President of baseball operations Scott Harris glowed about the success of right-hander Troy Melton for nearly three minutes during the Detroit Tigers‘ end-of-season press conference, but he forgot to answer an important part of the question.
What is Melton’s role moving forward?
Thankfully, manager A.J. Hinch chimed in before it was too late.
“He’s a starter,” Hinch said.
“Yeah, he’ll be a starter next year,” Harris said.Expert MLB daily picks: Unique MLB betting insights only at USA TODAY
Melton developed as a starter through the minor leagues after being selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. The 24-year-old bounced between starter and reliever for the Tigers as a rookie in 2025 after his MLB debut in late July, both in the regular season and the postseason.MORE ABOUT HIM: Rookie Troy Melton emerges as Tigers’ X-factor in ALDS vs. Mariners
He logged a 2.76 ERA with 15 walks and 36 strikeouts across 45⅔ innings in 16 games (four starts).
“I’m really impressed by Troy Melton,” Harris said Monday, Oct. 13, at Comerica Park. “I thought he pitched really well for us. He got really big outs for us, and he handled the transition from the rotation to the bullpen as seamlessly as any young player we have seen since I’ve been here.”
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In 2026, Melton will work as a full-time starter.
He projects to join Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize in the rotation, barring any roster changes. He profiles as the fifth starter among those pitchers, but he could become a frontline starter if he unlocks his potential.
“For a young pitcher with as little experience as he has, you can’t ask for anything more than what Troy gave us in the postseason,” Harris said, “and I’m really proud of him for stepping up and answering the bell and being a huge addition to this team. I don’t think we get as far as we did without him.”POINT THE FINGER: Tigers blame late-season collapse on bad offense, expect changes in offseason
The Tigers lost in the ALDS, but Melton pitched in four of their eight games during the postseason — thrice as a reliever and once as a starter. He came out of the bullpen in Game 2 of the AL wild-card series, Game 4 of the ALDS and Game 5 of the ALDS. He also started Game 1 of the ALDS.
“We see this guy as a starting pitcher, so I don’t want the back of the baseball card to take anything away from what we see,” Hinch said Oct. 3, after naming Melton as the Game 1 starter for the ALDS. “This is a guy with multiple plus pitches, high-end velocity.
“He can throw strikes in all quadrants of the strike zone. He can attack lefties. He can attack righties. He is a starter.”
So why did the Tigers send Melton to the bullpen?
It happened on the first day of August because the Tigers acquired starters Chris Paddack and Charlie Morton before the July 31 trade deadline, though neither newcomer ended up pitching for the Tigers in the postseason.
“We moved him to the bullpen for two reasons,” Harris said.
The first reason: The Tigers needed more swing-and-miss pitches in their bullpen, a direct result of how the roster was built. While Melton’s 23.3% whiff rate is below average, the Tigers were desperate for his fastball and slider — both capable of missing bats — because too many other relievers allowed contact.
“It was a big need for us to add more swing-and-miss to our bullpen,” Harris said. “We had a young player with high-octane stuff that could pitch in a multi-inning role, get really big outs for us and add a new dynamic to (Hinch’s) bullpen, so that when he looked down on the card, he had multiple paths to get to the finish line.”
The second reason: The Tigers wanted to limit Melton’s innings to protect the health of his arm. He threw 121 innings in 2025 across the Double-A, Triple-A and MLB — more than a 20% increase from 100⅔ innings in Double-A in 2024. For context, Melton logged just 16⅓ innings as a reliever in September compared to Flaherty’s 18⅔ innings in four starts and Mize’s 28⅓ innings in five starts.
“Innings concerns for him,” Harris said. “Injuries are so prevalent in our game. We have a duty to protect the players in our organization.
“We try really hard to take that seriously. We didn’t think it was fair or reasonable to plug him into the rotation and start him every five days.”
In 2025, Melton didn’t care about his role.
He was all in.
In 2026, the Tigers are all in on him — as a starter.
“Once you get out on the mound, the job is exactly the same,” Melton said Oct. 3, one day before Game 1 of the ALDS. “You want to get outs as fast as you can, as much as you can. It hasn’t been too big of an adjustment. Whatever they need from me, I’m ready to go for whatever they want.”
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