6:54pm: The Tigers have announced the signing. They designated catcher Eric Haase for assignment in a corresponding move. Haase, whom Detroit acquired from division-rival Cleveland last winter, collected 19 plate appearances for the Tigers in 2020. The 28-year-old owns a .122/.170/.184 line in 53 major league PA.
5:08pm: The Tigers have agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent right-hander Jose Urena, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. It’s a $3.25MM pact, Robert Murray of FanSided reports. The contract comes with up to $250K in incentives based on games started, according to Heyman. Urena is a client of Kelly Kinzer.
Detroit will be the second major league organization for Urena, a 29-year-old who pitched in the bigs with the Marlins from 2015-20. Urena enjoyed a couple of respectable seasons in Miami from 2017-18, during which he recorded a 3.90 ERA/4.68 FIP with 6.36 K/9, 3.01 BB/9 and a 46.3 percent groundball rate across 343 2/3 innings.
At his best, Urena looked like a potential building block for the Marlins’ rotation, but the team soured on him after he was unable to offer much positive production during the previous two seasons. Urena threw 108 frames from 2019-20, including 23 1/3 last season, and combined for a subpar 5.25 ERA/5.02 FIP. Despite a fastball that clocked in at 95.5 mph, Urena notched one of his lowest strikeout rates of his career last season with 5.79 per nine and registered by far his highest BB/9 (5.01). The Marlins then non-tendered Urena in lieu of paying him a projected $3.8MM to $4.2MM via arbitration.
Urena will now look to get back on track in Detroit, which has Matthew Boyd, Spencer Turnbull, Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris and Tyler Alexander as veterans with at least some degree of starting experience. Meanwhile, prospects Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Tarik Skubal don’t seem far away from vying for full-time roles. Urena figures to be a stopgap for the Tigers, then, but they clearly regard him as an interesting reclamation project.
I’m sure he’s glad to hear it.
Next move for GM Avila will be signing his own son….
Nice pickup for the Tigers. Possible a 4th or 5th starter.
I agree i think this will be one of the most underrated moves and one that pays off big time.
I’m not sold. Jose Urena is wild. Every other year, every one of Al Avila’s acquisitions are bombs.
This guy is a gas can with a bad attitude. The only thing big will be his ERA, especially in the AL.
I want Tim Anderson to do the biggest bat flip off this clown.
why Tim’s aint gonna be better than Acuna
Would be consistent, only bat flipping 90+ loss teams rather than contenders or in games that matter.
I hope EVERYONE bat flips on this guy.
I hope Urena hits him in the earhole…serves his suspension, and does it again.
You sound like a nice, reasonable person.
Show up the pitcher, suffer consequences. That’s reasonable.
Don’t give up a home run then, it’s that simple.
Don’t catch the ball with your face, it’s that simple.
Slow down there, Avila. Leave some for the other teams.
And with the Gurneau signing earlier today Avila is a shoe-in for GM of the year.
He will lock that up when he signs Alex.
Glad he’s out of the nl east
I’m not, I like scoring runs
Not me, I enjoyed the Braves teeing off on him and showing everyone how weak he is
Freeman beat mercilessly on him. 9 XBH (4 HR) in 31 AB with a 1.000 OPS vs. Ureña. Come on back, Jose.
yeah, enjoyed beating up on him
No more back and fourth with him and Acuña Jr.
again, hard to see teams being cheap when deals like this are being thrown out
I think the opposite. Young kid, good arm, can throw 150 innings. You think 3 million is alot? I remember 10 mil, a few years ago, being the cost for a #4.
29 is a “young kid”?
Not a huge signing, not that I expected the Tigers to make a huge signing. Still, was hoping the Tigers would go for a little better than this for their rotation. And maybe they will. Still a lot of talent on the market.
And lets face it, players have a say in where they go. Tigers have a lot to offer guys looking for a rebound season. But that does not mean they might not hold out for a contending team.
At least he’s likely better than Nova or Zimmermann! Can’t get worse than those two.
His numbers look like Mike Trombley’s. At least they got him for less than 2/$16MM.
Pelfrey
I like this for the tigers.
I’m glad he won’t be hitting Acuna anymore.
So the Tigers now have a Urenary Tract infection
got ‘em.
$3.25 mil for him lol. I guess Covid didnt affect these payrolls like I thought they would.
Fills a spot and will eat some innings, which Detroit needs. Eaton 1/14 lifetime vs the fiery Dominican so let’s debut “Youklis” Cespedes against Detroit-whom we face 7 times in 13 days come early June.
I would have preferred they wait until later in the offseason. They might have been able to get a better player for the same money.
On the other hand, new pitching coach Chris Fetter is going to be a magician, and maybe this was his selection.
Thinking this will be a shrewd signing for Detroit.
Another player Don Mattliey ruined, I look for a complete turnaround.
As a Dodger fan, I don’t recall Mattingly earning a reputation for ruining young players. It’s kind of the opposite. He’s excellent with young players, which is why the Marlins are keeping him around. The Marlins are fundamentally sound compared to division opponents like the Phillies and Mets. Mattingly and his staff deserve quite a bit of credit for that.
The Marlins almost put this guy on waivers a couple years ago but kept him to try and eat up innings. He never pulled his own weight and they didn’t need him anymore
Good signing. Depending on how quickly Detroit”s young SPs develop, he has the potential to be an asset out of the bullpen. A sleeper signing with a decent chance to pay off.
Another possible sleeper is Julio Teherán. He tested positive for Covid prior to the 2020 re-start and it wound up being a lost season for him. But he was decent in the previous seven seasons, making 30-plus starts in each of them while logging between 175 and 221 innings and posting a 19.8 WAR. He turns 30 on January 27. Not an ace, but a good rebound candidate. He’s the kind of guy who can help stabilize a rebuilding team’s young rotation.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the Tigers sign Teheran at all. Aside from last years atrocious numbers, he had been one of the most consistent, and underrated starters in the league. If he can get back to, or close to that level, he would be a great signing.
He’ll be looking to rebuild his value. Low-risk for the Tigers. If he does well, they can move him to a contender at the deadline to further enhance the rebuild. Or they can just keep him. Just a hunch that the new staff in Detroit will do well with pitchers.
You’d mind very quickly once you saw him pitch. Teheran is miserably bad and has been for a while.
This is one of the guys I wanted to see the Tigers go after. Just seems to make perfect sense on a 1 year bridge deal. He was decent in the past, maybe Fetter can help him get back to, or better than, that level. Dahl was another guy I thought made perfect sense, but apparently Avila felt differently, smh.
Would like to see them go after Hanser Alberto next, solid contact hitting infield option. Would really love to see them sign Tanaka, tho that’s not gonna happen. I could see a reunion with Porcello still. Perhaps bringing in a Quintana or Rodon, as both are familiar with the division. I still fully expect to see Avila resign his son at some point as well lmao. Still desperately need OF help and left-handed hitters. So I think Profar, Mazara or Gamel could still make sense, and happen. Would love to see them go after Kim from Korea, but I don’t see it happening. Probably still will sign at least 1 or 2 RP as well. Plenty of things they can do to make the team better right now. Here’s hoping Avila at least does something.
Incremental improvement. Bring in guys who can contribute while the kids develop. You don’t have to do it all at once. Faidi is doing an excellent job with that approach in San Francisco. Do that and you might even uncover a keeper every now and then as the Giants have done with Yastrzemski and Solano. They’re also getting decent mileage out of guys like Alex Dickerson and Wilmer Flores. None of these moves were seen as earth-shattering at the time but they have helped the team gradually get better. Rebuilds don’t have to be painful to watch.
I love our new coaching staff in Detroit, but cannot STAND Al Avila as a GM. He has got to have the worst rep at signing FA’s for a GM that is still employed (Zimmerman, Jordy Mercer, Austin Romine, etc). The only draft picks that have worked out are the absolutely obvious ones like Mize and Torkelson (maybe outside of Riley Greene). This rebuild should be showing signs of life by now and we just aren’t. His trades have been abysmal (3 years of JV for nothing, JD Martinez for squat in ’18). If he is still in charge of this franchise when Chris Illitch supposedly loosens the purse strings in 2022, then I am absolutely terrified of who he’ll sign and for how much. But hoping like hell that AJ Hinch and Chris Fetter can work with our young prospects and get all we can from them, b/c Al Avila will be no help whatsoever!
I am waiting patiently for the day Avila is removed from his duties as GM lmao. I have never seen someone utterly fail at their job year in and year out and still have as much job security as he does. But it all starts at the top. The Ilitch children are not their father, I don’t think they really have a desire to win. They seem to have the game plan of do as little as possible, and hope it somehow turns out alright. Certainly doesn’t inspire any confidence lmao.
That’s a whole lotta nothing spread out over too many sentences. Torkelson’s on the “worked out” list? How so? Was Jody Mercer supposed to be the straw that stirred the drink? Not really ham-stringing the team much. Avila (& David Chadd) are pretty good at drafting, especially power arms. No love for the Skubal pick? Riley Greene toast already?
racosun, fans have a hard time being patient with a rebuild. It’s understandable. However, if I was a Tigers fan, I would be looking ahead to 202`1 with great optimism. Though they won’t be a contender, it is a time when some of those young arms might take a leap forward. The biggest concern is player development in the likelihood that the minor league season is severely shortened. It’s particularly critical to a team like the Tigers who are (rightfully) building around pitching. A regimen needs to be established for those pitchers so they can both improve and remain healthy. Best of luck to your team. Real progress is being made, even if it’s not evident in the won/loss column. I will be checking out some Tigers games on MLB TV.
Thanks for the optimism, Cey! I re-upped on a sweet mini-season package for the first time in four years (since the JV, JD, J Up days). I’m looking forward to AJ, Fetter, and some big-time player development.
Actually if you read my post I mentioned Riley Greene. But as for AA, yeah ive got no love for him. Its really easy to pick Mize and Torkelson as both 1-1 picks. And Skubal was a great 9th round find. But name me others outside of Matt Manning that’s panned out so far? And give me a trade or a FA signing that’s really worked out? Crickets……
Isaac Paredes; thanks for playing.
While its obviously early (he’s just 21) its a bit too soon to say he worked out. .568 OPS in 2020 after all. But for the most part he’s swung and missed his entire tenure as GM. His more recent trades have been better. His FA signings have for the most part been overpaying for disastrous results.
He traded Wilson and his son to get the organization’s now #6 prospect. Forgiving up just about nothing this looks like a promising trade. i was replying to this nonsense:
“give me a trade or a FA signing that’s really worked out”
Again, saying its too early to say it “worked out”. I agree the trade was a good exchange. They got Candelario in that trade as well. Could end up being a steal. I thought the return on Shane Greene was decent too. And the JV trade looked ok at the time. Still have zero confidence in the guy.
Parades & Candelario for Avila & Wilson. For a Rule 5 pick, Reyes was a sound pick up. Schoop was good last year. Lots of teenage international signings in the low minors a few years off
Nice pick up Al did you look at his stats? 15 runs in 23.1 innings and 0-3 and started 5 games. He won’t make it out of the 2nd inning
It was a 60-game season. Why are you focusing on his 2020 stats? The Tigers are rebuilding. He is a good pickup for what the team needs for now.
He may have tools, but I would have preferred someone who has gotten results. Urena’s best numbers are uninspiring. I sincerely doubt he will better them in Detroit. Tehran does sound like the better choice all around. I would have liked Mike Fiers brought back. Nothing wrong with 5 reliable innings.
Ureña is a better fit with the Pirates or a better NPB team.
That is just harsh to say the Pirates needed him. I think that train has left the dock a long time ago. He can stay in Detroit or somewhere else. Pirates don’t need another project since their biggest project is tanking the season on some AAAA players at half the cost of Urena
Actually, it would be for quite a bit less and the NPB is a better fit anyways.
Definitely a change of scenery can do you good situation for Urena. For the Tigers maybe they found a bargain they can flip at the deadline.
I’ll miss the tension when he faced Ronald Acuna in the batters box!
One good year…..maybe he’ll get another
I really wanted the jays to sign Urena, i think he could be a good starter. Hes deffanitly the type of player any team could justify taking a chance on
Could have been worse…another year of Ivan Nova, Jordan Zimmermann, or Tyson Ross.
Hopefully he can help the back end, but was hoping for a return of Porcello
For the love of Ray Oyler, will someone please give Eric Haase enough steady at bats in 2021 until he inches up to a pre-arranged and fairly-negotiated minimum lifetime batting average?
I’m not talking only up to something like an Oyler-worthy .135. More like .176. Proud enough should be he and may he forever cocksurely strut about as a bona fide big leaguer while not fearing the scornful humiliation that surely the lesser of us will but heap upon the likes of 122.
Even Haase’s one-day Utica, Michigan, hitting students are likely to lay disrespect and resistance upon the enfeebled teachings of Mr. .122. Give him a modicum of earning power. Allow him the juice to charge the blithely stupid parents of at least tween level if not above. Don’t banish the poor man to kneeling at the tee of actual T-ballers for a living. This .122 nonsense will never garner for Eric Haase an autograph show slot. Not even at the Yuma event.
Yes, this humble correspondent does indeed carry an MLB batting average of n/a. Still, hear this appeal to each of your good graces. Give the guy, this Kevin Costner baseball lifer portrayed by a real baseball person in real baseball life, this one lonely but precious gift that by the way he has earned the old time, hard-scrabbled way
Covid procedures long ago led to new outrages in long and closely-held protocols. These occur each and every day without much if any fuss, So. Do Haase this for me. I would consider it a personal favor.
Or not. No skin off my nose.
Hoping the Tigers re-sign Haase to a minor league deal.
I agree, the biggest kick in the pants w/ this signing is designating Haase and allowing Greiner to have the dish.
I would like the Orioles to pickup Haase. Could be a great depth piece at AAA.
Hoping the Tigers re-sign Haase to a minor league deal.
Boston’s deal with Andriese is a better deal than this one. Urena has become too hittable over the last two seasons and seems to be a shell of his former self. At least Andriese can pitch effectively out of the bullpen and strike out 9.5 batters/9 innings. He’s $1.5M cheaper too.
If I had to chose between playing in BOS or DET (for the same salary) it would Boston every single time.. and I’m a tigers fan. DET literally has to outbid the other 29. I think it’s that cut and dry. I would absolutely take Andriese and is his contract over Urena and his. But, I believe DET is looking at Urena as a SP where Boston is looking at Andriese in a relief role
I’m so happy he is gone. They tried him being a reliever and it didn’t work. I also fully believe it was his idea to hit Acuna that time and not something from the manager or anything. He has a good fastball and nothing else. When his breaking ball is executed it’s actually very good but the only problem is he executes it MAYBE ten percent of the time. If the Tigers can fix him then good for him. But the Marlins are building a strong clubhouse with good people and he is not one of them so good riddance
The Tigers hired a very young (33) pitching coach who is very analytical with excellent coaching skills. He was highly sought after by other teams as well. He seems to fit in with AJ Hinch. My gut feel is that Urena was his idea – someone he could fix. We will see. Either way, $3.5 mill. isn’t going to break the bank and no one player could vault the Tigers into the postseason in 2021.
Ariel Juraldo and Foster Griffin interested me more, as far as outlook/ceiling/cost/team-control goes. But, I understand the signing. We need inning eaters, and if he can get back on track to his 2017-2018 self, all the better. I still would love to see Kluber or Wainwright wearing the old English D. Now is the time to extend or trade Norris; losing him in FA doesn’t help anyone. Plus his value hasn’t been this high in a long-long time.
Tiger’s recent history bringing in SP’s on one year deals has not gone well…injury-wise. If it goes as it has recently, Urena will be on the DL by June 1.
Too bad the Tiger’s can’t trade fairweather fans.
If you ain’t a wee bit cynical you ain’t a real Tiger fan.
The tigers give out contracts like it’s Christmas every day of the year