The Tigers have signed lefty Jairo Labourt to a minor-league deal. He had bounced around the waiver wire this spring and will end up back where he started, in the Detroit organization.
Labourt, 24, has long struggled with free passes, doesn’t excel particularly at generating swings and misses, and doesn’t draw a noteworthy volume of grounders. But he has traditionally succeeded in the minors at generating a hefty volume of infield fly balls while also allowing few home runs.
Whether or not those skills will really translate to the majors is, of course, an open question. Labourt did reach the bigs briefly last year with the Tigers, allowing seven walks and throwing five wild pitches in his six innings. But he also turned in 66 1/3 solid innings over three minor-league levels, working to a 2.17 ERA with 10.7 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9.
Lol – hope he settles down and learns to throw strikes
Lol. Cool I guess
He was one of the top 15 or so prospects in the Tigers organization before getting cut earlier, I wonder how much all this bouncing around will affect that. Glad to see he’s back with us, since he’s got great stuff. He could develop into a great bullpen piece (which Detroit desperately needs) if he works out his command issues with a few years in the minors.
might be a perfect environment
Why sign this loser
He’s 24 not 34 so you sign him and hope he figures it out. He’s NOT major league ready but he throws upper 90’s. It’s mechanical and mental with him which are both fixable things. It’s worth the risk of signing and he’s not on 40 man roster.
i was made when they let him go to begin with cause you don’t let top prospects go. but now, they got him back and it don’t cost a roster spo.t. probably go to triple a to see what he really can do.
Nice to know a prospect no one else wants was willing to sign back with us.
He’s #41 on all rosters.