A year ago, former All-Star reliever Kyle Finnegan was non-tendered by the Nationals. This year, his stay in the free agency pool didn’t last long. The Tigers have reportedly re-signed Finnegan to a multi-year deal, keeping the right-hander around in Detroit.
A Look at Finnegan
Kyle Finnegan‘s last act in Washington wasn’t a bad one by any means. Even though he posted an ERA north of 4.00 with the Nationals in 2025, he only allowed three runs over 39 innings. Granted, he walked 14 in that span. Nonetheless, he averaged almost a strikeout per inning and notched 14 saves for the Nationals.
Finnegan stayed the Nationals’ closer in 2025, even though ex-baseball ops head Mike Rizzo and the Nationals non-tendered him in the fall of 2024. He wound up re-signing with Washington late in the offseason and netted the Nats two pitchers, R.J. Sales and Jake Randall, when the team traded him to Detroit in July.
When Finnegan got to Detroit, things changed considerably for him. Finnegan went on a run in August, as he struck out 19 over 14.1 IP without allowing an earned run. He also picked up four saves and remained the Tigers’ primary stopper, ahead of Will Vest.
Finnegan only made four appearances in September due to injury. He was healthy for the postseason and posted a 3.68 ERA with the Tigers in October.
Aside from the new confines, things really did change for Finnegan, as far as his pitch mix was concerned. Before Detroit, he was primarily a fastball-heavy pitcher with two secondary offerings: a splitter and slider. His fastball is a hard one, a pitch that can top out at the upper-90s with carrying action.
What also helps is the fact that Finnegan can elicit swings-and-misses and get hitters out in front with the splitter. His pitch usage flipped with the Tigers, as he used the splitter over 50% of the time in August, nearly double what it was at in Washington. He used it even more, from a percentage standpoint, in September.
Finnegan also has a slider, although he didn’t use it as a Tiger.
Getting back to the splitter, it’s a dangerous weapon that can dip right down on hitters expecting a fastball. It’s also a key pitch against lefties, an interesting note given that opposing left-handed batters slashed .204/.284/.301 against Finnegan. Those numbers were better than right-handed batters (.238/.282/.396).
Per reports, the Tigers will re-sign Kyle Finnegan to a two-year deal.
Analysis
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch loves to use his bullpen in a variety of different ways, mixing and matching whenever possible. Thus, one could envision Finnegan working either in the ninth inning or earlier in the game.
Hinch did use Finnegan often outside of the ninth inning in August & September last season. He entered games four times in the seventh inning last year as a Tiger. Not to mention, he logged four or more outs in four outings back in August. However, he may very well be the likeliest to get the most saves out of that Tigers’ bullpen last season.
Finnegan fit in very well last year, giving the team a big arm to complement Will Vest, who worked a lot as a closer for the Tigers last season, Brenan Hanifee, Beau Brieske, Brant Hurter, and Tyler Holton.
Check out more of our MLB coverage.