaking pitches who throw hard and do their job well. We all respect each other. With this group, we don't need anything more."

Cisnero, who entered in the fourth to toss a scoreless inning on Tuesday, is the veteran of the group, although he prefers not to be identified as such.

"I’m not a leader but just another teammate, a brother," Cisnero said. "If they laugh, I laugh, too. If we’re joking around, we all joke around. In the bullpen, there's no hierarchy. We’re brothers and do everything as a unit."

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has settled on six relievers who are most likely to pitch in higher-leverage spots, starting with closer Alex Lange and frequent set-up man Jason Foley. Then throw in Cisnero and fellow right-hander Will Vest, who pitched two scoreless innings on his 28th birthday Tuesday. Two lefties -- Chasen Shreve and Tyler Holton -- provide balance.

That six-man group has a 2.74 ERA in 148 innings of work this season, which has given Hinch a deeper bench of pitching options than anyone could have imagined back in spring training.

In some ways, the 34-year-old Cisnero, who has been in the Tigers’ organization since 2019, might be the most overlooked of the group.

When the Tigers bounced back from an awful start and started to turn their season around in 2021, Cisnero emerged as the Tigers’ most consistent reliever. But then he went down with an injury in spring training in 2022 and missed much of the year. In some ways, he's still trying to regain the dominance -- and the role -- he had two summers ago.

And yet since Cisnero returned from that stint on the injured list on July 21, 2022, he has a 1.91 ERA, one of the lowest marks of any reliever in baseball (minimum 45 innings pitched).

If that stat appears too incredible to believe, perhaps it's because Cisnero simply hasn't seemed as dominant as he did during his best moments of 2021.

But he's getting there.

"I think with Cis, where he puts his fastball is super important," Hinch said. "Above the zone, it's been effective.

"What I’m really happy about with Cis is he's accepted some really early calls, I have called him in the fourth and fifth inning and even gotten him up to close out games. He's a very routine-oriented guy. For me to break that routine and for him to respond with favorable stuff and execution has made our pen a lot deeper."

Cisnero said the high fastball has been an effective strikeout pitch. (Sometimes it sails too high, as when he crossed up catcher Eric Haase for a walk-off wild pitch last weekend in Chicago). The two-seamer can be used to induce grounders when a double play is in order. A slider, change or curve is mixed in when needed.

His fastball now regularly sits at 96 and 97 mph, roughly where it was in the summer of 2021 when he routinely threw 97 and 98 mph.

"The most important thing is staying healthy and working on my body," said Cisnero, who is also noticeably slimmer than he was in 2021. "Right now I feel normal, like 2021. The velocity is pretty much the same. My arm feels strong and healthy like I can throw every day."

Cisnero came to the Tigers as a baseball castoff of sorts, having plied his trade in Mexico, Venezuela, an American independent league, the Dominican winter league and a lesser-known Dominican summer league before finally getting back into organized baseball in 2019.

For the first time in his career, he's making decent money, although his $2.3 million salary is still relatively modest by the standards of the league's biggest earners.

When the Tigers opted to tender him a contract for 2023, his last year of team control, they were almost certainly looking ahead to the trade deadline.

If the Tigers can keep Cisnero on track for the next six weeks, he will be marketed as a trade chip to a contending team ahead of Aug. 1. Will the Tigers find any takers? That depends on whether teams focus on Cisnero's sterling ERA or other metrics that don't paint such a rosy picture.

For his part, Cisnero is very happy as a Tiger. But a life in baseball has taught him to be ready.

"When I go to the bullpen every day, I’m prepared from the first inning onward, because you never know when you’re going to go in," he said. "Baseball is like that. You always have to be prepared for any situation."

Reliever ERA since July 21, 2022 (min. 45 IP)

1. Jhoan Duran, 1.11 ERA (48 2/3 IP)

2. Evan Phillips, 1.24 (50 2/3)

3. Bryan Abreu, 1.29 (55 2/3)

4. Devin Williams, 1.38 (45 2/3)

5. Carlos Estevez, 1.38 (52)

6. Alexis Diaz, 1.51 (53 2/3)

7. Jaime Barria, 1.82 (69 1/3)

8. Matt Moore, 1.88 (57 1/3)

9. Jose Cisnero, 1.91 (47)

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.