Mize's eyes on the prize: 'I'm competing against everybody'

TAMPA, Fla. -- Casey Mize was once where fellow Tigers starter Jackson Jobe is now, a top pitching prospect across baseball with all the ingredients for stardom.

It wasn’t that long ago.

"Certainly I’m familiar with where he’s at in his career,” Mize said of Jobe. “It’s cool now to be a few years removed from that and looking back on it. I know what he’s feeling and what he’s thinking and what he’s going through. But [he's a] special talent, and I know he’s going to impact our team in a really positive way.”

As Mize took the mound on Sunday at George M. Steinbrenner Field, he was in the same position as Jobe: A Tigers pitcher fighting for a rotation spot, trying to show the kind of pitcher he can be.

Seven years after Mize was the first overall pick in the MLB Draft and four years after Mize beat out Michael Fulmer for a rotation spot out of camp, it’s incredible that there’s still that uncertainty. He’ll turn 28 on May 1, and he’s potentially on track for free agency after the 2026 season, the same timeline as American League Cy Young Award winner and fellow Tigers 2018 Draft pick Tarik Skubal.

But the 2021 campaign is Mize’s only full season to date. He lost his 2022 season after just two starts and all of the 2023 season to Tommy John and back surgeries. Last year was essentially a reorientation, a process interrupted by a hamstring strain in early July. The Tigers placed him on the 60-day injured list, shelving him until the end of August.

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While the Tigers went to the postseason, Mize was on the sidelines. He didn’t pitch in the Wild Card Series against Houston and was left off the roster for the Division Series against Cleveland. Now, he’s competing for one of two open spots in the rotation after Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Reese Olson.

In some ways, Mize is remaking himself as a pitcher in an effort to get his career back on track. In some ways, he’s simply trying to get back to the things that made him such a dominant pitcher out of Auburn. He’s doing so in a camp that could determine the course of his Tigers tenure, whether as a starter or reliever.

"I’m competing against everybody, and everybody’s competing against me,” Mize said. “The competition is a lot internal, and it’ll settle itself.”

Mize has two things working in his favor. There’s the typical bounce that a pitcher gets in his second season back from Tommy John surgery, both in renewed velocity and a better command. But with a healthy offseason for the first time in three years, Mize also had the ability to focus on his game.

Both factors were evident in two scoreless innings against the Yankees in Sunday’s 4-0 Tigers win. His four-seam fastball averaged 96.9 miles per hour according to Statcast, up from 95.5 last year, and his sinker got a similar boost. But from the first 90-mph splitter, it was evident that his velocity on that pitch was strategic.

Mize’s splitter averaged 86.2 mph last year, similar to previous seasons. It has not been as effective of a pitch for him in the Majors, leading him to become more of a fastball-slider pitcher. But after watching how other successful starters use their splitters, he gave it a boost.

"I think [last] September we had some better results on the split, and that was hand-in-hand with velocity uptick,” Mize said. “And I kind of watch other guys. [Nathan] Eovaldi throws that pitch pretty hard and has some success with it.

"I'm trying not to get too much in my head about how the pitch moves anymore. I'm just trying to throw that pitch hard. I think that's the biggest thing and I'm getting some success when I do it. I don't know if it'll be that hard always, especially when you're asked to go 100 pitches. But I definitely do have the intent to throw that pitch harder than I have in the past.”

By contrast, Mize has turned his slider into three different pitches. His traditional slider was evident on a called third strike to Paul Goldschmidt. But he also threw some sweepers with more horizontal movement away from right-handed hitters, plus others with more depth.

It’s all in the effort.

"He was able to keep hitters off-balance, which is good,” said catcher Dillon Dingler, whose two-run homer paced Detroit’s offense. “It’s good stuff.”