The Tigers announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Marcos Diplan off waivers from the Twins. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, Detroit placed left-handed reliever Daniel Stumpf on the 60-day injured list due to a left elbow strain.
Minnesota picked up Diplan in a minor July swap with the Brewers, sending cash to Milwaukee after Diplan had been designated for assignment. The 22-year-old righty never pitched in a big league game with the Twins before being designated for assignment himself this past weekend when Minnesota added hard-throwing prospect Jorge Alcala to its MLB roster.
Diplan, in fact, has never pitched at the big league level or even progressed beyond Double-A. He appeared in 38 games between the Double-A affiliates for the Twins and Brewers, totaling 68 2/3 innings of 4.85 ERA ball with 9.6 K/9 against 5.8 BB/9. Diplan was ranked among the Brewers’ 10 to 20 best prospects back in 2017 but has seen his stock dip in recent seasons. As Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote back in ’17, he has an above-average fastball that runs up to 95 mph and a pair of inconsistent but at-times above-average secondary pitches in his changeup and slider.
Control has clearly been an ongoing issue for Diplan, who has averaged nearly five walks per nine innings pitched in his professional career. He has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, however, and given the total lack of certainty in the Detroit bullpen, there’ll be ample opportunities for him in 2020 if he sticks on the 40-man roster over the course of the offseason.
Tight. That’s so tight.
Lolwut?
How does he have only one minor league option left if he’s never pitched in the majors?
Players on the 40-man roster still have to be optioned to a minor league affiliate to begin the season if they don’t break camp with the team.
Thanks Steve!
Brewers were probably gun-shy. im assuming he was selected after 2017. I cant imagine why anyone would have taken him in the Rule 5, but crazier things have happened.
Tiger fan here. Thanks for your sympathy…
I don’t see any reason for this guy to occupy a 40-man spot anywhere. He has never exhibited control, yet doesn’t have those Wow! strikeout numbers (like 12-13 per 9 IP) that make you want to take a chance. The minors are full of chuckers with 97 mph fastballs that can’t get minor leaguers out consistently let alone major leaguers.
Tigers have about 10 spots on their 40 man roster than could be filled with guys just like this. They need to attack the rule 5 guys next winter. Maybe 2 relievers and 2 hitters. They have plenty of room.
You know the rule 5 guys have to be on the ML roster right? If they draft 2 relievers and 2 hitters that’s 4 guys on their ML roster just from the rule 5 draft. Teams don’t even draft 2 rule 5 guys, let alone 4…
Yes. They can be on the roster instead of Hall and Reininger and Rodriguez and Beckham. Or Rogers and Griener… or Edwin Jackson or David McKay… or Zimmermann or Demeritte…
With the new IL manipulation they are doing now, rule 5 guys should be easier to keep. Rosters go up to 26 next year too.
Melchy, I see there’s a lot you don’t like about the Tigers’ roster.
To be fair to Melchy, I think there are many people that don’t like a lot about the Detroit Tigers roster. Not only are they the worst team in the AL Central but they are the worst team in the entire AL as well as MLB as a whole. I don’t think many analysts thought they would have a great season by any stretch but I remember when they got off to a hot start and folks were actually talking about playoff chances for this year! I could be wrong but I think they may have actually been in first place in the AL Central for several games this season. Even before that hot(tish) start they were never expected to be the worst team in the AL Central going into this season. That honor was reserved for the Royals. Some folks had the ChiSox behind Detroit. They definitely weren’t picked to be the worst team in entire American League going into this season. That honor was supposed to go to the Baltimore Orioles. Then after they started off with a much better record than their fans initially anticipated fans figured they might actually be better than their projected middle of the AL Central pack ranking. Low and behold the Detroit Tigers far exceeded expectations and became the worst team in the AL Central, the American League as well as all of MLB as a whole. That has to be disappointing to fans that thought they might have a 3rd place team going into the season and then had their hopes elevated by a first place start. Then, when you consider the massive and unmovable Miggy contract holding them down for the next half decade in addition to the failure to pull the trigger on a Boyd trade when he was at his peak just to watch him almost collapse after the deadline, Detroit fans must be frustrated. At least they have Casey Mize and next years #1 overall pick to look forward to. They are coming to the realization that they will never win a championship as long as Miggy is on their roster with that contract. It is a hard pill to swallow because they have him locked up for 4+ more years at well over $20 mill per year. I believe that before Detroit wins it all they will have to either trade Miggy to offset his salary or just flat out release him and tell themselves that the future $ they pay him is not part of their payroll and won’tt influence their spending decisions. I love the guy. One of the greatest hitters I’ve ever seen. That contract he was offered was idiotic though. It had to be demanded by the owner (Chris Davis-esque). My guess is that the owner was still believing Scott Boras’ hype from the steroid era about how players like Manny Ramirez and A-Rod should be paid like they are going to be super productive through their age 42 season. Steroids ruined this game in more ways than one. The economic effects are still haunting teams like Detroit. I’m not saying Miggy juiced but at the time that contract was offered older guys like A-Rod, Manny and Bonds were still crushing. Assuming those guys didn’t cheat it was reasonable to think Miggy could do the same. Unfortunately they all cheated and no clean players produce like that for that long or at that age. Thanks to that contract extension and a multitude of other factors, this is the worst team MLB has seen in a while. I think tgis years Detroit Tigers are the worst team since the last MLB team that lost 119 games. That team was also the Detroit Tigers. Zero Championships in between. No wonder Tigers fans don’t like much about this roster.
The Miggy contract isn’t that bad. He’s still their best hitter. They had payrolls of $200 mil, now it’s around $114 mil. They lose about $20 mil on expiring contracts this year. They dumped Nick. Zimmermann $25 mil after next year. Miggy is the only big contract.
Attendance will be around 1.5 mil, which is low, but still better than one playoff team and almost as much as two others.
I know tanking is the best way to go. You get some great prospects and then in 5 years or so they come up and you can go on another run. We are in year 3, so only a couple more years of this.
Dombrowski was hired in 2002 and made some great deals and built a top ball club that lasted 10 years. I wonder if they’d consider hiring him back as president to help with this rebuild. The position is vacant. Actually, might be better is move Avila up to president and make DD the GM. DD could try and make his moves but it would have to be approved by AA. DD seems to get a little too free with the money and maybe AA could rein him in.
tigernut2000, What’s to like?
I think their best bet would be to try and trade for other teams rule 5 guys before the rule 5 draft. In that case they just have to be on the 40 man roster, they don’t have to be on the 26 man roster.
I don’t know why the tigers never called up Tim Adleman… one of the only successful aaa pitchers this year cant even get a shot on the worst team?
Didn’t you get the memo? Calling up an actual good bullpen piece would’ve put the worst record in jeopardy and they wouldn’t get the #1 pick in the draft. Plus, it’d interrupt their love affair with Reininger and Sotom don’t ya know?
*Soto
Good question!
I’m with you. Tim Adleman deserved a call up. Now he’s lost forever in the Independent League. I have no idea why this didn’t happen. Years ago, I watched Ian Ostlund get passed by. DD liked his hard throwers and disregarded control pitchers. I felt the Tigers blew that one.
Diplan and his crappy older brother have been middling through our system the last few years. He’s the key as to why the eye test is more important then the top 30 list on teams.
This guy doesn’t seem to promising. 6 walks per nine? Yikes. Why didn’t they claim Zack godley? He seems way more likely to pan out. And has actually gotten big league hitters our. Just not so much this year
Because the Tigers are looking for the next Tyson Ross. Aiming high. If you’re going to lead the league in a pitching category, why not BB? Go get em AA, we have complete faith in your scouting team.
Tigers likely just kicking the tires on this one. They have 15 players I believe that will need to be added to the 40 man this off season or be eligible for the rule 5 draft. So they have 2 weeks to see if he is worth keeping over one of these 15. They will not protect all 15, for sure but expect them to gain a lot of roster space with pending fee agents an several non-tenders.
Why does this team seem destined to be made up of foreign players that don’t speak English?