The Tigers announced that they have claimed right-hander Freddy Pacheco off waivers from the Cardinals. To make room for him on their roster, left-hander Tarik Skubal has been placed on the 60-day injured list.
Pacheco, 25 next month, is a relief pitcher who was added to the Cards’ roster in November of 2021 to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He earned that spot based on a strong campaign that saw him rise through three levels, going from Class-A Advanced to Double-A and Triple-A. He posted a 3.67 ERA that year in 54 innings, striking out an incredible 44% of batters faced but walking a concerning 13.4%. Last year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, tossing 62 innings with a 3.05 ERA. His strikeout rate fell to 33.6% but he also got his walks down to 11.2%.
Those are fairly strong results but Pacheco’s near-term status is up in the air at the moment. A couple of weeks ago, the team informed reports that Pacheco had some tightness around his elbow, with Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat among those to relay the update. The club did some imaging but didn’t find anything concerning, deciding to simply shut him down for a few weeks and then try to ramp him back up again.
There had not been any previous indication that Pacheco had been placed on waivers but the Cardinals evidently tried to pass him through recently, though the Tigers have swooped in to grab him. The latter club has seen a lot of bullpen turnover in the past year, as they traded away Michael Fulmer at last year’s deadline and then Gregory Soto and Joe Jiménez this offseason. Pacheco still has a couple of option years, meaning they can shuttle him between the majors and minors as a depth arm, as long as he’s healthy.
They were able to give Pacheco a roster spot due to Skubal’s health status. He had flexor tendon surgery in August and is still working his way back to health. The timeline on his return still isn’t clear but this IL placement means he can’t return until late May at the earliest, since the 60-day clock doesn’t start until Opening Day.
For the Cards, they now have an open roster spot that they could potentially use to add a non-roster invitee to their club. There’s a lot of hype around prospect Jordan Walker making the Opening Day roster, though nothing official has been announced. There’s now just over two weeks to the March 30 season opener.
No surprise that Skubal won’t be back in a couple of months so the only question is whether this guy is worth the spot. On the other hand, if someone better comes along they can always kick Pacheco to the curb.
Head scratcher by the cardinals when there are other options to dfa for that 40th spot. Which I’m guessing is for walker? They could have also tried trading an outfielder or dejong? Kids a flamethrower and could be a potential closer if they can lower the walks. I mean 325k’s in 205 innings is pretty good. Good luck with the tigers
He’s a 25 year old relief only prospect with control issues and an elbow injury. They have a dozen more just like him. They gambled and lost because they probably didn’t want him accruing service time on the MLB injured list. He was no sure thing and he’s been out pitched by a dozen better options already this spring.
The future of the Tigers, Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, may pitch next season or the next season or the next. Don’t worry.
Freddie Pacheco? Why waste a roster spot?
Looks like a good pickup. He’s struck out almost 1.5 per inning. Has a good overall WHIP and he’s only 24. We’ll take him, thank you very much.
The Tigers rebuild is now rivalling the White Sox 10 year rebuild for futility.
It is all about the talent.
Never seen so many early draft picks blown by a team drafting in the top 5 for years.
Some of us commenting here could have made better Draft picks than the Tigers over the past 5-7 years.
And, the Tigers player development, conditioning and medical staffs have been really subpar.
Leading the league in injuries and regressing MLB and minor league players?!
If Scott Harris can get this team back to a long term contending window,
then he can write his ticket anywhere in MLB.
To be fair, at least the Sox reached mediocrity. They even won the Central once. Detroit wins that rivalry.
Pacheco is a great pick up, lots of potential. He’ll be in the Tigers’ bullpen before the end of the year.
Okay, I think my comment got eaten again. I was going to say this was a great claim.
It must have been frustrating for Tigers fans to watch every single one of their elite pitching prospects get hurt. Was it purely chance? Are Tigers management bad at handling pitchers? I dunno. But for non-Tigers fans (I.e. most of us) it was fun watching their mega prospect pitchers fall like dominos.
Being that they overhauled their medical staff franchise wide….my guess is it wasn’t by chance. I don’t think I speak for myself when it was more than frustrating to see all the IL time the youngsters, including position players like Riley Greene spent. It started with him and then a whole cavalcade of players went down. It wasn’t a fun season, especially since the pitcher who made the most starts at the big league level ended up being Drew Hutchison and he got DFAd two or three times. This season won’t be much better with Mize likely gone all season and Skubal gone probably until after the all star break, however we’ll see what happens with post TJ players Spencer Turnbull, who is penciled in as part of the rotation and Jake Rogers, either as backup catcher or optioned to Toledo. At least Harold Castro won’t be in the mix for that bullpen. lol
Actually, Skubal made 21 starts for the Tigers, Hutchinson made 18.
I thought the numbers were the other way around. My bad. That being said that’s pathetic that Hutchison was ranked second in starts. Thanks for correcting me.
You weren’t off by much. And yes, the Tigers’ starting rotation was a disaster last year. Let’s hope they can keep the number of starting pitchers in the single digits this season.
What a strange comment, Saratoga. You think it is fun watching players get injured? I wouldn’t wish that on your team.
Yeah, it was a tacky comment.
I actually found his comment disturbing, even though I acknowledged it by responding. I was at a game in the 2021 season when Miguel Del Pozo got hit in the face with a line drive. Comerica Park went completely silent in concern when Hinch and the trainer were at the mound checking him out. I’ll bet Mr. Saratoga would have found that entertaining and his macabre laughter would’ve pierced the silence on that hot August day. That’s just wrong,
The first part of your comment might generate some interesting discussion, if you had just stuck with that. The second part…you are just being a dick. If you’re a non-Tigers fan why don’t you go post somewhere about your team…which by the way you did not name.
I don’t have a team. I like the game, but rooting for one team is silly. You are rooting for a brand. You can enjoy chocolate without rooting for Hersheys or Nestle. Baseball is the same to me. The game is fun, the fan loyalty is just silly.
Found the bandwagoner.
Check the air ducts at all facilities and the hotels wherever our guys stay at.
Great pickup. His name came up in trade rumors last year I believe. Young guy and I’m surprised the Cards let him go given some writeups had them looking for power bullpen arms this offseason. We have nothing to lose giving him a whirl.
I’m pretty sure they tried sneaking him through waivers.
Scott Harris lives on that waiver wire! No luck sneaking anything there 😉
How much does the guy pay you? I am worth more….a lot more….
Rah rah! Go team!
There was another signing that wasn’t covered by MLBTR…..
Team Nicaragua relief pitcher Duque Hebbert was signed to a minor league deal. He struck out the side in the top of the 9th in his only WBC appearance. That was against Puerto Rico.
youtu.be/XZBv04aqMn8
Yeah, one double and three strikeouts against four MLB All-stars. A good performance, nice to see he was rewarded for it. He’s pretty short for a pitcher, which is why he probably wasn’t already signed.
I hope he makes it big.
Yes, 5-7 I believe and 170#. He also didn’t throw heat. I think his fastball was in the 90-91 mph range. Devastating change up though.
Five foot nine inches.
Five foot nine inches.
Didn’t mean to post it twice.
Not a Tigers fan but was feeling your pain following the SP DL that grew over the course of last year. I distinctly remember reading a post here from one of you later in the season saying something like … “well at least Skubals still healthy”. OMG, within a week he too lands on the DL. Hang in there. Can’t get any worse. Blue sky’s ahead.
It’s an odd move if the purpose was to create room to bring Walker or another non-roster player north for the regular season, because they could have waited another couple weeks to see if someone got hurt sufficiently to put them on the 60 day. Seems a shame to give up an arm like that for nothing.
Probably means Wilking Rodriguez is going to make the team because if not he will have to pass through waivers. Strange they made this move so early.
Yeah but if he’s on the 40 man he accrues service time on the IL. No point in wasting a spot on an old relief only prospect with control problems.
I don’t know all the ins and outs of service time. I didn’t know that service time was accrued during ST.
I hope they haven’t claimed damaged goods.
There’s no real risk, they can always DFA him if doesn’t work out.
They’ve done that a bunch of times this offseason. Make a waiver claim then DFA for someone Harris thinks is better. It’s almost like a churning process. He’s not immune to being DFAd by this weekend. .
Absolutely true.
Plus they’re going to have to make room for bench/utility players like Ibanez and Nevin, if they decide to go that route.as they’re on minor league contracts and would need to be added to the 40-man/26-man if one, both or someone in camp who isn’t on the roster goes north.
Nevin and Ibanez are hurt. Ibanez may be healthy before the end of the month, but Nevin won’t. And neither will make the team when the regular season starts.
The fight for the utility infielder spot is between Hernandez, Kreidler and Short.
I realize they’re hurt. However I was using them as an example of players that would need to made room on the 40-man. You didn’t read my comment thoroughly, just got nitpicky, maybe for the purpose of being nitpicky? Apology accepted.
Nevin doesn’t have any options left. They can put him on the IL or they can DFA him. He’s not going on the 26 man roster or the 40 man roster. They might put Ibanez on the 40 man roster, but why bother? It doesn’t seem very likely.
Did you even read my entire comment above?
I did. For one thing, Nevin is already on the 40 man roster. He’s injured, and has no chance of making the team out of spring training. He has no options left, they’ll have to put him on the IL or DFA him.
As for Ibanez, why would the Tigers put him back on the 40 man roster? It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not picking on you, but your point just isn’t valid.
Hernandez would have been a far better example.
Then you didn’t read the entire comment. You selectively picked and chose what to comprehend. That’s pretty ignorant and it’s insulting towards me.
Your reading comprehension is horrible. Or you’re just stubborn and can’t admit that you’re wrong. A shame, because your first post was true. After that, everything you’ve posted has been a mess.
You seemed to stop reading when I used the example of those two players and didn’t read the final part of my post. Let me quote myself because you refuse to keep my post in context and use it for your own agenda, yes to try to either discredit me, make me look stupid or whatever.
“If one, both, or someone in camp who isn’t on the roster goes north.” You obviously didn’t try reading that and went off on your tangent of idiocy. You are so obsessed with me even mentioning Ibanez and Nevin that you can’t see the entire point of my comment and that’s pretty offensive to me. I’m done with you. You’re no better than saratoga who you called a jerk. You both are jerks.
You are a childish buffoon. You gave two dumb examples and now your embarrassed by your mistake. So like a little kid, you lash out at me for pointing out your mistakes. Saratoga is jerk, you’re just very immature.
And a jerk.
Jordan Walker deserves an opening day shot. His talent is impossible to refuse a spot.
Guys in front of him have earned the playing time. All 3 of them did significantly better at AA than he did and also tore up AAA as well, which he hasn’t even been to yet. I’m also very excited for him, but there’s 0 reason to start the clock on him until one of those guys really does terribly and he’s killing it in AAA by proxy. Burleson also exists.
Tigers POUNCE! Swoop? Who around here, swoops?
And, they really should check those air ducts!
Tarik Skubal? More like Tarik Scrubal. Amirite?
that would be a no.
Will we ever see the post rebuild target rotation of Boyd, Turnbull, Mize, Skubal and Manning?