Former Texas Right Hander Ty Madden Makes Major League Debut

Former Texas right-hander Ty Madden shined in his major league debut on Monday night.

He gave up four hits, three walks and one earned run across five innings as the Detroit Tigers completed a four-game sweep with a 6-3 win against the historically bad Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.

A costly error after a one-out walk left Madden with runners on the corners in the first inning. Subsequently, a sacrifice fly would score the only unearned run against the Texas Ex before he induced an inning-ending groundout.

Madden’s defense would pick him up in the second inning, turning a double play after the Cypress native gave up his first career hit.

With two runners on in the third, the young right-hander gave up his first earned run on an RBI single by designated hitter Andrew Vaughn but would respond four pitches later with his first MLB strikeout, getting first baseman Gavin Sheets to offer at a low and away slider.

In Madden’s final two innings, the White Sox would muster only two base runners as the young pitcher, who has had command issues at the AAA level, handled Chicago’s AAA-esque lineup. While Madden would leave the game unable to secure a win, he did enough to keep his team in the game across five innings.

Down a run in the seventh, the Tigers’ bats would explode with five hits, including a solo homer, an RBI single, and a three-run 439-foot tape measure blast from former first-overall pick Spencer Torkelson, giving Detriot a lead it would never relinquish.

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Madden, rated as the Tigers’ No.16 prospect by MLB Pipeline, primarily featured for the Longhorns during his junior season in 2021 when he had a 2.45 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 1.2 strikeouts per inning as a critical cog in Texas’ rotation that helped propel the Longhorns to the College World Series.

The 24-year-old was promoted despite having a 7.97 ERA across 18 starts with the Toledo Mud Hens, the Tigers’ AAA affiliate, but his performance at the AAA is likely not why he was called up to the big leagues.

“It's not surprising the Tigers promoted Madden despite his season-long struggles because he is eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason," wrote Evan Petzold of the Detriot Free Press. "Had he not been called up, the Tigers would have needed to add him to the 40-man roster by mid-November to protect him from being selected by another organization in early December. Instead of waiting, the Tigers took care of the 40-man decision now.”

With Monday’s win, the Tigers are now sitting at .500 and are 6.5 games out of the AL Wild Card, likely leaving the team out of the playoffs for the tenth straight season. There may be a silver lining for Madden, however, as the organization may be more willing to let the former Longhorn carve out a place in Detriot’s rotation for the season's final month than a contending team would.