Matt Wisler might not be at the level he exactly wants to be to start the 2023 baseball season, but the Bryan native is looking to make the most of his time back in northwest Ohio.
After a rough spring training with the Detroit Tigers, the veteran right-handed relief pitcher was sent to Toledo and will begin the season with the Mud Hens in a comfortable setting at Fifth Third Field.
“It’s a place that I’m familiar with, a place I grew up coming to. I pitched here in high school, I pitched here a couple times in my career, and it just gives me kind of a reset to come down here and get focused for the season,” Wisler told The Blade during Tuesday’s media day. “It’ll be nice to see a lot of family and friends that are local to here still, and it’s exciting.
“Obviously, you grow up watching this team. It’s obviously not exactly where I want to be, I’d rather be making the [Tigers], but that’s OK. I’ve got really good coaches here and a good team here with a lot of good people that should be a lot of fun while we’re here.”
Wisler has been with seven teams in his eight MLB seasons, including Atlanta (2015-18), Cincinnati (2018), San Diego (2019), Seattle (2019), Minnesota (2020), San Francisco (2021), and Tampa Bay (2021-22).
“I was mentioning to my wife yesterday and we’re just driving around, and it’s just different. It feels familiar for the first time in a long time,” Wisler said. “To be close to home, I’ve been playing pretty far away from anywhere around here and obviously I don’t reside in Bryan anymore, but still to come back this way, to feel local again, to know my way around here, to have friends and stuff that I can see, I like it.”
Wisler’s best season in the majors came in the coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign in which he had a 1.07 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 25⅓ innings with the Twins. He was solid with Tampa Bay late in the 2021 season (2.15 ERA, 36 strikeouts, 29⅓ innings), and a year ago (2.25 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 44 innings), but battled injuries before being released by the Rays on Sept. 7.
The Tigers took a chance on the 30-year-old, a seventh-round pick by the Padres in the 2011 MLB draft whose specialty has been an effective slider. On Feb. 15, Detroit signed him to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
“I think his slider is a real weapon,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said during spring training. “It does random things.
“He has almost a couple different varieties of them. I know he wants to increase his fastball usage and his sinker, but his bread-and-butter is his slider and how different he can shape it to impact hitters.”
In six spring training appearances, though, Wisler had a 16.88 ERA in 5⅓ innings. He allowed 10 runs (all earned) on 10 hits, with seven walks and just two strikeouts.
Working to make adjustments on the mound has been Wisler’s biggest focus recently.
“For me, it was at least positive — I wouldn’t say the results were that great — but at least to feel better, to feel more like myself and something that I can finally positively build on,” he said. “Coming in here, being in a decent spot and having some ideas on what to fix, it gives me something to come to the field every day knowing there’s some things I need to fix and clean up. Just getting back into game speed reps and just getting everything moving as best I can.”
Wisler’s time in northwest Ohio will certainly make baseball-crazed communities like Bryan happy.
The city of around 8,000 people in Williams County has had a rich tradition of baseball success. Bryan High School has 31 Northwest Ohio Athletic League championships, including the outright crown a year ago, and has had several players reach the minor league level.
The Wisler name, however, stands out.
“For everybody in our community, it’s going to be a great thing,” said Bryan Middle School principal Brian Arnold, who was the school’s athletic director when Wisler was in high school from 2007-11. “People still know Matt, they still know the family.
“That name means a lot around here. He’s made donations to both our Bryan Baseball Association for our little kids on that side, and then for the girls softball. He gave some things to that too, gloves and bats, and he’s helped out in a lot of ways with our youth program. So people know Matt Wisler and they know the Wisler family, so for the community, it’s fantastic that he’s an hour up the road ... and you can see him pitch.”
With the Mud Hens’ season starting at home on Friday against the St. Paul Saints, Wisler’s main goal is to get off to a good start as he works to try to return to the majors.
“That’s the big thing. If I want a chance to pitch for the Tigers or somebody else this year in the big leagues, I’ve got to get off to a good start and continue building off what I was doing,” he said.
Added Arnold: “I’m sure he wants to get up with the big club and do some more great things on the major league level, but for the time being while that’s where he’s expected to be and that’s where they want him to be, he’s going to give 100 percent. He’s always been a hard worker.”
First Published March 30, 2023, 11:07 p.m.
