The Tigers announced a series of roster moves Wednesday, placing catcher Grayson Greiner on the 10-day IL with a strained left hamstring, selecting the contract of catcher Eric Haase in his place and placing right-hander Franklin Perez on unconditional release waivers.
The Perez move comes just one day after the Tigers announced that he’s in for a lengthy absence due to surgery on his continually problematic right shoulder. It sounds callous, but teams aren’t able to place injured players on outright waivers, so the only means of removing Perez from the 40-man were to release him or call him up to place him on the Major League 60-day IL, where he’d accrue MLB service time and a big league salary. While another club could claim Perez, or he could sign elsewhere in the likely event that he clears, it’s also fairly common to see players in these circumstances quickly re-sign on minor league deals.
Perez was the top-ranked prospect the Tigers received in return for Justin Verlander back in 2017, but injuries and last year’s canceled minor league season have limited him to just 27 innings with the organization. Perez missed three months back in 2018 due to a strained lat, and he’s since battled shoulder tendinitis and a shoulder strain and has yet to even reach the Double-A level. Last year’s canceled minor league season obviously contributed to his lack of innings, but the injury troubles have tanked Perez’s prospect status. Baseball America rated him as the No. 35 overall prospect in baseball heading into the 2018 season, but he was listed just 28th in the Tigers organization even before the news of this surgery.
As for the catchers in question, Haase’s call to the roster was necessitated both by Greiner’s injury and by the fact that starting catcher Wilson Ramos is currently on the IL due to a back injury. Haase will serve as the backup to 26-year-old Jake Rogers, who was coincidentally one of the other two players the Tigers received in exchange for Verlander. (Outfield prospect Daz Cameron is the third.)
Haase, 28, has appeared in each of the past three big league seasons, spending time with the Indians in 2018-19 and with the Tigers in 2020. He’s struggled mightily, hitting just .122/.170/.184, albeit in a minimal sample of 53 plate appearances. Haase has played parts of four seasons in Triple-A, slashing .234/.306/.479 with 49 homers in 906 plate appearances.
as much as Perez seems like a lost cause at this point, I wouldnt be sure he doesnt sign elsewhere.
Shoulder injuries are typically bad for a pitcher’s career. Sadly.
21? Perez likely gets claimed
He’s thrown 27 innings since 2017 and is undergoing major shoulder surgery that will sideline him indefinitely. I would be pretty surprised if any team claimed him, especially since he can’t be outrighted.
How is Hasse a veteran catcher? He’s only been a starter in 9 games at catcher in his MLB career (with 1 start as a DH). I get that he’s been playing pro-ball since 2011 when he was 18 but I really wouldn’t consider him a veteran.
Seems cruel to do this to Perez, but I guess it Hasse to be done.
This is the type of quality responses I’ve come to expect from this site :).
It is just administrative house cleaning. Perez is likely to clear waivers.. The Tigers will resign Perez to a minor league deal and pay for his surgery plus rehab etc The Tigers needed a 40 man roster spot for Hasse.
Workmans comp pays for all surgeries for pro athletes- doesn’t cost the team anything
I think you are right. Why would he sign elsewhere when the Tigers have supported him. It’s probably a long shot he ever makes it back. TJ surgery and now shoulder surgery. Tigers demanded him too in the trade. Worst Tigers trade ever. JD was bad but this is just awful. Avila is killing this organization & Illitch is either dumb or agnostic. Awful owner awful GM.
Dodgers will sign him for pennies after he passes through waivers. In 4 years he’ll be an All-star.
It certainly would be pretty terrible if the Tigers were to allow this young man to accrue a major league salary and service time
It would be nonsensical
Most likely a deal has already been struck for Perez to resign with the Tigers. IF he elected free agency, his rehab and recovery would be on him, as it would be unlikely another team would take him on at this point. Also, Tigers are just not that cold. They did the same thing with Bryan Garcia when he had his TJ surgery.
i doubt that highly. injury issues, but he’s much more worth a roster spot then your average A+/AA bullpen/SP5 filler. he’ll get interest on the market, probably enough as so that someone signs him now and covers the surgery.
I feel bad for Perez and worse as a Tiger fan. It appears Avila traded away a Cy Young award winner for a bag of beans (backup catcher, a fifth outfielder, and now a pitcher who’s career is at a crossroads). Plus, to make it worse he gave the Houston 16 million. Worse trade ever! This is part of the reason the Tigers are looking at a six plus year rebuild.
Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio was far worse, among many others. I share your frustration, but remember at the time that Verlander had only recently started to perform like himself again after a long period of injury and ineffectiveness. Many thought he wouldn’t garner much in return; they ended up right, but the return seemed good at the time.
Ok, your right I am frustrated. Not the worst trade ever, but one of the worst trades in Tiger history. I will give you one transaction worst than Brock. Boston selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
The most one sided trade in MLB occurred on December 15, 1900 when the Cincinnati Reds trading Christy Mathewson to the Giants for Amos Rusie.
The worst Detroit Tiger trade occurred on December 24, 1927 .when the Tigers traded Heinie Manush and Lu Blue to the St Louis Browns for Elam Vangilder, Harry Rice and Chick Galloway.
The second worst occurred on November 10, 1948 the Tigers traded Billy Pierce and $10,000 to the Chicago White Sox for Aaron Robinson.
The third occurred on December 3, 1963 when the Tigers traded Jim Bunning and Gus Triandos to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jack Hamilton and Don Demeter.
The Juan Gone trade was pretty bad too.
Get out
These are all good, but you missed the biggest Doyle Alexander from the Braves to the Tigers for Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz.
I don’t count that because without Doyle Alexander, the Tigers wouldn’t have won the division. Also, John Smoltz would not have made any difference to the Tigers standings. Bunning, Pierce and Manush are in the HOF.
I think you may be mistaken about Pierce. He never got elected to HOF. Good pitcher and the Tiger could of used him. If I accept your logic on Smoltz that he would not have made a difference in the standings. The same could be said of the others. From 1928-1933 the Tigers never made it above 5th place. 1934-35 they won it without him. Same for the others, except 1966. If the Tiger had Bunning they might have won the American League.
I was referring to Manush concerning 1928-1933.
Sign Verlander in FA next winter if you really miss him that much.
Al will never fess up that much
You can’t close the books on the trade just yet… while it looks like Perez’s career with the Tigers is in jeopardy, Jake Rogers and Daz Cameron are still developing. Rogers was brought up WAY too early, and shutdowns have hindered his development even more. But, he’s not a wash up yet, and neither is Cameron.
Remember this as well, the Tigers had no desire to pay Verlander millions to pitch for them during a rebuild, but they were obligated to do so. The last thing they wanted was a 20 game winner when they really needed 20 game losers.
I was half expecting the news to be the Tigers had released Joe Jimenez. He’s been a spectacular dumpster fire this year and there does not seem to be any end in sight to fix his issue. Time to cut bait and give someone else (Drew Carlton, Zach Hess??) a chance to see what they can do.
Yeah, Jimenez can kick rocks.
And according to DD he was the closer in waiting
I was done with joe 2 years ago
Acquiring Perez as the centerpiece in the Verlander trade, especially considering the Astros still had plenty of good prospects in their system at the time, should have been enough to get Al Avila fired but yet he still has his job to this day. That clown must have dirt on the Illitch family
I blame the whole DET scouting department.
They do not appear to be very good at their jobs but always seem to have a presence at “showcases”, even when there is absolutely no need or any chance of a signing……..
Sounds like a real cushy job……
That is dumb.
Both the Dodgers and the Yankees could have given up a prospect to acquire Verlander and neither team did and the Astros took their championship. It looks worse on them than Al Avila.
I’ve been saying that for awhile lmao. It is the only logical explanation as to how this man still has a job. He may be the worst GM of all time. Almost all his trades and signings have been horrible, comes right in and signs Zimmerman to one of the worst contracts of all time. Signs Pelfrey to two years in one of the most obviously stupid decisions of all time. Has continually made the team worse every year he has been here, in year 6 now. Put together arguably the worst offense of all time. I just can’t imagine how someone putting together such a resume could still have a job. They saw how his Zimmerman decision played out, lead the team to 100+ losses, and then decided he deserves a contract extension lmao. It’s just doesn’t really make sense. He must either be the yes man willing to do their bidding, and they are not actually trying to compete, or he has something on them lmao. The only thing that makes sense.
Illitch just doesn’t want to spend the money.
I imagine DET either tries to resign Perez to a minor league deal or some analytics savvy team picks him up to place him on the 60-day IL and hope he recovers. Maybe a rebuilding club like PIT takes a chance too.
I think AA has done a poor job of rebuilding this team and stocking the system through trades, but Ilitch hasn’t given him a lot to work with. Still having only Candelario, W Castro and (maybe) Paredes, Rogers, and Cameron for Verlander, JDM, Upton, Kinsler, Avila, Wilson, and Fiers in 2017/2018 is pathetic,
Looking just at the Verlander trade though shows just how tough it is to gauge prospects. The top 10 prospects in the Houston organization in mid-2017 were:
1. Kyle Tucker, OF
2. Franklin Perez, RHP
3. Francis Martes, RHP
4. Derek Fisher, OF
5. Forrest Whitley, RHP
6. Yordan Alvarez, 1B
7. J.B. Bukauskas, RHP
8. Teoscar Hernandez, OF
9. J.D. Davis, 3B
10. Garrett Stubbs, C
Cameron was #13 and Rogers was #21.
From their top 10, only Alvarez and Hernandez have produced to-date. Davis had one good year and then fell back to earth.
The Tigers were looking for guys who would be ready for to first rise to the majors in 2020 or 2021, and the three the Tigers got were 19, 20, and 22 years old, so they fit the bill. Based on this, Hernandez was too old at 24.
Based on age and production to-date, only the then 20 year old Alvarez would have been the right choice from this group. Tough to get it right on all three when the Astros, with one of the top ranked prospect groups in MLB in 2017, only hit it on 2 of their top 10, and only one under the age of 23.
All that to say, it’s not easy being an MLB GM. Most reports at the time of the trade suggested the Tigers got top talent in Perez and Cameron.
But still, having only Candelario and a few guys still struggling to hit .200 in the majors or AAA four years later for two of the best players in the game and 3 or 4 other very good players is about as bad as it gets. I can almost defend AA for this one trade, but not for all of the other bad ones he made (Dawel Lugo? Really?).
It could be the scouts, but the GM is the one who pulls the trigger on the trades, so it really is time for AA to give someone else a chance.
It’s more of the “missed opportunities” that put BigAl in the doghouse with this fan.
Stuff that even a lay person like me could see…….
I’m not even sure I’m a fan anymore…or.just addicted to posting dissatisfaction. As much as I want to love the Tigers….. I am not a fan of this.
You make that comment like teams were beating a path to the Tigers door to take Verlander.
They weren’t.
What does that say about the other GMs who didn’t offer more and could have landed VERLANDER?
I think most figured Detroit would have want a lot more then they settled for. They all knew this was Detroit’s biggest trading chip and they figured they would want back a size able return much like the White Sox were getting for their players being traded at that time.