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Matt Gage Elects Free Agency

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Tigers left-hander Matt Gage went unclaimed on waivers following his recent DFA, per Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. Rather than accept an assignment to Triple-A Toledo, Gage has opted to elect free agency, Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds, which is Gage’s right as a player who’s been outrighted previously in his career.

The 32-year-old Gage tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings with Detroit, though he did so while only fanning 12% of his opponents in that small sample. Still, he limited walks at an 8% clip and continued what’s generally been an effective run in limited MLB chances. Gage has now seen action in parts of three major league seasons and turned in a 1.42 ERA with a 22.5% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 45.3% ground-ball rate. He’s also done a nice job avoiding hard contact, yielding a tepid 86.8 mph average exit velocity and feeble 31.3% hard-hit rate across those three partial seasons.

Gage signed a minor league deal with the Tigers over the winter. They’re his third big league team in three seasons, having previously suited up for the Astros and Blue Jays. This year’s 91.9 mph average four-seamer is a career-low, but he’s posted quality numbers both in the big leagues and in Triple-A Toledo: 32 1/3 innings, 1.67 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate.

Any team in need of some left-handed bullpen depth could take a look at Gage. The Mets have cycled through several left-handed relievers in recent weeks, and there are several clubs around the league operating with only one lefty in their relief corps at the moment — the Yankees, Nationals and Mariners among them.

Tigers To Place Kerry Carpenter On Injured List

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The Tigers are placing designated hitter/outfielder Kerry Carpenter on the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring injury, manager A.J. Hinch told host Jim Duquette in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this morning. Infielder Trey Sweeney will be recalled from Triple-A Toledo to take Carpenter’s spot on the roster.

Carpenter is fifth on the Tigers in plate appearances but third with 16 home runs, trailing Riley Greene (19) and Spencer Torkelson (17) despite having 68 fewer plate appearances than Greene and 53 fewer than Torkelson. The 27-year-old slugger is hitting .257/.285/.494 overall but had just been heating up at the plate, breaking out of a lengthy slump with three homers in his past four games started. Carpenter, however, exited Sunday’s win over the Twins after grabbing at his hamstring while legging out a triple.

It’s the first IL stint of the season for Carpenter but his fourth in the past four seasons. He’s twice gone on the injured list lumbar injuries in his back, ultimately landing on the 60-day IL due to that issue in 2024. Carpenter also missed about six weeks of the 2023 season due to a sprain in his right shoulder.

When healthy, Carpenter has quietly been one of Detroit’s top sources of power. He’s played 314 games since debuting in 2022 and slugged 60 round-trippers in 1148 trips to the plate. He popped 18 homers in just 296 plate appearances last year and is close to matching that pace in 2025. Carpenter’s power prompted teammate Beau Brieske to give him the tongue-in-cheek nickname “Kerry Bonds” back during their minor league days, and it’s carried over into the big leagues despite Carpenter’s reluctance to accept the moniker in full.

With Carpenter on the shelf, Matt Vierling and Javier Baez will likely be in line for additional plate appearances in the short-term. It’s not immediately clear how long Carpenter will be sidelined, though Hinch suggested that the team is taking a conservative approach with this IL stint, which would imply that it’s not a major injury.

Tucker Barnhart To Retire

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Former Gold Glove catcher Tucker Barnhart is set to retire, as agent Steve Rath of the Ballengee Group tells Robert Murray of FanSided. Barnhart played for the Reds, Tigers, Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Rangers across his 12 seasons in the majors.

Born and raised in Indiana, Barnhart was drafted by the Reds in the tenth round of the 2009 draft out of Brownsburg High School, just two hours from Cincinnati. As a high school catcher, his path to the big leagues was a long one. Barnhart didn’t make his debut until 2014, and only appeared in 21 games when he did finally make it to the show. The 2015 season saw him take on a much larger role, however, as Devin Mesoraco was sidelined by injury. That left the catcher position to Brayan Pena and Barnhart, the latter of whom proved to be a strong defender but hit a fairly lackluster .252/.324/.326 in 81 games.

Despite that unimpressive offense, Barnhart’s work behind the plate was impressive enough that he became Cincinnati’s primary catcher starting in 2016. His offense trended upwards enough from 2016 to 2018 that he was more or less on par with the average catcher in the league (87 wRC+), and he won the first Gold Glove award of his career in 2017 amid a 3.6 bWAR season. That 2017 campaign was enough to convince the Reds to sign Barnhart to a $16MM extension, locking him in with the club for at least the next four seasons. His offense took a step backwards starting in 2019, as he hit just .235/.318/.375 (79 wRC+) over his final three seasons with the Reds, but he remained a stalwart defender and won his second career Gold Glove during the shortened 2020 season.

After parts of eight seasons in Cincinnati, Barnhart was traded to Detroit ahead of the 2022 season, giving the Tigers the opportunity to exercise a $7.5MM team option on his services for that year. Barnhart struggled in his lone season with the club, however, hitting just .221/.287/.267 (67 wRC+) while his defense behind the plate slipped somewhat. Barnhart was still able to secure a two-year, $6.5MM guarantee from the Cubs that offseason, but he posted just a 55 wRC+ in 43 games before being designated for assignment by the club. Since then, Barnhart has caught for the Diamondbacks and Rangers in the majors after signing minor league deals with both organizations and also spent a brief stint in the Dodgers’ farm system. He’s appeared in 39 MLB games over the past two seasons with a .181/.294/.213 that’s offset somewhat by his continually solid defense.

Barnhart was let go by the Rangers earlier this month but re-signed with the club on a minor league deal shortly thereafter. Evidently, he’s decided he’d rather call it a career than play out the season in the minors. He’ll finish his career with 920 games played in the majors, two Gold Glove awards, 6.9 bWAR/5.8 fWAR, 662 hits, and 53 home runs. He hit .241/.318/.351 overall during his time in the majors. MLBTR congratulations Barnhart on a fine career in the majors and wishes him all the best in whatever comes next.

Kerry Carpenter To Undergo MRI For Sore Hamstring

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  • Speaking of MRIs, Kerry Carpenter will also receive a scan tomorrow after he had to make an early exit from the Tigers’ 3-0 win over the Twins tonight.  Carpenter was removed from the game with right hamstring discomfort after hitting a triple in the fifth inning, though he told reporters (including MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery) that his hamstring started to act up earlier in the game when he was playing right field.  Detroit doesn’t play Monday so Carpenter will have a built-in day off to heal up, though a trip to the injured list might be a wise idea since Carpenter has been dealing with hamstring soreness for much of the season.  Carpenter has a 116 wRC+ and 16 home runs over 280 PA, but his .257/.285/.494 slash line reveals a severe dropoff in his on-base numbers, as Carpenter’s 2.5% walk rate is among the lowest in baseball.

Tigers Activate Matt Vierling From 10-Day IL, Option Trey Sweeney

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The Tigers announced that third baseman/outfielder Matt Vierling has been activated from the 10-day injured list.  Shortstop Trey Sweeney was optioned to Triple-A Toledo in the corresponding move, which took place after Detroit’s 4-1 loss to Minnesota last night.

Vierling’s 2025 season has basically been a wash, as he has played in only four games in between two lengthy stints on the IL.  He strained his right rotator cuff in February, which kept him on the shelf until May 23.  That return to the Tigers’ lineup was short-lived, as just five days later, Vierling was placed back on the 10-day IL due to right shoulder inflammation.  Fortunately, an MRI taken earlier this month didn’t reveal any structural damage in the shoulder, and Vierling was able to soon start a minor league rehab assignment that lasted seven games.

He is now in today’s lineup as the starting center fielder, and looking to start playing a larger role for a Tigers team that has the best record in the American League.  Now in his third season in Motown, Vierling hit .259/.320/.406 with 26 homers over 1097 plate appearances in 2023-24, toggling between third base and all three outfield positions.  Vierling’s right-handed bat is a nice complement to Detroit’s many lefty swingers, giving manager A.J. Hinch some extra flexibility in balancing out his lineup.

Sweeney’s move to Triple-A is notable, as his installation as the Tigers’ starting shortstop last August was one of the many factors that sparked Detroit’s stunning late-season surge into a playoff berth.  Acquired from the Dodgers as part of the Jack Flaherty trade at last year’s deadline, Sweeney didn’t hit much in his first taste of big league action, but strong defense helped solidify the shortstop position since the Tigers had gotten so little from Javier Baez, Zach McKinstry, and Ryan Kreidler.

This season, however, Baez has enjoyed a career resurgence and McKinstry has broken out in a multi-positional role.  Since Sweeney is still only hitting .221/.280/.314 over 225 PA and his glovework has fallen off, he’ll head to Toledo as the odd man out of the Tigers’ roster.  Baez and McKinstry figure to fully assume shortstop duties going forward, perhaps in a loose righty-lefty platoon depending on whether or not McKinstry is being utilized elsewhere on the diamond.

Poll: AL Cy Young Race Check-In

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While days off and postponements leave clubs around the league without a uniform number of games played, one of the games in this week’s slate will represent the halfway point in the season for every team across MLB. Earlier this week, we checked in on the MVP race in both the American League and the National League as players around the game gear up for the second half. Those races are dominated by position players, so today we’ll turn our attention more firmly towards the league’s pitchers. Who are the frontrunners for the Cy Young Award in both leagues? We’ll be taking a look at some of the top candidates this week, starting with the American League today:

Tarik Skubal

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner tops the list of contenders again this year. Somehow, Skubal has been even more dominant than he was last year. Through 16 starts and 102 innings, he has improved his ERA (2.29), FIP (2.11), strikeout rate (32.1%), walk rate (3.3%), SIERA (2.46), and xERA (2.61) relative to his full season numbers last year. He’s even pitching slightly deeper into games so far this year, averaging 6.37 innings per start as compared to last year’s 6.19.

For a hurler who won the pitching Triple Crown in the AL last year to improve upon that performance the very next year is remarkable, and Skubal figures to remain the favorite to win the award for a second consecutive season if he can maintain this level of production going forward. There’s plenty of competition in the AL, however, so even a minor slip up down the stretch could give the edge to another candidate.

Garrett Crochet

Crochet has been nearly as dominant as Skubal in many respects. After breaking out with the White Sox last year and getting traded to the Red Sox over the offseason, he’s turned in a 2.06 ERA and 2.53 FIP across 17 starts. Crochet leads the majors with 109 1/3 innings pitched, and while his 31.3% strikeout rate is just behind that of Skubal, he’s still struck out more batters (135) than any pitcher in baseball this year. While Crochet and Skubal appear to be more or less equals on paper, with Crochet having a lower ERA and an extra start under his belt while Skubal has stronger peripheral numbers, there are some other factors working against Boston’s ace.

Crochet is more or less untested in the second half after throwing just 40 2/3 innings after July 6 last year. After that date, the lefty never recorded an out in the fifth inning or later and topped out at just 77 pitches in an outing. Even with that less strenuous workload, his numbers suffered as he posted a 4.87 ERA down the stretch. Chicago’s decision to handle Crochet gently down the stretch last year was an understandable one given his injury history, but it creates some uncertainty about how he’ll handle the first true full-season starter’s workload of his career. Additionally, Crochet has a 7-4 record on a team that might wind up selling at the trade deadline this year. While the Cy Young is an individual award, some voters consider a pitcher’s record and their team’s success, which could benefit other candidates with more dominant records on clear playoff teams.

Max Fried

Signed to the largest deal for a left-handed pitcher in MLB history this past offseason, Fried has stepped up as the Yankees’ new ace while Gerrit Cole rehabs from Tommy John surgery. Fried has a sterling 1.92 ERA in 17 starts (108 innings), though he’s done so without the gaudy strikeout numbers of other top Cy Young contenders. His 24.5% strikeout rate is above-average but not otherworldly, but he makes up for that by walking just 4.9% of his opponents and generating grounders at a 53.1% rate.

Even with a career-high 6.5% barrel rate allowed this year, Fried remains one of the sport’s best hurlers when it comes to pitching to contact. His 2.74 FIP and 3.17 SIERA are both elite as well, and more traditional voters will love his 10-2 record, which is good for the most pitcher wins in baseball this year and the best winning percentage in the AL.

Hunter Brown

Brown is in the midst of an exciting breakout season with the Astros at just 26 years old. His 1.88 ERA is the lowest figure in all of baseball among qualified starters, and while he has just 91 innings of work under his belt so far, he’s still averaging more than six innings per start. Brown’s heroics have helped push the Astros back to the front of the pack in the AL West after a tough start to the year.

There are some reasons to doubt Brown’s ability to sustain quite this level of dominance. He’s benefited from a .244 BABIP and an 88.4% strand rate. That good fortune on batted balls and sequencing is very likely to regress toward the mean eventually, though his 2.84 FIP and 2.96 SIERA are still excellent thanks largely to a 31.6% strikeout rate, an 8.1% walk rate and a strong 46.8% ground-ball rate.

Kris Bubic

Bubic has picked up the slack for injured ace Cole Ragans in the Kansas City rotation and has put together an elite season that rivals any of his competition on this list. He’s posted an excellent 2.18 ERA, fanned 26% of his opponents and kept his walk rate down at a sharp 7.3%. Bubic has had some good fortune when it comes to home runs, however; only 4.8% of the fly-balls he’s allowed have cleared the fence, as compared to the 15.1% homer-to-fly-ball rate he carried into the season. It’s doubtful he can continue quite that level of home run suppression, but he has the makings of a front-line arm even if a few more of those flies start leaving the yard.

Bubic has tossed 91 innings in 15 starts, averaging just a hair over six frames per outing. It’s worth wondering how he’ll hold up as the season wears on. Bubic underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and pitched just 66 combined innings between the big leagues and minors. His 91 frames are already his most in a season since he pitched 142 2/3 innings in 2022.

Jacob deGrom

This is the healthiest deGrom has been in a half decade, but you wouldn’t notice virtually any layoff based on the results. The multi-time Cy Young winner has posted a 2.08 ERA and 3.02 FIP across 95 1/3 innings in his age-37 season. He’s set down 25.9% of his opponents on strikes and only walked 5.5% of the batters he’s faced. deGrom had some short starts early, but he’s averaging nearly 6 1/3 innings per outing with a 1.67 ERA dating back to April 18.

As with Bubic, there are workload questions. This is already the most innings deGrom has pitched in a season since 2019. He’s only 33 1/3 innings away from matching his combined total from 2022-24 (majors and minors included).

Other Options

The field of potential AL Cy Young candidates this year is a very deep one. Framber Valdez remains one of the sport’s top ground ball pitchers with a 59.5% grounder rate to go alongside his 2.88 ERA and 3.04 FIP in 16 starts. Joe Ryan has a 2.86 ERA, including a 2.38 mark over the past two months. Drew Rasmussen boasts a 2.45 ERA, but his 84 1/3 innings place him more than 30 frames behind the league leaders. They’re all pitching well enough that a big second half could get them in the conversation. Nathan Eovaldi has an absurd 1.56 ERA on the season, but he’s missed the past month with triceps inflammation. Relievers Andrés Muñoz (18 saves, 1.21 ERA), Aroldis Chapman (14 saves, 1.36 ERA) and Josh Hader (21 saves, 1.73 ERA) have all been brilliant, but it’s hard enough for relievers to get consideration in a normal season — let alone one where the top group of starters has performed this well.

Who do you think will ultimately come out on top in AL Cy Young voting? Will Skubal reign supreme once again, or could another challenger step up to claim the trophy? Have your say in the poll below:

Tigers Designate Matt Gage For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated left-handed reliever Matt Gage for assignment, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. His spot on the roster goes to lefty Dietrich Enns, whose contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Toledo (a move that was first reported earlier in the week).

Gage, 32, signed a minor league deal over the winter and was selected to the big league roster a couple weeks ago. He’s tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings out of A.J. Hinch’s bullpen, albeit with a sub-par 3-to-2 K/BB ratio (12% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate). It’s the third season in which Gage has seen major league time. Despite having enjoyed success in small samples during all three seasons — Gage has a career 1.42 ERA — he’s only gotten 25 1/3 innings in the big leagues.

Detroit is Gage’s third major league team in three seasons. He’s also suited up for the Blue Jays and Astros. The lefty has fanned 22.5% of his opponents against a 10.8% walk rate. He’s never been an especially hard thrower, but this year’s 91.9 mph average fastball is down noticeably from the 94 mph he averaged with the Astros in 2023. Be that as it may, Gage pitched well with the Tigers and was excellent in Triple-A Toledo prior to his promotion as well: 32 1/3 innings, 1.67 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate. That’s Gage’s seventh season logging time in Triple-A. He has a career 4.64 earned run average at the top minor league level. He’s logged a 4.64 ERA in 316 1/3 innings there and recorded a 20.9% strikeout rate with an 8.1% walk rate.

Gage is out of minor league options, so the Tigers didn’t have the ability to simply send him to the minors without first exposing him to waivers. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, he can be traded or placed on waivers at any point in the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so we’ll know within the next week what Gage’s next step is. Because Gage has been outrighted in the past, he’ll have the option to elect free agency and explore opportunities with other teams if he passes through waivers unclaimed once again.

Tigers To Select Dietrich Enns For Thursday’s Game

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The Tigers are going to select left-hander Dietrich Enns to the roster to start Thursday’s game, as first reported by @juiceyballl. The southpaw will have to be added to the 40-man and active rosters beforehand.

Enns, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in the offseason. He has since made 14 Triple-A starts, logging 62 1/3 innings with 2.89 earned runs allowed per nine. He has struck out 26.7% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 5.6% clip and getting grounders on 41.5% of balls in play.

That strong performance will get Enns back to the majors, which has been a long and winding road. He previously made two appearances with the 2017 Twins and then another nine with the 2021 Rays. That stint with Tampa was pretty decent, as he had a 2.82 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate in 22 1/3 innings.

Despite those solid numbers, he may not have felt great about his job security going into 2022, as he was out of options. He decided to head overseas and signed with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He had a strong performance that year, tossing 122 1/3 innings with a 2.94 ERA. He stuck with the Lions for 2022 but his results backed up, posting a 5.17 ERA over 12 starts. He then headed to Korea for the 2024 season, signing with the LG Twins. He made 30 starts for that club last year with a 4.19 ERA.

In the past month-plus, the Tigers have lost Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe to the injured list, blowing two holes in their rotation. Olson has been battling finger inflammation while Jobe required Tommy John surgery. In recent weeks, they have had a rotation core of Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Sawyer Gipson-Long, with Keider Montero also pitching in a sort of bulk role.

Montero was optioned to the minors recently, so Enns will step in for him. It’s unclear if Enns will get to make more than one start, however, as Olson is going to be back soon. Per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, he’s making another rehab start tomorrow and the club hopes he can return after that. Perhaps that means this will just be a spot start for Enns, though Gipson-Long also has options and could be bumped for Olson’s return instead. As mentioned, Enns is out of options. If the Tigers plan to bump him off the roster after his outing, he’ll effectively need to be designated for assignment.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Jack Flaherty Escalates 2026 Player Option Value To $20MM

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Jack Flaherty had a forgettable start this evening, allowing eight runs without escaping the third inning at Tampa Bay. He’s likely to take a loss as a result, but he did check off a notable contractual milestone.

This was Flaherty’s 15th start of the season. His two-year free agent deal only guaranteed $10MM for the 2026 campaign, but that escalated by another $10MM once he reached 15 starts this year. Flaherty can opt out after this season, but he’ll now officially be weighing a $20MM call once the winter arrives.

It may wind up being immaterial. Flaherty certainly expected to opt out when he signed a two-year, $35MM guarantee. He was reportedly seeking a five-year deal early in the offseason, presumably one that’d get him to nine figures. The market didn’t materialize, leading to a modified pillow contract. He’s making $25MM this season and hoped for another swing at the long-term deal when he hit free agency at age 30.

That’s still the goal. Flaherty’s second season in Detroit has been inconsistent. He took a 4.03 earned run average into tonight’s start. It’s pushing 5.00 after that disastrous outing. Flaherty has been hit hard in consecutive appearances. He gave up seven runs to Cincinnati across 4 2/3 innings last time out. The two blow-ups have followed his best stretch of the year. Flaherty went six innings in each of his three starts between May 27 and June 8. He allowed one combined run while recording 21 strikeouts.

Flaherty has punched out more than 28% of opposing hitters. That’s in line with last season’s near-30% rate. He has had escalating home run issues over the past couple years, though. The option decision isn’t the focus anytime soon, but it’ll be a subplot of his second half. Flaherty has never received a qualifying offer, so the Tigers would be able to QO him if he opts out.

Tigers Release John Brebbia

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The Tigers have released right-hander John Brebbia, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That was the likely outcome after he was designated for assignment a few days ago. He’s now free to sign with any club.

Brebbia, 35, signed with the Tigers in the offseason. The one-year deal guaranteed him $2.75MM in the form of a $2.25MM base salary and a $500K buyout on a $4MM club option for 2026. The Tigers clearly didn’t get the return they were hoping for on that investment. Brebbia missed about three weeks due to a right triceps strain. Around that, he tossed 18 2/3 innings with a 7.71 earned run average, 21.5% strikeout rate and 11.8% walk rate.

Given that performance and the money he is still owed, no club would be interested in taking on that contract. However, now that he’s been released, the Tigers remain on the hook for the money. Any other club could sign Brebbia and would only have to pay him the prorated version of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Tigers pay.

At that price point, Brebbia may find clubs who are interested in a bounceback, as his numbers prior to this year were far better than his 2025 results. From 2017 to 2024, he tossed 355 major league innings with a 3.80 ERA, 25.9% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate.

Last year, his ERA spiked to 5.86, but everything under the hood seemed normal. His 27.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate were still strong figures. The extra runs seemed to come from some bad luck, with a .317 batting average on balls in play and 67.1% strand rate. His 4.52 FIP and 3.29 SIERA pointed towards positive regression, which is likely why the Tigers invested in him.

The regression clearly hasn’t come to pass. Some of it may still be luck, as his .339 BABIP and 56.6% strand rate this year are worse than last year’s. His own performance is also part of it because, as mentioned, his strikeout and walk rate have moved in the wrong direction. But it’s possible the triceps injury has been impacting him for part of this year. Given the number of pitching injuries around the league, Brebbia should find interest from clubs looking for low-cost solutions.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

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