CLEVELAND - Beau Brieske has already lived through enough changes to make the word “development” feel bigger than the usual prospect talk.
He’s 28 now, in his fifth season with the Tigers, and the reinvention has kept coming. First he shifted from starter to reliever.
Then came the arm trouble, forcing him to rethink his pitches again. And now, back with Detroit this month, he’s added another wrinkle: a curveball he revived during his time at Triple-A Toledo.
“I wanted something that moves straight down to try to help out with the fastball,” he said.
That matters because Brieske’s recent mix had become heavily side-to-side. He leaned on a power four-seam fastball, plus a changeup that fades away from left-handed hitters and a slider that moves away from right-handers. It all worked east to west, and that created a problem.
“Those can be good pitches,” he said. “But I think if I’m only doing that, it allows for guys to maybe zone things a little easier.
Like, if they pick one (either the fastball or the secondary), they can fight the other off. That’s what I was seeing.”
That showed up in the way some at-bats stretched out and in his difficulty finishing hitters. Brieske’s strikeout rate in 2024, when he was at his best and pitching in leverage spots down the stretch and into the playoffs, was 9.2 per nine innings. It dipped to 6.5 in 2025 and sits at 7.6 in a small sample this year.
The curveball is meant to change the picture.
“I thought if I could get something that goes down, it would give the hitter another thought, another visual, they have to cover,” Brieske said. “Hopefully, in my mind, they would have four different shapes to deal with.”
There’s another layer to it, too. Brieske’s changeup and slider both sit around 89 mph. The curveball is supposed to give him a slower look, with spin in the 85-mph range.
“Just having that fourth speed,” he said. “It’s something I can use to play the front to back game, as well.”
That front-to-back idea is all about changing speeds so hitters are either late on fastballs or out in front of the breaking and off-speed stuff.
Brieske last threw a curveball in 2022, when it was a 78-mph pitch and hitters went 3-for-19 against it. Back then, his changeup was also a much slower offering at 82 mph, with strong fading action. Then the arm issues changed that.
“Yeah, prior to the arm injuries,” he said. “It was a really slow, pronated changeup.
But the nerve stuff threw a wrench into my ability to throw that. I haven’t been able to get the speed differential since.
But, like, I can’t dwell on it. Let’s just adjust.”
The grip isn’t exactly the same as it was in 2022, either. Brieske said he started with the old version, then tinkered until he found something more workable.
"I started with the old grip," he said. "But, typical pitch development, I was like, 'Ah, I don't love it,' and you try things, different thumb positions and stuff. I arrived at a slightly adjusted grip from the original, but with the same seam orientation."
He used the curveball seven times against the Twins on Sept. 1, and six of those came against right-handed hitters. The pitch was coming in a little firmer than he wants, likely because of adrenaline, at 86.6 mph. None of those seven were put in play, and he got one whiff on two swings.
“I just have to be smart about it,” he said. “When you start throwing a different pitch, you have to properly ramp it up. You get a new pitch you want to throw it a lot and, all of a sudden, it’s like, wow, this (forearm) feels a little tight.”
Brieske’s not framing this as a personal test, but the timing makes it hard to ignore. He’s in his second year of arbitration, which leaves him exposed to being non-tendered. For a pitcher with 123 big-league games, including six in the postseason, the coming stretch has the feel of an audition.
Saturday’s Tigers game will be on Detroit SportsNet and 97.1.
On the mound for Cleveland is left-hander Framber Valdez, who is 8-10 with a 4.36 ERA. Guardians hitters have taken nine walks in two previous starts against him, forcing him into the zone and doing damage when he’s been there, with eight runs in 10.2 innings. Valdez is coming off a strong outing against the Dodgers, when he got eight groundball outs after leaning on his sinker early in a quality start during a 6-1 loss.
For the Guardians, left-hander Parker Messick is 11-8 with a 2.46 ERA. The Tigers scratched out just two runs and three hits against him at Comerica Park on Aug. 13, but they still won after making him throw 102 pitches in 5.2 innings and getting a homer from Eduardo Valencia to end his night. Messick hasn’t allowed more than one run in any of his last three starts, and his 94-mph four-seamer has been a problem pitch for opponents, producing a plus-26 run value according to Statcast while holding hitters to a .159 average, a .250 slugging percentage and a 32.7% strikeout rate.
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