4:00pm: Nido will make $1.5MM if he makes the major league roster, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.
1:56pm: Tomas Nido is heading back to Detroit on a minor league deal, according to the MiLB transactions log. Nido was outrighted to Triple-A Toledo in May. He elected free agency in mid-October, but will stick with the Detroit organization. Nido is represented by ACES.
Nido first joined the Tigers on a minor league deal in September 2024 after getting released by the Cubs. He elected minor league free agency at the end of the 2024 season, but reupped with Detroit in January 2025. This offseason played out similarly for the two sides.
Jake Rogers went down with an oblique injury in April, leading to an early call-up for Nido. He hit .343 in 11 games with the big-league club. All 12 of Nido’s hits were singles. He also struck out at a 27% clip. Rogers returned in May, bumping Nido back to Toledo.
The 31-year-old Nido has spent parts of the past nine seasons with four MLB teams. The majority of his professional career has been spent in the Mets organization. He was drafted by New York in 2012.
Nido handled backup catcher duties for the Mets in varying stints from 2017 to 2024. His most active year was 2022, when he appeared in 98 games and reached 313 plate appearances. Nido scuffled to a .600 OPS that season. His tenure with the Mets ended in June of 2024. The Cubs quickly scooped up Nido after his release from the Mets. He made 17 appearances with Chicago before they moved on from him.
Defense has always been Nido’s calling card. Statcast’s Fielding Run Value grades him as a positive contributor in each season going back to 2018. Nido exceeded double-figures in fielding run value in both 2021 and 2022.
Dillon Dingler emerged as a strong option behind the plate for Detroit this past season, slashing .278/.327/.425 as the primary starter. Rogers remains in the fold as a reliable backup. Nido would likely need an injury to one of those two options in order to return to the MLB squad. Detroit also has catching prospects Josue Briceno and Thayron Liranzo looming in the minors. MLB.com ranks both Briceno and Liranzo as top 5 prospects in the organization.
Start the article off with his name. That’s what I’m talking about!
Nido did a fine job for the Tigers in limited action. He’ll be extremely valuable mentoring the young prospects in Toledo, especially with respect to defense.
He played great for Detroit. Great to have him still in the system.
Can never have to many guys like Nido around, will be great for the AAA staff.
Hopefully this isn’t the highlight story for our offseason, good insurance signing though, I have no faith in Tigers ownership or front office to make this team better. I sure miss Mike Illitch, he would have never allowed this team to falter at the deadline. His love and passion for Detroit sports is unprecedented and unmatched by anyone! Mr Illitch Tigers fans everywhere miss you terribly, you were a fixture in Detroit athletics for years. RIP
And his son Chris has inherited his mother’s miserly habits as neither care enough about winning to take the next step. We all miss Mr I as he would never had let an opportunity like this year go by the wayside
Mike was great at spending but not at building. CI is far from miserly as the leader of the trust. He has poured millions into a farm system that was 28th and now sits near the top.
Lakeland has a state of the art rehab center. The Tigers have one of the best development pipelines for catchers, nutrition, kinesiology, numerous more minor league coaches rather than roaming ones.
CI understands Harris’s desire for a strong foundation to build a self supplying system through draft and development. Guys like Connors leads a revamped scouting and drafting system. CI has built a Domican Academy that brings Detroit into the modern age of developing Latin players. These high level exec’s don’t come cheap so money has been poured into the FO.
What has happened is Harris and Hinch are way ahead of schedule and have brought the Tigers to the playoffs earlier than expected. CI will spend when the time is right and the team is ready.
Don’t forget the miserly CI gave Avila 225 million when Avila said the Tigers were ready and weren’t. if your not ready for the next step, spending big on FA is like whizzing in the wind.
CI and Harris are building a sustainable model. Have patience grasshopper. Mr. I threw it to the wind and we paid the price of paying Prince long after he was a Tiger. And paid as the limping Miguel made it to the finish line in unproductive years.
in Harris I trust and CI is anything but miserly as it pretains to the Tigers.
So offering your once in a generation star pitcher a way under market contract of 4yrs $80M after he won the Cy Young award is a wise move? Keep trusting CI & Harris and you’ll end up broken hearted as all these two care about is profit
Count me as one that understands the organizational perspective. I see what they are doing (and not doing) and see a handsome payoff down the road.
Neato!
You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you get Nido
Glad Nido is gone from the Mets. He always seemed to have the best games of his career against the Braves.
He’s a good catcher. Tiger pitchers like throwing to him. He’s worth stashing in Toledo for if and when. Thought he might get a better shot being a ML backup somewhere else. Glad he decided to stay with the Tigers.
it says alot about the culture Hinch and Harris have built. Finnegan said he loved the Tigers as well as Gleyber, Flarety, Lorenzen and others. It appears the Tigers have left the Avila stone age where analytics set unused.
and are developing something special with players who are all in and all play for each other with a team first mentality.
Great signing for the MudHens !