The Tigers announced today that they’ve re-signed right-hander Gerson Moreno to a minor league contract and sent Pete Kozma outright to Triple-A after he cleared waivers.
Detroit released the 22-year-old Moreno last week to open a spot on the 40-man roster, and it was later revealed by GM Al Avila that the promising young pitching prospect required Tommy John surgery. By releasing him, Detroit was able to create a needed 40-man vacancy but keep him in the organization. Both MLB.com and Fangraphs ranked him among the organization’s top 30 prospects entering the season, with Eric Longenhagen calling him a potential setup man whose fastball can touch 99 mph. Moreno has averaged better than 11 strikeouts per nine innings over the past two seasons, but he struggled to a 5.29 ERA and averaged 7.4 walks per nine innings in 2018 before undergoing season-ending surgery.
Kozma, meanwhile, was designated for assignment last week when the Tigers activated Miguel Cabrera from the disabled list. He’d been serving in a utility role for Detroit, but the Tigers have since called up 26-year-old Ronny Rodriguez, who’d been hitting quite well in Triple-A Toledo and can fill that same utility role on their roster. The 30-year-old Kozma hit .175/.195/.300 in 41 plate appearances for the Tigers this season before being cut from the 40-man roster. He has the ability to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency, though Detroit’s announcement gave no indication that the former Cardinals shortstop has any plans to do so.
I’m kinda confused on why they just didn’t put him on the 60 day dl? Couldn’t another team done that and claimed him?
Yes, but on release waivers, he could have denied the waiver claim and still resigned with Detroit. Not sure why he would do this because if another team did claim him, they’d have to pay him the major league minimum. Obviously, the Tigers more likely did not want to pay him a major league salary. They probably didn’t want to start his service time clock either, but given his performance, this was likely a secondary concern.