Will Jason Foley's plan for left-handed troubles push him to Detroit Tigers' closer role?

Detroit Tigers right-handed reliever Jason Foley located a two-strike changeup down and away with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, protecting a one-run lead. Five-time All-Star slugger José Ramírez, a switch-hitter swinging from the left side of the plate, whiffed on the changeup for one of his 73 strikeouts in 691 plate appearances last season.

Ramírez almost never strikes out, but Foley beat him.

The strikeout completed a 1-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians in the second game of an April 18 doubleheader at Comerica Park, as well as the first save of Foley's MLB career. He credits manager A.J. Hinch for trusting him with the opportunity.

"It's the first time I'm doing that," Foley said, "and I was able to succeed in that spot and secure the team a win. A.J. did a great job of getting me in higher-leverage situations, and the more I succeeded in those spots, the more I was able to build my own confidence."

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Foley, an undrafted signee as a college junior at Sacred Heart University, logged seven saves in nine opportunities last season. He has never been called a closer, but in 2023, he was the best reliever in the Tigers' bullpen. The 28-year-old posted a 2.61 ERA with 15 walks and 55 strikeouts across 69 innings in 70 games.

His 1.5 fWAR tied for fourth among 59 relievers with more than 60 innings and fewer than double-digit saves, making him one of the best non-closers.

Foley primarily pitched in the eighth inning.

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"I think every relief pitcher wants to be a closer," said Foley, who has a 3.16 ERA across 139⅔ innings in three MLB seasons. "That's obviously not really in my control at all, so I'm just going to go into spring and show them what I've done to improve this offseason and keep building off where I was last year."

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Closer or not, the Tigers will once again rely on Foley in the 2024 season. He has established himself as a durable high-leverage reliever at the highest level in the sport, one of the best in the game at avoiding hard contact, inducing ground balls and limiting walks.

Still, Foley thinks he can be even better in his fourth season.

His best pitch is his 97 mph sinker, which is one of the best sinkers in baseball. More specifically, Foley found success with back-door sinkers to right-handed hitters that he threw with confidence for the first time last season. He wants to continue improving the execution of his changeup to left-handed hitters and slider to right-handed hitters. He also plans to throw a new four-seam fastball against lefty hitters.

"Stuff over concern with the handedness," Hinch said April 19, the day after Foley's first save. "I think his stuff is good enough. Generally, the sinker against the lefty is somewhat dangerous, but when it's 97-98, that offers a little bit of a challenge. If he can get to strike one, then he can do a lot of different things. His confidence in throwing his changeup has been nice. I think most teams are going to start to realize that it's not just a right-handed specialist because he's got a weapon to go to along with his velo."

Foley struck out Ramírez, who batted left-handed in that plate appearance, but he struggled against left-handed hitters throughout the season. Lefties hit .299 with an .844 OPS in 106 plate appearances, whereas righties hit just .222 with a .506 OPS in 170 plate appearances. In his career? It's a .306 average from lefties and .249 from righties.

He dominates righties but not lefties.

His changeup was supposed to solve his problems against left-handed hitters, and to be fair, his changeup was his best pitch against lefties. It just wasn't executed enough, or thrown enough, to significantly improve his handedness splits.

"I threw quite a bit of noncompetitive ones, either too far outside or too far in the dirt," Foley said. "Never really a swingable pitch for a hitter, so essentially, I'm just throwing a ball without adjusting the at-bat at all. I really need to get it more on the plate and more competitive more of the time. That's really my focus for my changeup."

Throwing his changeup in the strike zone more often is one of two steps in the process. Throwing a four-seam fastball to lefties is the other step.

The idea to throw four-seamers came from conversations with Tigers pitching coaches Chris Fetter, Robin Lund and Juan Nieves. Foley didn't want to mess with his success by adding the four-seamer into his pitch mix in the middle of last season.

He decided to wait until the offseason.

Foley explained the reasoning for throwing four-seamers to left-handed hitters.

"The sinker moves right into their bat path," Foley said. "I threw an overwhelming amount of sinkers and changeups to lefties, both of which have fairly similar movement patterns. It's a pitch they're very comfortable hitting, and it showed in the results they had against me, so I really want to start implementing a four-seam at the top shelf, at the top of the zone, just to get them off my sinker and have a pitch that stays a little true. It's going to run a little bit, but in comparison, not as much."

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There's the scouting report factor, too.

In 2023, Foley used either his sinker or changeup 90.4% of the time against left-handed hitters. Instead of lefties focusing on Foley's sinker and changeup, both moving the same way, they'll have to at least consider a third offering.

He uses a four-seam grip when he plays catch in warmups, so throwing a four-seamer isn't going to be an adjustment. What probably won't be comfortable at the beginning of spring training games is throwing four-seamers at the top of the strike zone to attack lefties.

Foley will showcase his four-seam fastball this week when pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Lakeland, Florida.

"I don't throw, metrically, a tremendous four-seam," Foley said, "but from my (arm) slot and off of another fastball that happens to sink quite a bit, it'll effectively have some good amount of ride, hop, or carry, whatever word you want to use. I think it's just a good way to get them off a sinker. I think it'll only make everything else better."

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Ultimately, Foley wants to be confident enough to mix all four pitches to left-handers. Until now, he has thrown sinkers and sliders to righties, and sinkers and changeups to lefties.

Improving his results against left-handed hitters, whether or not by way of a four-seamer, will help Foley's case to handle most of the pitching opportunities with the lead in the ninth inning. The other three potential closer candidates are newcomers Andrew Chafin and Shelby Miller and last year's closer Alex Lange.

"If the cards fall where they may, then who knows, maybe I'll get more saves," Foley said, "but if not, that's essentially up to A.J., so we'll see."

Closer or not, four-seamer or not, Foley has already proven he is a reliable high-leverage reliever for the Tigers, especially in matchup situations. He still wants to execute his secondary pitches — changeup and slider — at a higher rate to complement his elite sinker, especially against left-handed hitters.

The chase to master his changeup and slider continues into the 2024 season.

"The more I can execute the slider, generally down and away," Foley said. "The more I can eliminate misses that are down the middle, spun over the plate or spike in the dirt, the better I'll be. Same for the changeup. The more I can avoid ones that hang over the middle and are way too outside or way too down. I'm trying to get them to sharpen up a bit, but I like the way they're moving."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Jason Foley has new plan for left-handed hitters