Just about 24 hours ago Jon Morosi tweeted out that the Detroit Tigers had shown “early interest” in starting pitcher Jon Gray. Gray was not tendered a Qualifying Offer from the Colorado Rockies after the end of the 2021 season; thus, he is not attached to draft pick compensation and would be a decent land for the Tigers if Al Avila is able to ink him to a deal.
Gray has spent his entire 7-year career in Colorado, posting a 53-49 record along with an 11 WAR, 4.59 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 1.338 WHIP, and 9.0 K/9 along the way. The Tigers are looking to add a couple of arms to their starting rotation, specifically innings eaters, and Gray is perfect for that role. He has given his team 25+ starts in 4 of 6 full seasons (2020 COVID season not counted) along with 150+ innings pitched 3 times; might as well call it 4 seeing that he logged 149.0 IP in 2021.
Surprisingly, for being in Colorado, Gray’s home/away splits are nearly identical. Would coming to a somewhat pitcher friendly ballpark like Comerica Park help Gray?
According to Baseball Savant, the curveball and slider are his best put away pitches in his arsenal. They have Whiff% of 30.0 and 38.8 along with a PutAway% of 11.6 and 26.2, respectively. During the 2021 season Gray was able to induce the groundball at a 49.2% clip and posted a career best LD% of only 21.6.
The most interesting thing about Gray is that he turned down a 3-year extension from the Rockies that was estimated to be somewhere between $35-$40 million, per the Athletic. That extension would have put him somewhere around $12 million a season, which would be ranked somewhere between 21st-24th amongst fellow SP in 2022. If Detroit was to come in at 3-year $45 million, putting him near the Top-20 paid SP in the league, would it do the trick? Remember, some of the other pitchers the Tigers have already been linked to, like Eduardo Rodriguez and Justin Verlander, will likely be looking to sign for $20+ million a season.