Oct. 25: The Tigers have announced all the moves, adding that Coleman, Adduci and Kozma have indeed elected free agency. Castro, it seems, will remain with the organization.
Oct. 24: The Tigers have outrighted shortstop Pete Kozma, right-hander Louis Coleman, first baseman/outfielder Jim Adduci and infielder Harold Castro after each the four cleared waivers, per the team’s transaction page at MLB.com. They’ll join right-hander Artie Lewicki, who did not clear waivers and was claimed by the D-backs, as the first five offseason roster casualties for the Tigers.
Kozma, still just 30 years old, had two stints with the Tigers this season but hit just .217/.236/.348 in 73 trips to the plate. His Triple-A work wasn’t any prettier (.203/.260/.295), though the defensive specialist has always been known more for his glovework than his bat.
Coleman, 32, racked up a fairly significant workload in Detroit this year, tallying 51 1/3 innings out of manager Ron Gardenhire’s bullpen. His 3.51 ERA looks fairly appealing at first glance, but he managed just 7.2 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 and worked off a fastball that averaged 89.1 mph. Coleman benefited from a strand rate (78.8 percent) well north of the league average and a BABIP (.270) that was a good bit shy of the league norm, though both those numbers were in line with his career marks.
The 33-year-old Adduci has spent time with the Tigers in each of the past two seasons but mustered only a .267/.290/.386 batting line in 185 trips to the plate in 2018. The Canadian-born veteran has had plenty of success in Triple-A (career .287/.354/.414 hitter) and also fared well in a pair of seasons with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization (.307/.369/.530).
Castro, 25 next month, went 3-for-10 in his big league debut this season after having his contract selected in late September. He didn’t give the organization much reason for optimism with his Triple-A showing, hitting .257/.270/.310 in 251 plate appearances, and it’s been four years since he was ranked 28th among Tigers farmhands by Baseball America.
All four players — certainly Kozma, Coleman and Adduci — seem likely to become free agents and look for new minor league pacts in the offseason. Both Kozma and Coleman would’ve been arbitration-eligible this offseason, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting Kozma at a modest $700K and Coleman at $1.1MM.
Coleman was effective so why?
They probably just didn’t want to pay him $1.1M. I’m sure he’ll be picked up elsewhere.
He’s a clear regression candidate and I assume they have way better uses for these spots
Heyyyyyyy!
How ’bout them Red Sox???
You mean Tigers AL East version? Ex Tigers have done some in every game tonight 3 RBI and 6 strong innings of pitching!
If you mean Price, JD & Kinsler, then yes!
I mean none of them were drafted by the tigers so…
Porcello….
Jim, Pete, Harold, Louis, and Artie. What is this, the 1930s??
well, there goes those fellas
Clear some roster spots, take on a few bad contracts hoping to net a prospect or 2.
I mean, Tigers could trade for Ellbury and his final 2 years from the Yankees- offer him playing time and a chance to be dealt to a contender and in return pick up a prospect or 2.
Could take Wade Davis contract off the rockies hands or Brian Shaw and ask for prospects to do so.
Could take Carlos Santana off the Phillies hands and look to acquire a prospect or 2 for doing so.
They have the room on their roster to do so. I don’t know the tigers farm that week, but it doesn’t seem like any of their top prospects are going to be fighting for Major league jobs this spring. So I can see maybe 1 position player, probably an outfielder like Ellsbury. But I doubt any of this happens from the yanks. But from Colorado, who needs every penny, I can see it then dealing a contract away with a prospect
Tigers, or any other team, won’t trade for Ellsbury. Even for a prospect. You guys need to stop dreaming.
Danged if I dont like that Santana idea. Instead of one guy for $20m of cap space they may want to do like last year and grab a few cheap bounce back candidates and flip em at the deadline.
Trade Castellanos and trade Fulmer if he is healthy and effective for bat prospects, draft bats this time around, suck in 2019, get Stewart, Candelario and Goodrum a full year of experience and let the guys like Cameron, Paredes, W Castro, Manning, Faedo, Mize and Perez move a step closer. 2020 is the target season to get them up to the bigs or close and 2021 fill in with some FA cash to start a long stretch to compete.
Santana would be Martinez 2.0, and we just got him off the basepaths. Let’s not be in a rush to clog them up again. As for Fulmer, his value is low until he shows he is healthy, so he won’t be moved this winter.
This is werid for me, Jim Adduci did very well for me in my Franchise mode as the tigers.
Weird how video games and real life are different