The Tigers have signed free agent right-hander José Urquidy to a one-year, $1MM contract for 2025, the team announced. The deal comes with a $4MM team option for 2026. That team option also includes escalators that could increase Urquidy’s salary by up to $3MM. He will earn an additional $150K for reaching each of four and seven starts; $300K for reaching each of 10, 13, 16, and 19 starts; and $500K for reaching each of 22, 25, and 28 starts.
To free up space for Urquidy on the 40-man roster, the Tigers placed fellow right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long on the 60-day injured list while he continues to recover from left hip labral repair and Tommy John surgery. The team has also placed Urquidy on the 60-day IL; he is recovering from Tommy John surgery of his own.
Urquidy spent the first six years of his MLB career with the Astros. While he looked like a solid mid-rotation starter in 2021 and ’22 (3.81 ERA, 4.22 SIERA in 49 games), the righty had a rough year in 2023. He struggled out of the gate in April before landing on the IL with shoulder troubles. His struggles continued upon his return in August, and he soon lost his spot in the starting rotation.
Unfortunately, Urquidy’s troubles only got worse in 2024. He opened the season on the injured list and eventually required UCL surgery in June. After clearing waivers in November, he elected free agency.
Urquidy will not be ready to return to action until midseason at the earliest, so he will not factor into the ongoing rotation battle in Tigers camp. Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Reese Olson are locks for the Opening Day rotation, and top prospect Jackson Jobe has the inside track on the number four spot, according to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. However, with Alex Cobb expected to miss the beginning of the season, one spot at the back end is still up for grabs. Casey Mize, Kenta Maeda, and Keider Montero are the primary candidates to win that job.
Meanwhile, Urquidy will continue his rehab in the Tigers organization. Once he is ready to get back on the field, he can provide depth as a back-end starter or long reliever. In a best-case scenario, Urquidy returns and looks like his old self, which would make his club option for 2026 a bargain. Meanwhile, the worst possible outcome for the Tigers is that they pay him $1MM to rehab in 2025 and cut their losses at the end of the year if he struggles or fails to get back on the mound.
Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 was the first to report the agreement between Urquidy and the Tigers. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News confirmed that it was a major league deal.
6 year 162 million
Lol more like 1yr 3M
1 yr 1 million with an option year of 4 million that could go as high as 7 million next year if he got all of the incentives.
AJ Hinch and Alex Cora trying to run it back with all the Astros free agents.
Yep. All…. 1 of them
Bregman?
If you go all the way back to JD Martinez, it might be two…
Not that it would matter to LA, who spends in the billions but still complains and a few rattling trash cans
Whack, Wack, it’s a curveball, whack, whack, it’s a fastball.
Whack, whack, it’s Roki given a contract and pretending to look at other teams. Illegally
The Cubs are with Pressly and Tucker more than Detroit is. Not to mention they were in on Bregman too. Plus Neris last year.
I think he’s still recovering from major surgery. So it’s not anything that’ll change the OD rotation of what I think will be: Skubal, Flaherty, Olson, Mize and Maeda. Possibly Jobe if they still wanted to keep Maeda the long man, but they can just keep Jobe at AAA until needed, for now. Afterall, he’s only made a few starts above AA so far.
I would agree with that assessment. Jobe is part of the future but Mize is making a rather large case for himself and Maeda is under contract and looks comfortable.
1 injury injury or a few ineffective starts, and Jobe is warmed up and..
Elbow surgery last June. So nothing more than a deal to give him a chance to rehab and then maybe pitch later in the year. Tigers 40 man is full so someone will have to go to the 60 day IL or be released to add him.
tigerdoc616: I think it’s worth the gamble, if he can
Gibson-Long did.
Nice move Tigers! Very low-risk/good-reward opportunity.
The way that the game plays out now, with 5 innings being a quality outing from a “starting pitcher.”, I think that having a few pitchers who are capable of multiple innings in relief is important
Great low-risk move!
Maeda and Cobb are gone next year so this is a good low cost depth move for a #4-5 type starter that could pay off.
Nice signing. Maybe you get a few innings from him this year, maybe not. See how he rehabs, and then consider exercising the option. $4 mill. is peanuts when a fried Alex Cobb got $15 mill.!
This is a really nice move. When healthy, an average pitcher like Urquidy could be a great 4-5 guy in a rotation like this and a pitcher friendly stadium like this. And almost no monetary risk.
Harris is really doing a great job directing the Tigers come back. Things are looking great for Detroit, and America, fantastic leadership in both. GO TIGERS, GO AMERICA !
Dumb fuggin move. Typical of this Illitch era.
Explain why
Yes.,I, too, would like to hear your rationale for writing that comment …..
I was baffled by the response, since it seemed so idiotic
What some people don’t understand, is that as Tiger fans, we got used to awful players. Buy extension, utility players were all we had to cheer for, because the rest of the team sucked
Harold Castro or Candle or Tyler Alexander.. They were good.
A few years happened between making the Yankees cry in the playoffs and making them laugh
Urquidy was a favorite of Dusty Baker. Rumor had it that a trade between the Astros and Cubs did not occur because Baker was adamantly opposed to Urquidy being traded for Willson Contreras.
This is a low key solid addition. The Tigers raised a lot of eyebrows last season with an unexpected resurgence and I’m sure faithful fans of the franchise are more excited than they have been in a while.
Harris is very specific in guys they acquire. You can tell he targets people, doesn’t just sign a name like some do.
As long as he doesn’t go around acquiring, no power, no walk, no speed and no defensive value players like Avila did….
Nice, low budget, low risk move by Harris. If he heals and Chris Fetter gets a look at him, he could turn out to be the steal of the year.
You cannot have too much starting pitching.
Near-zero risk, surprising that the Astros didn’t offer something similar. Maybe a CBT issue?
Interesting to have escalators the only would hit if he some how pitched a full season when he wont be ready to pitch until midseason. Everything about the 20 start point, is kinda pointless.
That’s for next year. This year he only gets a mil. Next year, if the option is picked up, he’ll get 4 million with another 3 million in possible incentives.
I still see Jobe starting in Toledo. He needs to build up innings. Both Mize and Maeda have been outstanding this spring, and along their contract situations, should provide them first opportunity. No need to rush Jobe. Let him continue to develop. This signing provides the Tigers some late season depth. They don’t want to go back to a two man rotation again.
@ stymeed
I enjoy your posts and agree with almost all of them. But I disagree here. I think they are going to severely limit Jobe’s innings on the year, as they should. IMO, unlike most kids his age, he doesn’t need more seasoning in the minors, he looks ready to me. He sure did in his start today. Did you see him strike out Vlad? I think they break camp with him as the # 4 SP, but then skip him / give him more days rest on a regular basis as a way to limit the innings and preserve his arm. Casey Mize is number five starter. Kenta Maeda was serviceable as the bulk guy, let him do that out of the bullpen.
Damn I wish Colt could play 3B. Would solve a few problems.
Technically, Torkelson can play 3B, lol. I assume that’s why you’d want Keith off 1B. With Vierling and Meadows hurt, Carpenter will be in RF so Torkelson will be in the lineup now regardless. I think Jung will be OK. He’ll probably have a slow first month or so, like Keith, but then he’ll settle in. I can see it going about like it did for Keith actually. Now, hopefully Keith can take that next step. We need it bad!
I don’t necessarily want Keith off 1B, just would prefer if he could play 3B and Tork could play 1B the way both are hitting this spring.
I just don’t want the Tigers to get rid of Tork before seeing if he can continue his newfound approach. After all, 2B is opening up after Torres, and Colt could return to 2B and Tork could take 1B. (Of course, Jay-Hen is playing pretty well this spring, too.)
That still leaves a hole at 3B if JJ doesn’t improve. He isn’t hitting much and made a bad play at 3B today. That’s part of the Colt at 3B daydream: JJ won a minor league gold glove at 2B and is obviously better there.
For that matter, I wish Jay-Hen could play 3B also. But we know that ain’t the case.
It sounds like Keith’s throwing arm is mush, which sucks because he used to have a gun. Tork and Maloy might both get some playing time with the two OF injuries. Hopefully everyone tales a step forward.
Freep, Sept 17, 2024: “It’s the same shoulder Keith injured in the minor leagues in June 2022, when he suffered a labrum injury while diving back into first base on a pickoff attempt. He didn’t undergo surgery but spent four months rehabbing, including the first two months in which he couldn’t throw a baseball with his right arm.”
If Parker is still out, Perez can play CF. I’d let Carp play more RF and hit fulltime. I didn’t think he was that bad defensively in RF. Perez is a capable backup OF.
With both Parker and Vierling out, it might open up a shot for Tork and Jay-Hen to rotate at 1B & DH with Colt.
I can “technically run like the wind”.
Torkelberg hasn’t hit or run or defended for ass since he’s been in the league
This is interesting to me. It says he will get paid $150,000 “for each of four starts.” I know it doesn’t say ‘quality starts’ but I wonder what the market rate is for a quality start ? And a quality start can be made whether you are an elite pitcher or not, so it shouldn’t change based on your track record. I wonder what it could be if there is one, and if it’s close to $150,000.
Tigers just bought a lottery ticket for $1M.
I like this for Detroit. Could be a very underrated move if he comes back healthy
**YAWN**
This is nice move, which doesn’t eat up much money and won’t eben block a roster spot, since Urquidy can be transferred to the 60d-IL at any time. Next year’s rotation might already be almost set without shelling out too much money: Skubal (unless he gets traded), Olson, Jobe, Urquidy and Mize plus someone like Gipson-Long (and in an unlikely event Flaherty).
Gruß,
BSHH
I wish they wouldve got this deal done last month. This is a good acquisition if he can ramp up in time.
I don’t think he’ll will be ready anytime soon with recovery time from the surgery based in the article. More of a late season bext year thing.
Meanwhile, MLBTR writers need to learn a new word instead of using “meanwhile” so often.
Grumpy time?
Thank goodness I’m not a GM.
I’d offer someone like Skubal 35 million annually on 5 year packet, with out outs that are mutual.
Unfortunately, Bregman gets 40 million so he can opt out