The Tigers announced that right-handed pitcher Drew Hutchison has cleared outright waivers and elected free agency. The 31-year-old veteran signed with the team in March but was designated for assignment earlier this week to clear a space on the 40-man roster for young starter Joey Wentz.
Through 10 Detroit appearances this year Hutchison has soaked up 15 plus innings and posted a 4.60 ERA, albeit with a bloated 16.7% walk rate. After a two-year run in the Tigers system it seems the organization, owner of a dismal 9-23 record to start the Major League season, prefers to shake up the roster by infusing some younger players over rostering a frequently shuttled veteran type. The former fifteenth-rounder is just a season removed from 21 plus innings of 2.11 ERA ball though, and has put up solid results in the upper minors for most of his career.
Hutchison will now head to a largely picked-clean market of free agents in hopes of latching on with another team. That the righty cleared waivers hints that his next deal will likely be of the minor league variety; given the conservative handling of many pitchers this year, however, the odds are good that Hutchison will draw interest as a depth piece in the near future. In the event of a promotion and late career breakout, a signing team can keep Hutchison under team control via arbitration through the 2023 season.
Pirates reunion?
And then we can trade him to someone else for a salary dump and some prospects.
Any pitching addition wouldn’t hurt. Just quite a few cuts needed on the 40 man roster to sign or add them to the main roster.
Honestly, based on how badly their pitchers have performed so far, they should be snatching up every pitcher that they can. They grabbed Beede yesterday, I was hoping that they got Urena, why not take a flyer on Hutchinson?
At this point he’d be better off trying NPB/KBO
He used to have a nasty 4 seamer/slider string to pull but never really developed another out pitch. Absolutely a revival candidate for the bullpen if the slider still moves like it did.
The problem is the walks. Mop-up guy at best.
Braves???
Hutchison was very effective last year and serviceable so far. But the Tigers have Manning and Mize coming back from injury plus Faedo, who handled his two starts quite well. Therefore Hutchison will have a better chance to get back into an MLB roster elsewhere.
Gruß,
BSHH
(Chaim Bloom looks at Drew’s salary): “This is the guy that can get us back on track!”
He needs to get his control back
This guy is still getting paychecks?