Tigers Southpaw Brant Hurter Is an Under-The-Radar Hurler Hunting Soft Contact

Brant Hurter is a reliable reliever who largely flies under the radar. Since debuting with the Detroit Tigers in August 2024, the 6-foot-6, 250-pound southpaw has fashioned a 2.49 ERA and a 3.41 FIP over 64 appearances comprising 119 1/3 innings. Moreover, he has registered a pair of saves and a 13-4 won-loss record.

He is off to a solid start in the current campaign. Hurter has come out of the ‘pen 11 times and allowed just three earned runs over 11 frames. His outings have been timely. The 2021 seventh-round pick out of Georgia Tech has wins in all three of his decisions.

Befitting his low profile, Hurter wasn’t highly regarded coming out of college, nor was he viewed as a future star while down on the farm. That doesn’t mean our lead prospect analyst didn’t see a big league future. Ranked 17th with a 40 FV on our 2024 Tigers Top Prospects list, Hurter was described by Eric Longenhagen as a pitcher he could “see in an important bulk relief role.”

The lack of a power profile was, and remains, a limiting factor. At 92.2 mph, Hurter’s fastball ranks in just the 18th percentile for velocity, while his strikeout rate is 22.8% for his career, and just 16.3% this year. Mason Miller he is not.

How then does the erstwhile Yellow Jacket get outs? I asked him that question when the Tigers visited Fenway Park midway through this month.

“One of my strengths is getting ahead early,” replied Hurter, whose repertoire leans heavily on a sinker (65.6%) and a sweeper (23.6%), and also includes a changeup (7%) and a four-seamer (3.8%). “I don’t have to pinch corners much. I get a lot of soft contact, so the main focus is making sure that I fill up the zone. If hitters aren’t expecting [pitches to be] balls, that can also get me some chase.”

The 27-year-old from Woodstock, Georgia isn’t exactly the epitome of a command specialist, although his walk rate (7.0% on the season, 7.3% since becoming a Tiger) is indicative of a strike-thrower. As for soft contact, he gets his fair share. Hurter’s barrel rate is 6.1% this year, while his BABIP is a stingy .219. For his career, those numbers are 4.2 and .276.

Unlike many of today’s pitchers, he isn’t aiming middle and letting his movement play from there.

“No, not so much,” Hurter responded when asked if that’s his M.O. “Against righties, a lot of times I will try to backdoor my slider-sweeper, or go sinker in. Lefties are kind of my strength, so I’ll kind of throw whatever to them, and wherever. I’ll mainly go away, because that’s easiest to locate, but I’ll go inside as well.”

Small sample sizes as they are — the calendar has yet to flip to May — the results for Hurter’s primary pitches are curious enough to merit mention. His batting average allowed on sinkers is currently .111, while his xBA is .268. Conversely, his sweeper has elicited a .375 BA and a .210 xBA. Last season, those numbers were in close proximity to each other (sinker .281/.272, sweeper .129/.124).

Asked for a snapshot of his most-used offerings, Hurter told me that his sinker gets a good mix of horizontal and vertical movement, and while it tends to be pretty consistent over the course of a season, it does “fluctuate a little bit” year to year — much to his liking, it turns out. As he explained, “The vert has been going down. I don’t know why, but I’m not complaining. It’s a good problem to have.”

The numbers back that up. The vertical drop on Hurter’s sinker has decreased from 28.0 inches in 2024 to 29.0 in 2025, and to 31.1 so far this year.

He began throwing his sweeper in his 2018 freshman season at Georgia Tech. Hurter called it a slider at the time, and while he now tends to say sweeper-slider, that is mostly a matter of modern vernacular. By and large, it’s the same pitch he has always thrown. Even so, he has upped the horizontal. Hurter is getting an average of 13.3 glove-side inches, up from 10.7 a year ago. Much like his sinker, his sweeper is seeing an increase in movement.

His delivery, which Eric described two years ago as “much more commonly found in the bullpen,” remains a big part of his effectiveness.

“I think it’s very deceptive to lefties, because it’s starting behind them,” explained the lower-slot hurler. “It’s funky to righties, and while it’s probably not too deceptive for them, I do hide the ball pretty well. Hitters have told me that they don’t pick it up well, or that they pick it up late. That’s good to hear.

“Again, it’s mostly about getting ahead early and keeping hitters off balance while throwing strikes,” continued Hurter. “If I can sequence well — and I won’t always sequence the same, because not all hitters are the same — I’m usually going to have success. For me, it’s all about filling up the zone and, hopefully, getting soft contact.”