If the Los Angeles Angels’ bullpen had not wasted 55% of its 55 save opportunities, the Detroit Tigers’ relievers would have finished with the worst percentage in all of Major League Baseball.
They came pretty close, but that does not take away from the disappointing performance they had throughout the entire season. In the end, they wasted 32 save opportunities, half of their 64 opportunities, to finish with a terrible 50% rate.
The puzzling mark of 31 blown saves set a negative record in franchise history, surpassing the 2004 and 2008 seasons, when 28 were accumulated. When we hear these results, the name of Kenley Jansen, who is currently the Detroit Tigers’ closer, quickly comes to mind.
However, the disaster went far beyond him, as the 38-year-old veteran wasted only six opportunities and ended up recording 22 of the 32 saves, falling just two short of entering the list of closers with at least 500 saves in Major League history. That said, it is clear that the biggest chaos among Detroit’s relievers came when Jensen was unavailable.
Inside the Bullpen Problems
Before it was evident that A. J. Hich would use Jensen, or in games when he was unable to be available to close, Kyle Finnegan, Will Vest, and Drew Anderson took on the challenge of saving 28 of the 32 remaining save situations, and they combined to waste 20 of them.
Finnegan carried the responsibility in 10 of them, tying the franchise’s worst record with Esteban Yan (10 BS in 2004), while Vest and Anderson had five each. So there were enough opportunities there to preserve leads and, even with the defensive problems and the decline in run production, secure many more wins.
The Tigers finished with a 76-86 record, ten games below .500, and nine games behind the American League Central Division leader, the Cleveland Guardians, who finished with an 87-77 record and made sure they would not have to play in the Wild Card Series. When we analyze all the situations throughout the season, it is clear that the relief pitching should not carry all the weight of the disappointing finish, but definitely, better effectiveness could have changed Detroit’s fate in the same situations they faced.
So, if there is one priority the Tigers will have to work on, it should be the bullpen, with a change that allows them to finally hold on to the leads they lost during that turbulent stretch between the end of the starters’ outings and the relievers’ first appearance.
That will be a key point, but it is also worth highlighting that the bullpen’s biggest collapse in terms of wasted save opportunities has come in a very different season for the starting pitching. If we compare the three years with the most BS, this 2026 season has the most vulnerable pitching staff.
2004: 69 quality starts, 32 saves, 42.6 QS%, 50.8 SV%
2008: 67 quality starts, 32 saves, 41.6 QS%, 50.8 SV%
2026: 56 quality starts, 32 saves, 34.6 QS%, 50.8%
These percentages perfectly illustrate the problem. The Tigers’ pitchers in 2004 and 2008 had bullpen breakdowns when it came to holding leads, but they had more quality starts from their starters, another one of the major challenges the Tigers face without being able to count on Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize from the beginning of the 2027 season.
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