Left-hander Brant Hurter is a starting pitcher.

The 25-year-old has been a starting pitcher throughout his college and minor-league careers, but when he makes his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers in Sunday's game, he is expected to pitch as a reliever against the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park.

The Tigers are planning for Hurter to pitch a bulk of the innings in Sunday's game.

"He's not going to start," manager A.J. Hinch said before Saturday's 6-5 win in 11 innings, "but he's going to pitch and make his major league debut. We'll probably open for him, but I got to see how tonight's game goes before we determine exactly what inning he'll enter."

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The Tigers have two starting pitchers in left-hander Tarik Skubal and right-hander Keider Montero, along with 11 relievers. There are three pitchers in the bullpen with starter profiles — Hurter, right-hander Kenta Maeda and left-hander Bryan Sammons — but they're not used as traditional starters because they don't pitch in the first inning.

It's an interesting strategy from the Tigers.

"It's where we're at with our pitching," Hinch said. "I think the guys that we have are capable, but one thing that could really make this difficult stretch even more difficult is that big first inning. Facing the best hitters multiple times up top is not necessarily the answer. It's the way the game is always viewed, probably more pleasing to the eye than it is strategically. ... With where our pitching it at, and how we're trying to navigate distress until we get healthy, it's probably the best option."

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Hurter, who turns 26 in early September, posted a 5.80 ERA with 23 walks and 70 strikeouts across 71⅓ innings in 19 games (18 starts) in Triple-A Toledo.

Hurter has struggled with the Mud Hens, but he is coming off the best start of his season, throwing seven scoreless innings on one hit and zero walks with six strikeouts. He has been stretched out to 104 pitches but typically throws approximately 70 pitches.

"He's had some spurts of good performance," Hinch said. "He's also had a difficult time getting out of the first inning without the pitch count being super high with some of the restricts in the minor leagues."

Hurter throws four pitches: a sinker that averages 92.2 mph, a sweeper that averages 82.8 mph, a changeup that averages 86.3 mph and a four-seam fastball that averages 92.1 mph. The fact that he primarily throws two pitches in his sinker and sweeper — rarely using his changeup and four-seamer — could eventually force him to a full-time role as a traditional reliever.

His sweeper has a 48% whiff rate this season.

Right-handed hitters have a .307 batting average with a .885 OPS in 216 plate appearances, while left-handed hitters have a .261 batting average with a .620 OPS in 107 plate appearances. He needs to improve his changeup to take down righties.

His catcher at the Triple-A level, Dillon Dingler, was promoted from the Mud Hens to the Tigers last week for his MLB debut. Dingler will make his third MLB start in Sunday's game against the Royals.

"The combination of how he pitched his last outing, Dillon being here and where we're at with our rotation depth," Hinch said, "he gets a really good opportunity to come up and hopefully settle in."

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Hurter is the Tigers' No. 14 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. He ranks as the seventh-best pitching prospect on the team's top-30 list, behind Jackson Jobe, Ty Madden, Keider Montero, Wilmer Flores, Sawyer Gipson-Long and Troy Melton.

The Tigers selected Hurter in the seventh round, at No. 195 overall, in the 2021 draft out of Georgia Tech.

"We did want him to come off of a good start before he came up here," Hinch said, "and he did that by pounding the zone with multiple pitches. That gave us a lot of encouraging thoughts that he's coming in with high confidence."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers promote left-hander Brant Hurter from Triple-A Toledo