Detroit Tigers’ starting pitcher Casey Mize has been added to the American League roster for the upcoming All-Star Game, becoming the sixth Tigers player to join the Midsummer Classic. The Tigers now have the most players from one team in the All-Star Game this season. Mize will replace Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox.
Casey Mize was the first overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft out of Auburn. It has been a slow start to the career of Mize, who carried an ERA over 4.00 from 2020 to 2024. Some began to wonder whether or not Mize was going to be considered a “bust.”
Casey Mize Named to AL All-Star Team
Career Resurgence
This year has been a career year for Mize, who is currently 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.179 WHIP through 15 starts. The nine wins are a career-high for Mize, who broke his career-high of seven wins, which he reached back in the 2021 season.
Mize suffered a hamstring injury back on May 8th in a start against the Colorado Rockies, but he still finds himself tied for fifth in MLB in wins. Mize has recorded a win in four straight starts and began the season with six wins in his first seven starts.
The @Tigers shut out the Guardians and improve to 11-4 when Casey Mize starts
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— MLB (@MLB) July 6, 2025
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While Mize doesn’t carry those sexy strikeout numbers, he does a great job of limiting free passes. His 5.9% walk rate puts him in the 83rd percentile of pitchers, and it would be the lowest walk rate of his young MLB career. Opponents are also only hitting .243 with a .670 OPS, which is a vast improvement from last season. In 2024, opponents were hitting .290 off Mize with a .772 OPS.
One reason for the strong success of Mize this season could be his change in pitch pattern. This year, Mize has thrown his fastball less and is upping the usage of his offspeed pitches, particularly the splitter and slider. With these two pitches working at a higher rate, it allows for the fastball to become more effective. For instance, this year opponents are hitting .194 off Mize’s fastball, which is a huge difference from the previous season, when opponents hit .300 off the fastball.
Casey Mize, 95mph
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— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 28, 2025
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Heavy Representation
The Tigers currently carry the best record in baseball, and their pitching staff is a huge part of their success. Mize and Tarik Skubal, the two starting pitchers representing the Tigers, are a combined 19-4 in their starts. They have also gone six or more innings a combined 20 times this season.
Coming into the season, the 1-2 punch for the Tigers was supposed to be Tarik Skubal and Jack Flaherty, but with the emergence of Casey Mize, things have changed. Everyone was waiting for the breakout season to begin, and now we are finally seeing why Mize was the number one pick in 2018.
A historic season for the Tigers continues only to get better and better. A team that had six All-Stars in the last four seasons now has six All-Stars in one game. The last time the Tigers reached the ALCS in 2013, they had six All-Stars as well. Everything that led to the success of the Tigers 12 years ago is now repeating itself in 2025.
Main Photo Credit: © David Rodriguez Munoz / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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