Miguel Diaz is heading back to Motown as the Tigers announced that the right-hander has been signed to a minor league contract. Diaz pitched for the Tigers in 2022-23 before being claimed off waivers from the Astros in early April.
That stint in Houston resulted in just a single Major League appearance, as Diaz threw a perfect inning of mop-up relief work in an 10-2 Astros loss to the Rangers on April 5. He otherwise pitched at Triple-A Sugar Land and didn’t have much success, struggling to a 9.64 ERA across 14 innings (13 appearances). While Diaz didn’t help himself with a 15.2% strikeout rate, he also had the misfortune of a .392 BABIP and a 40% strand rate, explaining the big gap between his ERA and his much more favorable 3.63 FIP.
The Astros designated Diaz soon after his lone big league appearance, and he elected free agency but re-signed quickly on a new minor league deal. The lack of results in the minors led Houston to release Diaz last week, and now the circle has been completed with his return to the Tigers organization. Since Diaz is out of minor league options, the Tigers would have to designate him for assignment him again in the event that he is called up to the MLB roster and then the team wished to send him back down again to Triple-A Toledo.
The 29-year-old Diaz is a veteran of seven Major League seasons, with a 4.81 ERA over 127 1/3 career innings with San Diego, Detroit, and Houston. His 41 2/3 innings in his 2017 rookie season with the Padres and his 42 innings with the 2022 Tigers represent the bulk of that resume, and Diaz has a respectable 24% career strikeout rate, albeit with some large year-to-year variance. Diaz will give the Tigers some extra bullpen depth in the minors in the event of an injury in the big league relief corps, or if Detroit simply needs to cycle in a fresh arm.
Glad the Tigers picked him up. I didn’t want to see him leave in the first place. I’d imagine he’d be first in line to get promoted if a bullpen arm gets injured. That or if they finally pull the plug on Joey “Wince” Wentz.
Wentz fooled us and started off well. His SO numbers are really good but the walks and hits not so much.
I personally think Wentz should’ve been DFAd in spring training. I was puzzled as to why he made the team and Diaz didn’t. I guess the Tigers wanted to give him one last chance. Now that Diaz is back, I expect him to be promoted and Wentz DFAd and if he makes it through waivers, released. If some other team claims him, he’s their headache, not Detroit’s.
For whatever reason, he seems to pitch well in the Tigers org, and given the way our bullpen has looked lately, I think this was a no-brainer. Glad to see him back and hope he can contribute this season.
Wentz started out well, unfortunately, the Tigers don’t actually score runs. The offense is pitiful, so I believe that the pitching just got wore out
Wentz, other than the first month of the season, has been a gas fan at a dumpster fire, the last couple of years. You can’t blame the offense for that. Hinch doesn’t trust him, so you see him in very low leverage situations. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him DFAd in the next few weeks. He’s useless.
I agree with tigerfan4ever. Wentz entices with those strikeouts but he gives up too many walks and hits. The first month he did well, then… Time for the next man up.
Skubal for what Padres?
Unless the Tigers tank completely, they’re not trading Skubal. Maybe Flaherty. They’re currently 2 games behind the Twins for the third wild card spot.
Ummmh why would they do that?
If you are just talking hypothetically then Merrill for sure and shift him back to SS, Salas so they have a long term catching prospect, Lesko as a replacement in the rotation and a whole lot more. The Tigers could ask for the moon right now for Skubal. I doubt anyone pays it, but if someone was going to Preller gets my vote.
It should be hypothetical. He’s under team control until the end of the 2026 season.
Trading Skubal is just another rebuild unless you think Jobe is the next Pedro Martinez
Not really. 3 Good major leaguers+ a couple prospects makes the team better.
Even if you think Jobe is the next Martinez keep him for the 1-2 punch.
Good for Diaz. I’m still looking over the Decision to pick Buddy and DFA Andre Leviticus.
That guy was an obvious backup for Totkrlberg if he failed, yet the “brilliance” of the new administration let him go. Harris has made some good moves. Soto is terrible and V is worth it. Hitting Castro is so good that he isn’t even playing in professional baseball. Candy is okay but worse than V.
As ridiculous as the team seems now, it wasn’t Harris who gave the worst hitter in baseball a long contract, when every dipstick understood that his ability was in steep decline
Lol at this guy. No one knew Baez was in steep decline. Stop lying.
I almost made that point but he’s posting gibberish so I didn’t think he’d understand. Baez started his decline after joining the Tigers. Anyone knows that. He had a fine year with the Cubs and Mets before hitting free agency.
Leviticus? Totkrlberg? V? Wtf?
It always amazes me when folks like to use their own shorthand and assumes everyone knows what the heck he is talking about.
I know what he’s talking about but it’s not shorthand for anything. I think he’s making up stupid nicknames nobody calls them. The V one is the exception. He means Vierling. It’s just another stupid person posting comments on this forum…they seem inbred or something.
When you’ve got Joey Wentz, your just looking for healthy arms at this point. How far is Detroit from competing ? It seems a long way off.
2 games out of the third wild card spot isn’t what I’d call a long way off. Of course,things can change. If they are still this close or closer at the deadline, I could see them as buyers.
Baez to the IL, Kreidler up. I won’t be surprised if they move Javy. to the 60 day and just shut him down for the season, if Kreidler does well. If Ryan doesn’t, option him and bring up Leonard. Both are on the 40-man, so that’ll leave a spot open for some new acquisition at the deadline, no matter if the Tigers are buying or selling, so no DFA is needed at that point. With no Javy for the rest of the season, it gives Harris some time to convince Chris to eat the Baez contract and put him out of our misery. Although, I never wish injury on anyone, there is no Mago left in El and this injury comes at the best time. He’s just devolved into being a black hole on both sides of the ball. Addition by subtraction as the saying goes.