The Tigers have designated right-hander John Brebbia for assignment, according to multiple Detroit beat writers. Right-hander Tyler Owens was called up from Triple-A Toledo in the corresponding move.
Brebbia signed a one-year, $2.75MM free agent contract with the Tigers in February, earning $2.25MM in 2025 with a $500K buyout of a $4MM club option for the 2026 season. It seemed like a decent investment in a veteran who has been a fairly reliable bullpen arm for most of his career, and Brebbia’s shakier results in 2024 (a 5.86 ERA in 55 1/3 innings) could be partially ascribed to Brebbia spending most of his season with an infamously bad White Sox team.
Unfortunately for Brebbia, things haven’t worked out in 2025. The righty has a 7.71 ERA over 18 2/3 innings for Detroit, with a lot of hard contact allowed and an 11.8% walk rate that is far beyond the career 7.3BB% Brebbia had posted heading into the season. Beyond these rougher advanced metrics, Brebbia has also run into some bad luck for the second straight season, in the form of a .339 BABIP and a very low 56.6% strand rate. Brebbia’s 4.32 SIERA is much more flattering than his real-world ERA, and comparable to how his 3.29 SIERA in 2024 was far lower than his 5.86 ERA.
He also spent just shy of three weeks on the injured list due to a triceps strain, and that IL stint appears to have thrown Brebbia’s season off-kilter. The reliever had a sparkling 1.00 ERA in nine innings (eight appearances) prior to his IL stint, but he has been torched for a 13.97 ERA in 9 2/3 innings and 11 appearances since his return to the mound. Things really particularly went south for Brebbia in his last two outings, as he has allowed six runs over 1 1/3 innings in the last two days.
This was apparently enough to convince Detroit to move on, and in all likelihood the Tigers will eat the remaining money owed on Brebbia’s contract. If another club trades for Brebbia during his DFA period or puts in a waiver claim, the new team would assume the rest of his salary. Should Brebbia clear waivers, Detroit is on the hook for the remaining salary, and a new team who signed Brebbia afterwards would owe him just the prorated portion of the MLB minimum salary. Brebbia has enough of a resume that he’ll probably soon land elsewhere on a minor league deal, as the 35-year-old will try to get his season on track with a change of scenery.
Refreshing how speedy of a response this was by Harris and company, especially after how long it took to decide on Maeda.
2.5 million vs. 24 million
I mean if I have a $2 box of cereal and a $24 box of cereal that both taste blah…I am much more likely to choke down a few bowls of the $24 box to justify buying it.
I’d assume someone with 10,000x my net wealth probably approaches decisions about items 10,000x more expensive similarly
If you have 162 opportunities to have the best cereal experience, who cares how much you’ve spent on your fancy Japanese cereal if it tastes horrible every time you eat it. Cereal tasting good has nothing to do with how much you’ve invested in it, doubly so if you have a limited preset number of cereal consumption chances. The goal is to have a good time with your cereal, not justify your purchases through self inflicted, sub optimal cereal habits.
The point that Diabetic Rockstar was trying to make is that Maeda was actually on a two-year deal, while Brebbia was on a one-year deal.
Brebbia the Brief
If you’ve got somebody who’s BETTER than the guy you’re replacing, GREAT, but Owen’s stats don’t look like any improvement over Brebbia’s.
True. Fans often opine “so and so couldn’t be worse.” Oh yes, they most certainly could. But I think with Brebbia they felt they had done everything they could do to make him a serviceable pitcher and it didn’t work out. Time to move on.. Honestly, Tigers haven’t been good doing this and neither are most teams. But first Maeda, now Brebbia may signal a change in the mentality of the organization.
Well said Jammin. I thought same thing looking at Owen’s stats. His #s worse in AAA than Brebbia’s at MLB level. I was curious to see if this move was to create a roster spot for a hot arm whose been picking well. Seems an odd move to me but all and all Harris’s moves have been good so I’m cautiously optimistic with most of his moves.
It wasn’t a good signing from the beginning, sorry. Should’ve just kept Faedo. But bullpens are so volatile and unpredictable. Kudos to Harris seeing it and letting go. With Holton, Brieske, struggling, don’t need any more unrest.
I hope they can grab another power arm at the deadline.
What exactly has Alex Faedo done, or is doing, that makes any handwringing over him even worthwhile
[For the Record, Alex Faedo has not pitched this year with what TB describes as “shoulder inflammation” and has no current timeline on any return to pitch progression. He was ticketed for AAA with TB had he even been able to pitch. Alex Faedo, had he not been a 1st round pick, would mean nothing to the small fraction of fans that are addicted to bringing up him and Matt Manning at every turn]
I hope he comes back to the cardinals
Grow the beard back and come be the last man in the pen. Between roycroft and munoz and whoever else, that last pen spot hasn’t been good
Getting shelled the past two nights sealed his fate. Had to be relieved in a blowout win, and added insult to injury in a blowout loss. Next man up, and in this case that is Tyler Ownes.
Sounded like he was a fun clubhouse guy, but just couldn’t get the results lately. Best of luck, John.
Can’t imagine how fun of a clubhouse guy you could be if you’re terrible on the field.
There were quite a few interviews I saw where Tigers players had a lot of good things to say about him, calling him the funniest guy in the clubhouse, etc. I will say that those interviews were before the recent blowups, however.
Brieske, now Brebbia, looks like Tigers are finally clearing out the dead weight from their bullpen! Try some fresh arms and prepare for the trade deadline, we need to add another back end closer type to help Vest, Kanhe may not be the answer against certain teams. We need pitching who don’t issue walks, they seem to always come back to haunt them.
Brieske is better than he’s been. Not sure what happened but he had a good relief appearance last night for TOL.
Brieske was a career “4-A” pitcher until he had a 30 game run of dominance last fall. Everything before and Everything since has been a reliever with a strong arm and impressive arsenal that he has little command of. Can’t control his breaking stuff, can’t command the zone with fast stuff. Bad combo.
Knew that this was going to happen. Couldn’t get outs even in the low pressure situations they were using him in. I expect him to clear waivers but to sign a minor league contract elsewhere.
What is wrong with PJ Poulin? Why doesn’t he ever get a shot at the majors? He has far better numbers than most of the guys coming up. Decent ERA lots of strikeouts low walks.. maybe he’s not on the 40 man roster. I’d rather see someone get rewarded for a good season than someone who struggles like some of the pitchers they bring up.
Are you making up names.
Velocity is likely what’s wrong with Poulin. Hes a MiLB vet who can pitch consistently well at AAA. His consistency is a plus, but hes 27 so there should be some stability in his game at this point.
As far as his overall stuff, his command and location probably not going to play as well against MLB pitching with lower velocity and lack of a dominant offspeed pitch. MLB hitters would likely feast on him waiting on that 90 MPH fastball.
I’m getting a little concerned about the Tiger pitching. Skubal, then what? Flaherty is all over the place. Olsen isn’t pitching. Jobe is done. Mize? Can he keep it up? Gipson-Long is back end of the rotation material.
Holton is looking human these days. The pen is getting worn out.
Yes, the Tigers have the best record in baseball. Can they keep it up with this staff?
I think we’re one starter away from a great staff and fortunately, we’re in a good position to trade for a #2 or #3 starter if we need to. We have a logjam of infielders in AA-AAA and can absolutely afford to trade a couple prospects. Olsen pitched a rehab start in AAA last night and was decent considering he was instructed not to throw the change-up yet. Yeah, Flaherty has had a few horrible outings but has been decent overall. I’m fine with Mize as a #3-4 starter. Ideally, we trade for a solid #2 starter and have Skubal, ______, Flaherty, Mize and Olsen as our starting staff and then Montero and Gipson-Long as long-reliever/spot-starters.
So…..
What would it take to get him on our team?
Would the Reds part?
The argument would have to be the Tigers would make his life and career something special…it is for the player’s benefit he gets traded to the Tigers.
Full bore, including International money, can the Tigers offer something reasonable and not destroy the team?
You know who I’m taking about, Willis….
He had a nice 7 year career. I believe Friday’s appearance was his last in the majors. It seems pretty obvious he has nothing left.
Gabe Kapler’s favorite opener continues to struggle away from the Giants
Tigers will need to add some arms in July. Use Jung, and other minor leaguers as bait.
Jung, Anderson and Pacheco are all going to be available.
Agree that Jung & Anderson are going to be available.
I think they’ll hang onto Pacheco since they paid him such a big bonus and he’s starting to figure things out this year. Plus, he plays 3B! The way things are going, who knows if Colt’s shoulder is going to hold up.
I wonder if they’re going to still try to keep Clark and McGonigle at the same level. McGonigle is graduating levels very quickly. Dude can RAKE. He’s ready for Erie. I think he could be ready for DET as early as next year, but they’re probably going to hold off as long as possible in hopes Max catches up.
Elly De La Cruz