June 4: The Tigers announced Gipson-Long’s activation today. Righty Dylan Smith was optioned to Triple-A Toledo as the corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, righty Jason Foley was recalled and placed on the major league 60-day IL. Foley underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in May while on optional assignment. Due to this move, he’ll get major league pay and service time while spending the rest of the year on the IL.
Foley came into this year with his service time clock at three years and 33 days. He should finish this season at 3.149, give or take a day. The Tigers can now retain him via arbitration through the 2028 season. However, he’ll be a non-tender candidate at the end of this year due to his health status. He is making $3.15MM this year and shouldn’t be able to push that any higher due to his injury absence.
June 3: The Tigers will activate Sawyer Gipson-Long to start tomorrow’s game against the White Sox, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press). He’ll be reinstated from the 60-day injured list, which will require a 40-man roster spot. The Tigers don’t have an obvious candidate to move to the 60-day IL. They’ll likely designate someone for assignment tomorrow.
Gipson-Long will take an MLB mound for the first time since September 2023. He injured his elbow last spring and required an internal brace UCL surgery. Knowing he’d miss the entire season either way, he also underwent a labrum repair on his left hip over the summer. He’ll make his return a little more than 13 months after the elbow procedure. He has taken the ball five times on a rehab stint going back to May 8. He reached 5 1/3 innings and 53 pitches during his final appearance with Triple-A Toledo last week.
Now 27, Gipson-Long has four MLB starts to his name. Those all came at the end of the 2023 season. He pitched well over 20 innings, working to a 2.70 ERA while striking out nearly 32% of opponents. It came against a soft slate of lineups, but it would have put him in the mix for the fifth or sixth spot on the rotation depth chart last year had he been healthy.
Injuries to Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe have opened that opportunity for now. Detroit has Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Keider Montero operating as their top four at the moment. Veteran righty Alex Cobb recently began a rehab assignment; he’s been out all season with a hip issue.
Sounds like a Mark Twain character.
I once saw SGL in concert.
Rumors suggest he has a mean stride complimented by a mean pride when on the mound.
DFA Baddoo, Hicklen, Horn, or put Foley on the 60-day, but I believe they’d have to call him up the the MLB roster to do that.
I agree… send Baddoo packing.
Baddoo may get a shot @ LF in San Diego.
Baddoo has had some decent years when he was playing @ MLB level a few years back and not
riding the AAA shuttle constantly.
I just hope we don’t hear that Jobe is going on the 60 day
Probably not right away, but ultimately, they very well may, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. JJ probably won’t return until at least mid-July, and with pitch-count limits and playoff usage to consider, August seems like a pretty realistic return.
Consider the Tigers probably don’t want him to throw much more than 70 more IP this season. Let’s call it 14 x 5-IP games. That would be 6 GS in Aug & 6 GS in Sept @ 5 IP each, 60 IP of the 70.
They’ll want him to throw some IPs in the playoffs, so this scenario leaves 10 IP for Oct. So, subtract however many more IPs in Aug that you want to add to Oct., and that gives JJ an ETA of early August.
Well he most likely will be out for 6-8 weeks so it’s a real possibility.
My guess is Hicklen gets booted. They for some reason have a loyalty to Baddoo, and Meadows return makes Hicklen unnecessary.
Baddoo gave the team little spark back in 2021. He hasn’t done really anything since, with position they are in they need to just move on. That roster spot is too valuable.
I agree. I’m just saying I don’t think it’ll happen this time around. I hope I’m wrong.
@ 3232
If everyone else is hitting, they don’t so desperately need offense, maybe he’s worth keeping as a late innings defensive replacement?
Problem is he’s not particularly good in CF, had played little RF, and while he is good in LF so is Greene.
Great law firm name…
DFA Baddoo and when he clears waivers realease him and don’t sign him to a minor league contract. Maybe Colorado will have some interest and they are welcome to him.
I’m not a fan of Badoo either. He’s had enough opportunities to work on his defense. He turns routine outs into spectacular catches. That needs to be fixed long ago.
You don’t have a clue.
I hope they can work S G-L into the rotation. He looks like he has the potential to be a solid starter. The Tigers are getting their team back from the IL.
If he does well…the Tigers will have trade candidates.
No need to trade from pitching depth.
Javier Baez is in my hope to trade but nearly impossible to trade ledger. Pitchers quit throwing him strikes so he’s coming back to his norm. At least now he’s a good super-sub.
Baez looks rejuvenated and more like the player he was helping the Cubs win the WS.
AJ Hinch is smart enough to keep finding ABs and Defensive opportunities for Baez.
For now.
It’s either going to be Hicklen or Matt Manning.
Probably Manning. His numbers are horrible this year so smaller chances he gets picked up. Not a huge loss if he does.
If they do DFA Manning I expect that someone will claim him. They will want to take a look at him at AAA. I do not DFA Hicklen to much potential and speed. It has to be Baddoo it is time for him to go anywhere else.
I see Tim Elko is in the White Sox lineup. When was he recalled?
Looks like no one had to be DFA’d so we can hold onto all of these options for the trade deadline when the Tigers will be acquiring a legitimate 3rd baseman and a lights out Closer!
This is going to be a fun ride as “We’re World Series bound and picking up stream…Go Get ‘em Tigers”!!!!!
And we get to keep Baddoo! / sarc off
That’s great news as with so many innings last year the bullpen don’t look as sharp this year at times. S.G.L is a totally fresh and fixed arm. Should help the team for many years. The Tigers will take any role or job they can get from Cobb.
If vierling does come back this year will ibanez get released or will keith go down ? That will be interesting, With the resurgence of Baez it seem to me that Ibanex is the odd man out. Still, sending Kieth down avoids that till next year. We’ll see.
If Vierling does come back this year, it probably won’t be until Aug-Sep and a lot can happen between now and then. If Ibanez is still not hitting lefties at that point and we need his spot, then yeah, he’s certain to get cut. I definitely see us cutting ties with Ibanez before sending down Keith if it comes down to it. If we didn’t option Keith in the first couple months of last season, it’s harder to justify doing so this season. He’s been good about making necessary adjustments and is still an important part of our future as of now.
I was able to watch a little of his outing. I thought he looked good. He was throwing a lot of strikes and challenging hitters. But, he didn’t seem to be putting them away consistently (like he lacked an out pitch maybe?). I say that because I saw him throwing quality pitches, but his pitch count was elevated the entire time.
Let’s see game two. He was in trouble every iinning and it was the ChiSox.
Agree Troy. I thought SGL pitched well the first 2 2/3 iP.
Then it looked like he quickly ran out of gas. That’s understandable after being out so long with injury and rehab. It’s not an ingrown toenail procedure that he had.
Those first 2 2/3 IPs he looked like he did last we saw him pre-surgery. Not bad, esp considering the rain delay.