The Tigers announced that right-hander Chase Lee has been recalled to the major league roster. He was already on the 40-man but is still looking for his major league debut. Righty Keider Montero was optioned as the corresponding move.
Lee, 26, was a sixth-round pick of the Rangers in 2021. He was flipped to the Tigers as part of the deal sending lefty Andrew Chafin to Texas in July of last year. The Tigers added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
He isn’t a power arm but throws hitters off with his sidewinding delivery, which allows him to succeed even though his fastball tops out around 90 miles per hour. Overall, he has 182 minor league innings on his track record thus far with a 3.86 earned run average. He has struck out 31.4% of opponents while issuing walks at a reasonable 8.1% clip and getting grounders on roughly half the balls in play he’s allowed.
The Tigers had recently recalled Montero to make a couple of spot starts, thus giving the other members of their rotation a breather. Brenan Hanifee had been optioned out, leaving the club with a slightly shorter bullpen for a few days. (Hanifee was later recalled when Beau Brieske landed on the IL.) Lee’s recall will get things back to the standard five/eight ratio of starters to relievers.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
🎶 Chase Lee
under the milky twilight 🎶
… Out of the bearded barley.
Montero didn’t last very long, did he? I expect them to go back to the six man rotation when Cobb gets healthy.
For a month…Cobb is a China doll
Montero will have more innings pitched, at the MLB level, than Cobb will, by the end of the season…..
Getting a fresh reliever helps the Tigers (and may have been their foremost objective with this transaction). But Montero has a chance to start regularly with Toledo and remain outstretched for the next MLB stints.
Gruß,
BSHH
Chase? Flee.
I’m expecting:
4.95 ERA
26% K-rate
11% BB-rate
Good luck in your debut!
You have to be careful about using your Gray’s Sports Almanac. Great Scott!
It’s better than my tee ball stats.
I had a 70.34 ERA, 1% K-rate and 90% BB-rate.
Yeah, but those kids were on the juice. Sunny D Stats…
Looking at the Toledo roster thinking there must have been a pitcher that was having more success than Lee. Nope. The Toledo roster has no standout pitcher, reliever or otherwise. I think Lee’s stay will be a short one.
Now check Erie…
Do not look at Chase Lee’s recent numbers unless you are an opposing hitter looking for a gimme.
Nonetheless, Chase Lee will soon have his name emblazoned in the Annals, so good for him.
Unless, of course, he gets sent back down before pitching in a Tiger game (ie: Montero’s next Detroit start). If that happens, he joins the somewhat short list of the Ever So Close brigade. Called up, don’t see action, back to Obscurity forever.
No rotating pic on Baseball Reference for you.
I’m surprised Kenta Maeda has lasted this long on the roster. He’s been very ineffective thus far and not sure how much longer the Tigers can block another arm with him, regardless of what they’re paying.
They mentioned Lee getting traded for Chafin. How is Chafin doing in AAA? I figured he’d be up by now.
He is pitching ok 2.79 ERA but giving up more hits than you would expect at triple a, though that could be bad defense. If it was me, I would cut Maeda and bring Chafin up. 🤷♂️
Montero did fine against the Padres. He will be back !
I agree. He did well in both of his outings. He battled.
He’s gonna be one of those durable pitchers that has a really long career. He’s already got a successful post season resume, albeit a small 2 game sample size.
Not sure what the Tigers are doing with him, why Maeda is still there…. Maybe they want him to continue working as a starter, which he cannot do in Detroit atm.
Montero didn’t do well in either outing. After two starts, he has a 7.71 ERA and his FIP is even worse. I think he has potential, but he still isn’t quite ready.
He did well against San Diego…..
There are times when you can’t go by statistics, mainly when you are dealing with a small sample size. I watched both outings. He was actually much better against Milwaukee, but it was his first big league start of the year and he made some mistakes that the Brewers crushed (3HRs). Struck out 8 in 5 IP, but only walked 1.
I sensed he was a little overconfident against the Brewers. He was a little more careful against the vaunted Padres. He only struck out 3, but he gave up 4 walks. Only one homer though.
He faced two of the best teams in baseball in his first two outings and he did about as good as you should expect.
I watched them both, as well. You have to consider who he was pitching against. The Padres, are one of the toughest teams in the majors. If he could have gotten 2/3 of an inning more, he would’ve gotten the win. That’s pretty good in my book.
He’s pitching game 2 in today’s double dip, so we’ll see if he’s as quietly good as we think he is.
8 IP today. 1 ER. Same durable pitcher I’ve been seeing. Started slow tho. Improved as the game went on.
Great background about Lee, from pitching the club team at Alabama to trying out as a walk on,learning to throw side arm to the major leagues.
Lee did a great job in Detroit tonight. Great pitching from Flaherty, Horn, and Lee but bats were pretty silent. Need to Green going soon.
With Maeda being like he is it’s only really 12 guys they can dare use. How in God’s name could Cobb and Maeda be on the same 26 man together ?The injuries on the hitting side is a testament to how great their pitching has been.
Detroit is mostly a platoon teams so the longer they go with hem mostly playing like regulars is going to get harder for them. Moving guys up and down is a great idea in this tough stretch.is a great idea. GO TIGERS !!!
I totally agree with you. Great pitching wins games but you do have to hit enough to score a few runs. Got to get Green hitting. Relying to much on Carpenter, McKinstrey, and Tork. Other guys have to start hitting their weight.
Lee had a nice, though bit shaky 9th inning last night. Vs. the Padres too. I agree he is a bit funky looking with that delivery.
2nd note: Andrew Chafin just isn’t getting it done in Toledo.
I don’t have any problem with Montero going back down. He’ll get back. He is serviceable in a back end of the rotation spot. Tigers are going to use 10 different starters this year. Most teams do.
Hoping Vierling’s arm holds up. Strained rotator cuffs can always return.
My biggest fear is Parker Meadows. He’s still a long ways off.
I agree Chagin hasn’t dominated but he has been pitch better. Can’t be worse than Maeda!
Yep. As well as the 1-5 rotation guys have pitched, the Tigers can afford to be a little picky with their No. 6 starter. They’ll be rotating through the numerous healthy candidates all season long.