The Tigers announced the signing of right-hander Drew Hutchison to a minor-league contract. MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery (Twitter link) first reported the news yesterday. Hutchison will not report to Major League Spring Training, but he’ll give the Tigers an experienced arm to stash in Triple-A Toledo.
Hutchison spent the 2020 season in independent ball, after pitching for three different organizations (Angels, Twins, Yankees) at the Triple-A level in 2019. Best known for his time as an up-and-coming young starter with the Blue Jays, Hutchison has a 5.10 ERA and 20.6K% over 460 1/3 career innings in the majors, as he has yet to recapture the promise of his early career.
After debuting in 2012, Hutchison hit an immediate roadblock in the form of a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the entire 2013 season. He also didn’t pitch in the big leagues in 2017 before returning to toss 42 2/3 combined innings for the Phillies and Rangers in 2018, which marks his last appearance in MLB. Still only 30 years old, Hutchison will get to work out in a familiar locale — he is a native of Lakeland, Florida, where the Tigers hold their Spring Training camp.
That’s opening day starter Drew Hutchinson
Former blue jays ace good sir
And every other outing he’d pitch like it, too. Back in ’14 and ’15 it seemed like he’d alternate 7+ IP, 2H, 1ER with 4 IP, 8 H, 6 ER.
He was more than just lucky, but not quite good enough to really string together the success.
he was rushed too quickly and it destroyed his career
Wasn’t an ace my friend
Low hanging fruit but damn if I didn’t chuckle
Drew Hutch! Pirates all-time great
Gettin Hutchy wid it!
Maybe he can room with Drew Carlton, another Tiger born and raised in Lakeland, Fla..
The Two Drews from Lakeland.
Podcast dropping soon
He’s appeared in 98 MLB games and has a career bWAR of 0.0. They should change the acronym to WADH – Wins Above Drew Hutchison.
Jeanmar Gomez (0.0 bWAR) has him beat with 315 games. I vote for the change to be to WAJG.
Haha
Very irrelevant but I remember grabbing him almost everytime in franchise mode on MLB2K years ago. Video game Hutchinson always progressed to a solid starting pitcher for me.
The tigers are building a triple-A dynasty. I love it.
Holy Toledo!
Now this is how you rebuild a franchise right. Show em’ Al Avila.
Having journeyman starters for depth on a rebuilding team is a necessity when you need innings eaten… this is a risk free move, and who knows, maybe he figures it all out late and he becomes the next JD Martinez.
That’s true. He’s just one of many similar players who are being given a chance to become a serviceable major leaguer by pitching their way up from Toledo.
I imagine that they have a “gambling stipend”
(budget) which funds these new chances for players who hit a rough patch in their careers. As you mentioned, JD Martinez is a great example. So is Trevor Rosenthal. Avila rolled the dice on him, too. Unfortunately, he was a year early.
Can he be worse than Zimmermann???
Yawn !