Since being called up in 2022, Tyler Holton has done nothing but shut down opponents. He’s largely flown under the radar, I assume in part due to his stuff not being visually interesting, and likely due to playing for some struggling Tigers teams as well. That said, he’s established himself as one of the league’s best multi-inning relief options, boasting a 2.35 ERA in his 165 career innings. For added context, that places him third among active pitchers with at least as many innings as him. He’s behind Emmanuel Clase and Devin Williams, and ahead of Jhoan Duran in fourth.
All of those guys have a few things in common. They’re closers, and they have standout stuff that’s immediately identifiable to them. Holton can claim neither of those, yet he’s been just as effective albeit with worse peripherals. That’s not the point though, we should be wondering how he’s pulling this off. The secret to his success is as simple as it is brilliant. He’s two entirely different pitchers based on who he’s facing. When breaking down pitchers previously, I usually mention when a pitch is meant to be a platoon-specific offering, designed to beat either same or opposite-handed hitters and not to be thrown to the other. Holton takes this to an extreme by throwing pitches almost exclusively to this advantage.
As this is a unique case, we’ll be breaking him down a bit differently than normal. Instead of sorting his pitches by total usage, we’ll tackle them with the pitches he uses together grouped as such. I don’t want there to be any confusion regarding how he works.
Holton Against Right-Handed Hitters
As mentioned, Holton’s most used pitch is his cutter. It’s a kind of generic pitch that he’s very aggressive with. He loves to back door it on the arm-side, and largely has good enough command to do that. He does miss with it occasionally but he’s seen nothing but weak and unimpressive contact with it this season. It hasn’t always had those results but I’m going to mark that to a mix of variance and improved command this season.
Holton’s changeup is a bit of an oddity. It spins on a low axis with no seam-shifted wake, with high spin efficiency and low spin rate. None of those are particularly abnormal on their own but the combination of all of them isn’t something you see that often. Functionally though it makes a strong offering with good separation from his four-seam. Nine mph of velocity, 11.6” of induced vertical break (iVB), and 8.6” of induced horizontal break (iHB) separation is more than enough to generate whiffs. He’s run a phenomenal chase rate on it this season but he’s gotten burned when he misses in the zone with it. That’s to be expected with changeups but I’d love to see him clean those up. Missing the in the middle of the zone with a changeup just can’t happen. Of course, they’re an inevitability but keeping them to a minimum is what great pitchers do.
Despite a generic shape and lower-than-average velocity, Holton’s four-seam has been the best pitch in his career so far. He’s scaled back his usage of it this season and has seen improved results. His command of it isn’t quite what it was last year but the reduced usage and lack of consistent locations with it is likely catching hitters off guard. Of course, I’ll always advocate for a defined plan that can be seen on pitch maps but Holton’s is working this season anyway.
After being claimed by the Tigers in 2023, Holton started to lean into the specialization of pitches by handedness. This led to him picking up a sweeper we’ll get to in a bit, but it also saw him drastically reduce the usage of his curveball, which was his only breaking ball before that season. This is a pitch he drops in almost exclusively with the intent to get called strikes. While being solid from a stuff standpoint, he sadly doesn’t command this pitch particularly well, likely the reason it’s been all but shelved. I’d love to see him work on that for next season though, a usable breaking ball for use against righties could help him get ahead and get out of jams. This curve could be that if located better. It has good movement and mirrors his fastball well.
Holton Against Left-Handed Hitters
While Holton has thrown a scant few sinkers to right-handed hitters this year, I figured it would be best to break the pitch down here instead, as this is where it sees the vast majority of its usage. While it lacks depth a bit for a sinker, it has enough arm-side run to work against lefties as lefty-lefty matchups tend to be friendlier to the pitcher. His command of the pitch within the zone comes and goes, but his aggression with the sinker nets him a lot of called strikes. He also largely induces unimpressive contact with it, the stats against it are inflated by two homers allowed to right-handed hitters. He probably should stop throwing it to them.
Holton’s slider should probably be reclassified as a sweeper given the way it moves but there’s nothing I can do about that. It’s about average as sweepers go on all fronts, but given that he only uses it against lefties, it plays up substantially. He’s got a knack for throwing it to the front door and getting called strikes but he mostly aims down and to the glove side for whiffs. Since he’s started using it it’s done nothing but decimate left-handed hitters, they can’t seem to do anything with it. Sinkers and sweepers go together like any obvious simile you can think of, and his work off of each other quite well despite not being perfect mirrors.
We already covered his four-seam but he does throw it to lefties on occasion, largely with the same intent, as a surprise whiff pitch. For the last month, he’s used it almost exclusively in two-strike counts against them.
Further Thoughts On Holton And Beyond
No pitcher is perfect, but even as hitters get better and better, there are a lot of different ways to get them out. Sure, scouts will always flock to the one who doesn’t need to specify the way Holton does. When you reach a certain caliber of stuff it can become platoon neutral, or at least good enough against both handedness of hitter. Not everyone has that in the tank, however. I don’t mean to speak badly of Holton, I think he’s a fascinating pitcher. It’s more impressive that he’s seen such success given that his arsenal is what it is.
I’m much more used to seeing pitchers have a couple of pitches they use in all situations and maybe one or two they use for just one type of hitter. An ace with a big 4-seam and slider they trust all the time, with a changeup for opposite and sweeper for same-handed hitters, that type of thing. Holton being such an extreme makes him difficult to theorize about. I think assuming he could maintain his stuff and command across stretched outings, he could probably be a somewhat reliable starter, but likely one that doesn’t go deep into games. If his command was a bit better maybe he could face the order a third time, but his stuff would probably become a liability facing the same hitters too many times.
I do think that Holton stands to benefit a good bit from his ballpark, Comerica Park being the dead zone for homers that it is. He’s also run a comically low BABIP for his career and it’s a decent chunk lower than his xBABIP, but it’s worth noting his ERA is actually higher in home games than away since he’s been with Detroit. I suppose that makes sense given how much open field there is in Comerica. He’s pitched above his expected numbers but those expected numbers are still really strong. Holton has also done a good job of limiting dangerous contact and mixing his arsenal to induce weaker contact. While his lack of marquee stuff is a bit scary for a reliever, I can’t argue with the numbers he’s putting up. It might be a case of “it works until it doesn’t”, but the way he’s pitched inspires confidence that it could continue to work. Not to mention he’s likely to keep improving as he continues to develop as a pitcher.
Moving past Holton and considering the strategy as a whole, I do think theoretically there exists a pitcher who can be a surefire starter who changes so entirely based on the hitter he’s facing. Realistically that’s probably already happened and I just didn’t find it. Less extreme versions exist, like pitchers that throw three to five pitches against one handedness and largely just two of them against the other, but I haven’t seen any that I can recall that do it to Holton’s extent.
There are probably already pitchers who could consider it but it would be more of a strategic optimization than a necessity. In all likelihood, if you were to increase the quality of stuff past what Holton has for this theoretical pitcher, they wouldn’t need to specialize. The better pitches get, the better they play against both handednesses. Not to mention the more a pitcher has to specialize, the more limited their arsenals become in those matchups, and it can be difficult to beat hitters three times with a two-pitch mix if it isn’t utterly dominant. Not to repeat myself, but if it IS that dominant, you probably don’t need to be doing the platoon-specific strategy.
The more I think about it, the more it seems that Holton’s strategy is likely to be restricted to relievers. I love the concept of pitchers doing this to optimize their results and as hitters continue to improve it could be something we see more and more, even amongst relievers with louder stuff. Baseball is always evolving, and changes to the way pitchers do their jobs are inevitable. Holton’s ahead of the curve, and it’s working for him. I look forward to hopefully seeing more take note of what he’s doing and applying it themselves.