When Scott Harris opened talks with Alex Cobb this winter, he told the veteran right-hander, "Hey, we got some pitching development stuff for you. We think that there’s another gear."
"And you will find out that he is very curious, very determined to get better and very-open minded about making adjustments," Harris said Tuesday at the MLB Winter Meetings. "We saw that in San Francisco and we expect that to see that here."
The Tigers have made their signing of Cobb official. It's a one-year, $15 million deal worth an extra $2 million in incentives for innings pitched. Cobb missed most of last season due to a series of injuries that started with hip surgery in the offseason and a shoulder issue in the spring, but he was quietly effective over the two seasons prior in San Francisco.
Harris was the general manager of the Giants when they signed Cobb to a two-year deal and steered him toward a resurgence. He made 28 starts in each of his two seasons in San Fran, logged a 3.80 ERA and earned his first All-Star nod in 2023. Once he returned to the mound last season following a trade to Cleveland, Cobb pitched well enough for the Guardians to earn a pair of starts in the playoffs -- including Game 3 of the ALDS at Comerica Park.
"We’re really excited to add him to our rotation," Harris said. "He does many things well. He’s an excellent strike-thrower, he induces soft contact, he has multiple secondary pitches that he can move around the zone to keep hitters off balance and he keeps the ball on the ground, so he can get outs in many different ways for us."
Since his debut season in 2011, Cobb has induced a higher rate of ground balls than all but two pitchers in the majors: Dallas Keuchel and Marcus Stroman. (Among pitchers with at least 1,300 innings.) And the Tigers, like they've done in the past with Jack Flaherty and Michael Lorenzen, believe they can optimize Cobb's arsenal to coax more out of his 37-year-old arm. His splitter will be one of the primary pitches of focus.
"That has been one of his keys to swing and miss in the past," said Harris. "Certainly in 2022, he missed a lot of bats. We think he can miss more bats than he has over the last year or so."
The Tigers also valued Cobb for his experience. The 13-year vet will join a rotation featuring Tarik Skubal and a crop of talented, malleable arms. In his exit interviews with players last season, Harris noted how many of them pointed to the positive impact a veteran like Flaherty had on the clubhouse.
"I think some of our young starters that have really good stuff can learn from the way he commands the baseball and keeps hitters off balance," Harris said. "I think that’s going to be a good influence on those guys."
For the Tigers, the final selling point may have been Cobb's final regular season start with the Guardians. He took a perfect game into the seventh inning, and "if you go back and watch that outing," said Harris, "his stuff was all the way back at that point."
"The way that he moved the ball around the zone and leveraged his strengths was really impressive to us. We think that with a proper buildup and a healthy offseason, we’re going to get him back to hopefully 2022 or 2023 version of him, or maybe even better," Harris said.
The Tigers have Skubal and Cobb penned into their rotation, with Reese Olson's name likely scrawled in pencil. After that, there are seven pitchers vying for two spots, including former first overall pick Casey Mize and veteran Kenta Maeda. Former first-rounders Matt Manning and Ty Madden are in that mix as well.
"We went into this offseason with a pretty high bar because we think we have a talented pitching staff," Harris said. "We wanted to find someone with the pure stuff, experience and track record that could make our staff better but also be that type of positive clubhouse presence.
"We think we have that in Alex Cobb. We also think there’s more in there."