Here are Monday’s minor moves from around the game…
- The Tigers announced that they’ve granted right-hander Chris Smith his unconditional release. The 30-year-old had been in Major League camp as a non-roster invitee who’d hoped to secure a roster spot, but those hopes were dashed when he learned late last month that he required Tommy John surgery. Smith underwent the procedure last week, tweets Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. The right-hander made his MLB debut with the Blue Jays in 2017, tossing five innings of relief, and he spent the 2018 season with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, where he worked to a 3.93 ERA with 10.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 1.15 HR/9 and a 32.2 percent ground-ball rate in 55 innings. MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery tweets that Smith plans to spend the year rehabbing his elbow with an eye toward a return to baseball in 2020.
His brothers Trade and Mark make good cough drops.
Just curious, are the Tigers on the hook for the cost of the surgery? And how much does Tommy John surgery cost anyway?
The club is responsible if the surgery happened while under contract. Not sure why he would ask for his release though given that he will be out all of 2019 anyway.