On Saturday, the Detroit Tigers placed right-handed reliever, Will Vest, on the 15-day injured list with right forearm inflammation. The Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens top reliever in April, right-hander Ricky Vanasco, has been added to the 40-man roster and called up to Detroit. To open a spot, RHP Yoniel Curet has been designated for assignment.
Oh boy, this was not what the Tigers’ bullpen needed right now. Vest, the Tigers best reliever and one of the best in baseball in 2025, hasn’t pitched since last Sunday, and it was becoming clear that something was wrong. The Tigers were very quick to place RHP Troy Melton on the 60-day injured list this spring when he dealt with forearm inflammation, and that aggressive approach to giving Melton all the time needed to get right appears to have paid off as he avoided surgery and is now due to start rehab work this weekend. Hopefully, Vest will also avoid any longer term complications, but we’ll have to wait for further testing and until he can start ramping up again to really be sure.
The Tigers also announced on Saturday that Kenley Jansen is currently day-to-day with a groin/abdominal issue. RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long was scratched from his start in Toledo on Friday night, leading some to wonder if he would be called up in Casey Mize’s spot, but instead he too suffered an injury and is day-to-day as well. Gipson-Long missed most of spring camp with a left abdominal strain, but whether this is a setback with that or another injury is unknown.
The 27-year-old Vanasco has been outstanding in the early going. A journeyman reliever with an excellent power curveball, made a brief major league debut with both the Dodgers and Tigers in 2024, but has never been able to refine his command enough to become a dependable relief option. So far this spring, he’s figured it out in Toledo.
In 10 appearances totalling 15 innings of work, Vanasco has a spotless 0.00 ERA. He’s struck out 28 hitters and walked just four. That’s a 47.5 percent strikeout rate, with an opponent’s batting average of just .148 against him and a 0.80 WHIP.
Vanasco sits around 95 mph with plus extension on his fourseam fastball, but the movement on the pitch is pretty pedestrian. He does have to command it around the edges of the strike zone to avoid it getting hit hard. The fastball typically has 16 degrees of induced vertical break, a mediocre mark, and doesn’t run armside too much either. Vanasco’s extension and quick arm do help it play up a bit, however. It also helps that he mixes fourseamers and sinkers in equal amounts, and has located both really well so far this year. That’s made him less predictable, and the fourseamer is actually getting plenty of whiffs as a result of it not being a primary offering.
Vanasco uses fourseamers, sinkers, curveballs, and changeups in basically equal amounts. Against right-handers, the power curve is the big weapon, and it’s overall his best pitch. He throws it really hard, generally 83-84 mph, and it’s relatively low spin rate, generally around 2350 rpms, is reminiscent of former Alex Lange’s power slider that was really a curveball. The pitch has drawn a 41.4 percent whiff rate so far this season, and that’s pretty typical for it. We won’t be surprised if the Tigers’ pitching coaches have him use the curveball even more and thrown it maybe close to half the time against right-handed hitters.
Vanasco’s changeup is average, but he’s been in much better command of it the past two seasons and it’s been an effective pitch for him. It sits 85 mph with pretty good armside run but average depth. He has gotten a 38.6 percent whiff rate on it going back to the beginning of 2025, and as Vanasco will generally be facing as many right-handed hitters as possible, it’s not as though he needs that pitch to be more than a serviceable weapon.
As for Yoniel Curet, the 23-year-old right-hander has a good fastball-slider combination but hasn’t conquered the control issues that plagued him as a Tampa Bay Rays pitching prospect the last two years. He’s stalled out at the Triple-A level as a result. Curet used to throw his fourseamer from 95-99 mph, but hasn’t quite had that upper band as often. He’s an interesting, still young project who sits 95-96 mph with good movement and an above average slider, but he was unlikely to help the Tigers much this season. They claimed him back in mid-April, and while no one will lose sleep over it if he doesn’t get through waivers, no doubt the Tigers would like to keep him and have more time to try and develop his command. At very least he could become a pretty good relief option if he can just learn to spot his fourseamer more often.
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