The Tigers have acquired right-hander Dario Agrazal from the Pirates in exchange for cash, the team announced. (Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reported the move, via Twitter, minutes before it was formally announced.) Agrazal was designated for assignment last week when Pittsburgh set its 40-man roster in advance of next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Detroit’s 40-man roster is now full.
Agrazal, 24, logged 73 1/3 innings with the Pirates in 2019 but struggled to a 4.91 ERA with 5.0 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 1.84 HR/9 and a 39.9 percent grounder rate. He’s typically demonstrated strong control and posted better ground-ball rates in the minors. Agrazal also has a minor league option remaining, so the Tigers will be able to shuttle him between Toledo and Detroit as rotation depth next season — so long as he survives the winter on the team’s 40-man roster.
The Tigers’ rotation is perilously thin at the moment, with Matthew Boyd, Jordan Zimmermann, Spencer Turnbull and Daniel Norris representing the likeliest options. Righty Michael Fulmer will be returning from Tommy John surgery as well, but he didn’t go under the knife until the end of March in 2019, meaning there’s no guarantee he’ll be back for Opening Day.
That said, the Tigers have a number of high-end pitching prospects looming on the horizon, led by 2018 No. 1 overall draft pick Casey Mize. Detroit also has Matt Manning, Alex Faedo, Beau Burrows, Tarik Skubal and Franklin Perez working through the upper minors, and it’d be both surprising and disappointing if that collection of arms didn’t produce a couple of MLB-caliber rotation pieces. The acquisition of Agrazal lessens any need to rush that group to the big leagues, though, and provides some additional depth in the event of injuries to the starters on which the Tigers currently expect to rely.
Further additions remain possible, of course; the Tigers added Tyson Ross and Matt Moore on perfectly reasonable, low-risk one-year pacts last offseason. Although neither move panned out, the logic behind each was apparent, and a similar pickup or two this winter wouldn’t be particularly surprising.
This. Changes. Everything.
Take the time you spent to post this gem of a comment and read up on organizational depth moves, especially for a team who is in middle of a rebuild.
And, in case you went right to typing before researching (cant imagine this was the case ever), you are looking at potential back of the rotation starter, innings eater that could be flipped for a small return in July if he pitches well. Oh, and its low risk. But you already knew that, didnt you???
It’s not like tigers have literally 21 pitchers on the 40 man now….
I takes just one of the 21 to pan out, Einstein.
“pan out”? are you serious? You don’t pay cash for someone that has even a 1% chance of “panning out” – organizational depth for sure, but “back of the rotation starter” is absurd.
Wow. Drama Queen much?
Go get bent.
My, my, clepto the day must not have been going well for you to attack someone engaging in a bit of light-hearted sarcasm. You need to have your gall bladder checked.
Means Epstein didn’t kill himself.
I didn’t know until this day that it was Barzini all along.
I think you said this once before about a Ryan Lamarre signing?? It was true then, and it’s true again. Hilarious.
Mama June approves.
It’s Enrico Pallatzo!
Somewhere, in an umpires room, Enrico is screaming :)
Bunch of bombs in the air!!!
All jokes aside this could turn out to be a solid move especially for a rebuilding team like Detroit that has nothing to lose
You mean surely this could turn out to be a solid move?
Pirates ownership trades for cash considerations….. color me shocked.
…cash to free up roster spot ahead of rule 5 draft, yet we get a typical yinzer uneducated comment. Color me shocked.
Yeah, you get a lot of that from Pirate fans, that’s for sure.
We call them Yinzers, not Pirates fans.
You get these types of comments from the parrots – those people who are not smart enough or too lazy to read, research, or understand the real reasons things why things happen and rather just harp over and over some tired old mantra again and again.
Bottom feeders….
Yeah. I really want to spend my time researching the Tigers, Pirates or most any team.
You mean not wasting enough time researching bad baseball teams?l
Yet you comment on them.
Perhaps Clepto is frustrated that there are so many Yinzers and he hopes by commenting enough times thusly they will eventually fade away.
We could only hope.
Roster spot was already cleared when they DFA’s Dario. This gets something in return for him instead of eventually losing him for nothing.
The Pirates have enough guys who can muster 5K/9 without Agrazal.
I like that Dario Agrazal has good control. However, he’s seriously prone to give up HRs,
I’ve lost faith in DET’s ability to develop players, regardless who the acquire.
Here come the Yinzers who are suddenly upset the Pirates got rid of Agrazal.
Worthless….why did they not pick up scooter
Well, I was hoping for Alex Wood but this guy, uhm…seems…God damn it, why can’t we sign Alex Wood?
Thank goodness the Tigers pulled the trigger and had the courage, insight and smarts to make this great pickup which will make fans, the public and citizens of Michigan jump for joy. When are they going to get Colton Welker from Colorado?
Citizens of Michigan always have football season to look forward to…. errr, basketba…. hockey? Oh, crap. There’s always three years from now.
He was solid for the Pirates for about a month. Maybe they catch some lightning in a bottle. We’ll see.
Seemed like a decent pitcher but would get hit harder as the game went along. in most cases. He might turn out to be a decent back of the rotation guy or long relief guy if he learned from this season.
Guess Ben popped his bucco Cherington.
*crickets*
Typical yinzer
Figure he’s a DFA candidate in Detroit too, but only if someone better comes along. Overall not a bad move, not a game changer, but solid move. Plus depending on timing he might pass through waivers for them.
Not sure why they did not keep him and DuRupau instead of Vasquez and Dovydas.
Agrazal was actually decent for 3 or 4 innings so he and Brault could have been a tag team for the 5 th spot.
Dario is like an AAAA pitcher but much better than the AAA relievers that they used much of last year.
The Pirates are in love with guys like Holmes and Hartlieb who can throw hard but do not know how to pitch.
This guy may be like Casey Sadler and have a decent year without the strikeouts that are so dearly loved by most.
I wish him good luck with the Tigers.
The Tigers have the 1st pick in the Rule 5 Draft in 2 weeks and a full 40 man roster. There has to be someone in the draft worth the #1 pick. Seems like there’s at least one guy on the 40 man who will have to be DFA’d by 12/9.
Pittsburgh taking cash for players.
Wow, what a business model!!
Start with Ronny Rodriguez…David McKay….there are a number of players the Tigers can easily drop from the 40 man.
With the 26 man roster they can easily stash a player.