Feb. 15: Petzold reports that Wisler will make $1.5MM if he makes the team, with $750K in incentives available.
Feb. 13: The Tigers and right-hander Matt Wisler are in agreement on a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training, reports Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press.
Wisler, 30, is coming off a strong season of results with the Rays, posting a 2.25 ERA over 44 innings. Despite keeping earned runs off the board like that, he was designated for assignment in September and cleared waivers.
Despite that low ERA, there were some concerning elements that led to Wisler losing his roster spot. He struck out a huge 32.1% of batters faced in 2020 and 2021, but that number dropped to just 19.9% last year. That coincided with a drop of his velocity, as his fastball averaged 89.7 mph last year, a dip from 91.5 mph in 2021 and 94 mph back in 2015. Perhaps more important than the fastball is his slider, since Wisler has been increasing its usage throughout his career, throwing it 91.5% of the time last year. His velocity on that pitch was 79.8 mph last year, after being at 81.5 mph the year prior and 83.5 mph in 2019. With that diminished stuff and fewer punchouts, it’s likely his .198 batting average on balls in play last year was helping him seem more effective than he actually was.
It appears that the teams around the league recognized those facts, which led to Wisler going unclaimed on waivers last year and now settling for a minor league deal here with Spring Training getting started. For the Tigers, they’re taking a no-risk look at Wisler by bringing him aboard on the minor league deal, given them a chance to see if he can recapture his strong form in 2020-2021 or perhaps continue finding success without the strikeouts.
The club has subtracted from its bullpen mix this offseason, trading away established arms like Joe Jiménez to Atlanta and Gregory Soto to the Phillies. That has left a relief corps that’s fairly open, as many of the remaining arms are young and have limited experience. Wisler will be looking to have a strong spring and earn himself a job in that mix, alongside other non-roster invitees such as Chasen Shreve and Trey Wingenter.
Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit my two favorite Yankees from 2019 both somehow remain unsigned.
Somehow? Other than Voit’s monstrous 2020 157 OPS+ season — he’s been barely just above an average hitter (per OPS+), saved by a robust SLG that didn’t seem to save him in 2022 with WSH. You can take a flyer on him, but I couldn’t imagine much.
I’m a little surprised that Sanchez, with the catching depth so low, no one has gotten him as reinforcements and possibly a late-game pinch-hitting option with all his pop. I wonder what his asking price is. Suffice it to say: I don’t think they’re doing Sanchez dirty.
“I don’t think they’re doing Sanchez dirty”
Well done.
@RunDMC
Ditto.
Must be his asking price because he could be a back up catcher on some team at minimum wage. He is not a everyday regular on any team.
I mean he has a higher wRC+ than Correa since 2018 who almost got 350 million you’d think he can at least get a major league deal.
And they say defense is underpaid.
Must be he is asking for a longer deal than 1 year or a higher wage. He has always hit well enough to PH and back up catcher.
Except he’s never been a C. They put him back there, but that doesn’t make him one. A cinder block can stop a ball in the dirt better than Sanchez.
@stymeedone
LOL.. hmmm.. in our beer league, the cinder block had to quit our team. Think Sanchez would play for a pint and funions after the game?
Maybe it was more like a Hot Carl.
Kentucky waterfall
I think Sanchez did improve his defense a bit last year, but his hitting really has fallen off a cliff. Not that other catchers are hitting in this league as they should, but I am guessing his asking price is high in comparison to the production.
My hope was he would do better in a smaller market like Minnesota with less pressure, but it seems there are better options at a much lesser cost especially when considering defense and WAR.
They suck
I like it for bullpen depth.
Wisler always put up good numbers for a guy who goes from team to team every year.
Good grief. 8th team now in 9 MLB years. Gaylord Perry would be proud.
Maybe that low babip is because of how well he PITCHED, and not because of how hard he threw. If those peripherals had any merit, it would have effected the results of the year he actually had them.
stats work and apply differently from player to player. no pitcher pitches the same; thus there is no accurate was to predict exactly how good a pitcher is and will be. wisler’s peripherals show that he has either been lucky to put up his run prevention stats, or he is a better pitcher than the story of his main peripherals are telling. either way, teams are clearly not enough enamored by the profile to put him in their bullpen.
I was voting for the latter. A high end fastball is only one way to be an effective pitcher. There are other ways. When Doug Jones was just beginning his run as closer for the Indians,the comment was he didn’t look good while getting people out.
FOREVER GIANT
With the recent lower stat numbers he’s done
Betcha Chris Ilitch forced Scott Harris to furnish his new Michigan home with things that didn’t sell at garage sales.
Braves failure
The dude loves his slider. He always made me nervous when I saw him in high leverage situations because he was all slider and rarely used his fastball. Somehow, it all usually worked out though. Still, if you had to let one of the group from the Ray’s pen last year walk, he would’ve been my choice. I don’t see how his stuff is sustainable.
I hope he does well.
I am disappointed about Alex Reyes, though. What a miss by the Tigers’ F.O.!
Makes me sad they didn’t hire me. Poor Alex, has to play on the ever contending Dodgers.
The article disappeared? Hopefully, it was fake news.
There’s always one of these lottery tickets that end up being little winners. We may not not the jackpot like we did with JD Martinez, but this guy could end up eating some innings.
He has a tattoo of Wisler’s mother on his right buttock.
Awfully big mustache
To me, it’s funny how underlying numbers will scare people off to such a dramatic degree regardless of actual production. I understand using it as a metric to evaluate someone, no doubt, as it should be. And thus how much you pay or play those individuals to some degree. But success is success no matter how you run into it and I’d be happy to ride that ship until it sinks. Good for the tigers here. Very low risk (limited upside) move here
Obviously you can’t know when exactly a ship will sink, but you can often see when it’s taking on wate, and you certainly can in this case with the available data.
The eye test is always the best test. You can see how hitters react.
⁹Nice sign by the tigers. It seems like he is more then capable of getting MLB hitters out, despite what the experts say about his velocity drop and relying more on his slider. I’m seeing more guys get kicked to the curb after having solid years based solely on analytics. Good luck Matt.