The Tigers have reinstated right-hander Jordan Zimmermann from the injured list and selected lefty Nick Ramirez, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com tweets. In other moves, they optioned righties John Schreiber and Kyle Funkhouser and moved a pair of players – righty Ivan Nova and outfielder JaCoby Jones – to the 45-day IL.
Zimmermann, out all season with forearm issues, will make his 2020 debut with a start against the Cardinals on Thursday. Surprisingly, the 34-year-old will rejoin a team with at least a glimmer of a playoff chance as the regular season runs out of time. The Tigers haven’t qualified for the playoffs in any season since they signed Zimmermann, a former Nationals standout, to a five-year, $110MM contract before 2016, but they’re alive this year with a 19-22 record.
Of course, the failed Zimmermann deal is among the many reasons Detroit has struggled so much in recent years. Zimmermann has only given the Tigers 508 2/3 innings of 5.61 ERA/4.86 FIP ball so far. No matter how this season ends, though, Zimmermann seems likely to end up in search of a new organization soon as a pending free agent.
Ramirez, 31, made his major league debut with the Tigers last year and performed respectably, recording a 4.07 ERA/4.51 FIP across 79 2/3 innings from their bullpen. He logged 8.36 K/9, 3.95 BB/9 and a 46.2 percent groundball rate in the process.
Let’s see if he can get that ERA up into the 7’s this year!
Why are they bringing back Zimmerman….nice guy….but put a fork on him because he is done!!!!
Agree
He’ll be our best SP when he gets back, yeah I said it.
He will win the Cy Young next year for someone. His 110 million paid out was the worst contract in Tigers history. Worse than Prince Fielders trade where they still paid 6 million for like 5 years!
Zimmerman back? I guess the Tigers are throwing in the towel.
Was thinking the same thing. Guy wont blow ot past anybody
Noooooo!!!
I see the Tigers are throwing in the towel after getting bombed 19-0 today.
All kidding aside, Tigers needed some fresh arms with all the games they are playing in a row and liked Nick Ramirez last year. As much as Tiger fans hate Zimmermann, he goes out and gives it his all and does not make excuses.
You must be talking about another Zimmerman. This guy has never admitted he was just lousy after one of his lousy outings.
If you want to see someone who took responsibility for lousy outings without making excuses, look up some of Anibal Sanchez’s old post game comments when he was struggling.
My gosh…19-0???!!!! And that’s without Zimmerman throwing gas on the fire. His start tomorrow will be…….better than today’s?
I sure hope the Tigers are glad they held onto contractual control of Matthew Boyd while he has lost total control of his fastball.
How will next season’s draft order shake out? It would stink for teams like Baltimore and Detroit to miss out on likely top 5 or top 10 selections due to fluke playoff contention in a 60-game season.
The best scenario would be to combine the records of 2019 and 2020.
As for Zimmermann, hopefully he can experience a late career renaissance on a different team with a minor-league pact this offseason. He was really formidable with Washington.
It’s fair business for the Tigers to not drop but to play Zimmermann. However, tomorrow will be a difficult task after his absence.
Ramirez was decent last year and seemed to be close both in spring and in summer. Is Burrows not available? He might need innings even more.
Gruß,
BSHH
Expecting to see Zimmermann in Atlanta next year on a one year make-good contract.
Glad to see that Nick Ramirez is getting his chance. He pitched well last year (winning record on the worse team in MLB and an ERA a run and a quarter below team average). He should have been on the team from the start.
Now if we can just get them to get to find a way to get Jacob Robson on the roster.
I honestly keep forgetting he’s still pitching.
Obviously, a message to the pitching staff, as was a position player pitching the 9th in today’s game.
Just another reason why Al Avila is simply the worst GM in pro sports, period! You are gonna put a guy in your rotation who has done NOTHING but allow a ton of runs the last 5 years (and got paid $110M to do so) when you have a slight glimmer of hope for a playoff spot? Please someone explain how this makes even a marginal bit of sense? What a joke….
Whom would you suggest? Their starting pitching has been awful.
Skubal has been pretty sharp! Love him!
I would suggest anyone in the 60 player pool (or even off of waivers) that has not proven over the last 5 years of opportunities that he is by far the worst pitcher in baseball. If you go by the numbers or simply the eye test, he is the worst pitcher in the game, period. Yes, the rotation is brutal and was going to be brutal, but why would you start JZ who has STOLEN $110M from your wallet? Start Burrows or Faedo or any other prospect to see what you have in the little baseball that’s left. Don’t start a guy who has been terrible and even if he came back and had success will still be gone in a few weeks anyways. Just an opinion, but one that I feel strongly about as this has been a dumpster fire of a signing from the jump.
Jordan Zimmerman = Doyle Alexander.
LMAO! But we didn’t give up John Smoltz for JZ! Lol