The Tigers announced have reinstated right-hander José Urquidy from the 60-day injured list. In a corresponding active roster move, fellow righty Sawyer Gipson-Long has been placed on the 15-day IL due to neck stiffness. To open a 40-man spot, righty Beau Brieske has been recalled and placed on the 60-day injured list with a right forearm strain. Chris McCosky of Detroit News relayed the moves prior to the official announcement.
Once Urquidy gets into a game, he will be pitching for the first time in almost two years, in addition to suiting up for a team other than the Astros for the first time. He tossed 405 innings for Houston over the 2019 to 2023 seasons, allowing 3.98 earned runs per nine. His 19.6% strikeout rate was below average but he limited walks to a 5.8% pace. He also logged 46 1/3 postseason innings in that span with a 4.08 ERA.
But in 2024, he couldn’t get on the mound due to elbow/forearm issues. He eventually required Tommy John surgery in June. The Astros could have retained him for 2025 via arbitration but instead put him on waivers. Urquidy cleared and elected free agency. The Tigers signed him to a one-year deal with a $1MM guarantee and a 2026 club option worth $4MM plus escalators. Urquidy started a rehab assignment in early August and appears to be in good form. He has tossed 19 2/3 innings with a 3.20 ERA, 21.6% strikeout rate, 6.8% walk rate and 49.1% ground ball rate.
It doesn’t appear as though Urquidy will be inserted into the rotation, since he’s not fully stretched out. He didn’t throw more than three innings in any of his rehab appearances. In his most recent outing, he threw 28 pitches over two innings. He will therefore presumably jump into a multi-inning role in the Detroit bullpen.
Gipson-Long had been in the rotation, so his neck injury drops the team from five to four. They have Tarik Skubal going tonight and Charlie Morton tomorrow. They don’t have a starter listed for Sunday. Manager A.J. Hinch tells Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic that Sunday will be a bullpen game. The club is off on Monday. Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty will go on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Skubal on Thursday. Urquidy, Chris Paddack and Keider Montero could perhaps pitch in multi-inning roles on Sunday.
The club never plays more than six games in a row the rest of the way, so perhaps they will get by with four traditional starters and some bullpen games. They have a fairly comfortable lead of 8.5 games over the Guardians in the Central. They are also five games up on the Astros/Mariners for the second first-round bye.
As for Brieske, it was reported a few weeks back that his season was essentially over, so this move isn’t a shock. The one benefit for him with this move is that he will receive big league pay and service time for the next few weeks. He is making $1.025MM this year and will be due a raise in arbitration. However, since he posted a 6.55 ERA in 22 innings this year, he won’t have much ability to push that salary up.
Photo courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images
Should be interesting….
7 runs in 2-1/3 innings would be enough to give anyone a pain in the neck!
Call Dobnak up for Sunday he’s looking good.
Agree. If Sewald and Urquidy can be effective the Tigers might just have enough BP arms to go deep next month.
Alex Lange walked a bunch a guys yesterday. I don’t think he will be recalled any time soon.
Tigers have a team option for 2026, and that was their primary incentive to do the deal as Urquidy wasn’t guaranteed to pitch this season.
Neck stiffness from watching Aaron Judge hit off him, no doubt.
He was sneaky good for a few years in HOU. You knew every time he took the mound he was going to give you at least 6 innings while still keeping/holding the game within reach. I hope he does well. AJ knows how to get the best out of him. Yalls team looks real impressive this year.
He’s got a club option for next year
Looking forward to seeing what he has to offer. Up next a test drive of Sewald.
Enter the Dragon, the secret weapon for the playoffs has arrived ! This is great news. The love of the game summed it up the best, save that stiff neck repair for next season, that was awful.
Hinch and Urquidy for the playoffs to win. Nice team reunited. Secret weapon come on down ! This is a much needed addition. The big 6 games with Cleveland are important games for Detroit. GO TIGERS !!!
Hopefully he can get us deep in playoffs, if not it’s a repeat of the Dombrowski years, we should have won a couple of World Series but our bullpen was terrible. Harris has to go out and build a better lineup this winter if we’re going to be competitive every year!