The Tigers are calling up righty reliever Dylan Smith, as first reported by Tigers Torkmoil. He is not on the 40-man roster. Detroit already has an opening in that regard, so they’ll only need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher tomorrow.
It’s a nice birthday gift for Smith, who turned 25 yesterday. He’s in his fourth professional season. A third-round pick out of Alabama in 2021, Smith struggled early in his minor league career while working as a starter. That was partially due to injury, mostly forearm and shoulder issues. Detroit moved him to the bullpen this year as a result.
Smith has quickly found upper minors success while working in shorter stints. He posted a 1.80 ERA with a massive 37% strikeout rate through 20 innings at Double-A Erie. Smith climbed to Triple-A Toledo last week. He’s only pitched twice, firing 2 1/3 scoreless frames while punching out five of eight opponents. He’s averaging 94 MPH on his fastball in his Triple-A work.
Baseball America did not include Smith among Detroit’s top 30 prospects over the winter. Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan at FanGraphs placed him 35th in the system in their write-up during Spring Training. FanGraphs credited Smith with a plus slider and good life on his fastball.
I had a feeling the Tigs would call him up, but I expected later in the season. Replacing Brebbia?
Something is going on with Jackson Jobe. Not sure if it’s an injury or a demotion, but there’s news coming in regards to Jobe.
Believe it’s an injury to Jobe as there are reports his velocity was down in yesterday’s game vs the Giants and he refused to speak w the media. We’ll find out soon enough
I agree. He had a mini meltdown there in the 4th. Luckily, Hanifee came in to get the 3rd out. When you consider the drop in velo, the shaky 4th and them shutting the clubhouse down early with Jobe being unavailable, that sure sounds like an injury.
Unless he had some childish meltdown after being pulled (and I don’t see that).
I was thinking the same thing…. May not even be an injury but poor reaction to being sent down.
Jobe has a slight loss in velocity and I heard the Tigers were probably sending him to Triple A and Cobb will be taking his spot. But I have not heard any prior news that Cobb was close to returning. Hopefully he is ok because I really enjoy watching him pitch. I think one bad outing bumped his era up a bit.
Lou, where did you hear this?
A yahoo article by Zachary Howell of USA Today.
Cobb needs to make several rehab starts before he joins the Tigers.
I was there yesterday, sitting right across from the scoreboard. Jobe’s velo was solid for most of the game, but 95-96 became 92-93 as his pitch count rose in the fourth and fifth innings. That could be the sign of an injury or just some fatigue. They will err on the side of caution as his stuff is on the way to becoming elite.
Sure is. So is the club closing the clubhouse without giving access to Jobe, per MLB rules.
Good point. It was strange the way they hustled him off without allowing mandated media access.
And now we know: TJS.
Most likely this means Brebbia’s tenure in Detroit is done.
Brebbia isn’t going anywhere.
Lol Brebbia isn’t going anywhere
There’s about 4 pitchers not including Jobe that would go down first. Including Lee, who has gone up and down several times. They aren’t sending a guaranteed contract that just came off IL down after a cpl rough outings.
Unless Jobe is injured he is safe in Detroit. Brebbia’s contract is not very much (2.5 million guaranteed) and according to Evan petzold (Freep tigers beat writer) AJ doesn’t trust him much.
Brebbia also wasn’t very good last year and is JAG.. He pretty clearly is the 13th man on that staff. You are not going to go to him in any close games. They brought up Dylan Smith for some swing and miss. There is nothing interesting to what Brebbia brings to the table.
last year I caught a DH in GR. Jaden Hamm started the first game and was in total control. Dylan Smith started the second and just could not throw strikes to save his life.
His control this yr has been much better. He has really taken to being a reliever. Hopefully he has success in the big leagues.
I remember when Smith was drafted. He had some sort of up and down issues at Alabama which led him to fall to the 3rd round. He had 1st round potential and the Tigers got him later. I haven’t followed him much in the minors. I kinda thought he wasn’t going to make it. I hope he gets into a game this weekend. I’m intrigued.
As for Jobe, he was touching 100 mph last year in Erie, got injured, came back, went to Toledo and then a cup of coffee with the Tigers at the end. I have not seen 100 as a Tiger. Hope there’s nothing wrong. But……I suspect there is. I also think Vierling will be going under the knife soon. He won’t be back. Meadows appears to be raking in his AAA rehab. Fingers crossed.
By all counts, Vierling isn’t expected to be out for long, but we’ll see.
There’s been 0 indication Vierling is going to be out long term. Thats all just doomsday Tigers fans contributing to unsubstantiated rumor mill gossip on social media
I don’t know, man. If he was rehabbing his shoulder for two months and then immediately had to be put back on the shelf after four games because of recurring soreness, I don’t see how another 10 or 15 days off will be the magic pill. I hope I’m wrong though.
Agree. And CF and 3B demand a strong throwing arm. I still think rotator cuff surgery is a strong possibility. It is a 6-9 month recovery period. My guess is the Tigers want to see if they can get something out of Matt by August. If he has surgery by Oct. 1, he can still be ready by April ’26.
Jobe had a few 100+ in his cup of coffee last year. Hit 103 on a pitch against Cleveland in the postseason.