Detroit Tigers Sign Reliever Mark Lowe: Fantasy Fallout

The Detroit Tigers continue to improve their pitching staff by signing veteran Mark Lowe. He had a good season last year and will help the bullpen greatly.

The Detroit Tigers are making moves this offseason in order to be competitive in the American League Central. One year after winning the division, the team finished last in 2015. The Tigers are now looking to get back to the playoffs. They made two big moves by signing a starting pitcher and elite closer. The most recent move was the signing of veteran reliever Mark Lowe. While he isn’t a superstar, he will have some value in deeper leagues next season. 

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Lowe is a journeyman, spending the first four and a half seasons of his career with the Seattle Mariners. He then bounced around from Texas to Los Angeles to Cleveland before going back to Seattle for the first half of the 2015 season. He appeared in 34 games, posting a 1.00 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and a 47:11 K:BB ratio.

He was then traded to the Toronto Blue Jays at the trade deadline. With the eventual American League East champs, he posted a 3.79 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 14:1 K:BB ratio in 23 games. Combined, he finished with a 1.96 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 61:12 K:BB ratio.

Lowe achieved a lot of his success last season from his revived fastball. He got the pitch up to 96 MPH, the highest since 2011. According to Fangraphs, the improved pitch led to a higher swing-and-miss rate from his slider, 22 percent.  He had a 10.0 K/9 this season.

Bullpens have become very important over the last few seasons. In that same Fangraphs piece, the Tigers were ranked 10th in innings per game started at the trade deadline with 6.03 IP/GS. Lowe pitched 55 innings in 2015, the most since 2009. The Tigers finished 27th in ERA for both the starters and relievers. Lowe will take the stress off of the starters and hold it down in the bullpen.

Lowe is a more valuable signing for the Detroit Tigers than for fantasy owners. He was owned in just 3.2 percent of ESPN leagues this season. I don’t have the breakdown, but I’ll assume it’s from deeper or AL-only leagues. It should be more of the same in 2016. He has some value in deep leagues, but will be largely undrafted. If anything happens to Francisco Rodriguez, Lowe may get some saves opportunities.

Projections: 2-2, 2.71 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 52 strikeouts

Draft: Round 25