January 5th: Effross will indeed get an invite to big league camp and will also make a salary of $950K in the majors, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.
January 4th: The Tigers signed right-hander Scott Effross to a minor league contract in December, as per Effross’ MLB.com profile page. Effross has been assigned to Triple-A Toledo, and will presumably be a non-roster invite to the Tigers’ big league spring camp.
The 32-year-old sidearmer is looking to rebound from three straight injury-marred seasons. A Tommy John surgery entirely wiped out Effross’ 2023 campaign, and a back surgery during that TJ rehab period kept Effross out of any game action until June 2024, and he ended up tossing 35 1/3 minor league innings that season as well as 3 1/3 MLB frames with the Yankees. During Spring Training 2025, Effross then suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain that led to three more months on the shelf, and he amassed only 10 2/3 innings for New York while being frequently shuffled up and down from the minors.
While Effross was projected for just an $800K salary in his first year of arbitration eligibility, the Yankees chose to non-tender the righty in November. It wasn’t an unexpected decision given Effross’ injury woes, and he’ll now look to try and re-establish himself and win a job in Detroit’s bullpen. He has a minor league option remaining, as well as two more arb-eligible years if he can make the roster and recapture some of his early-career form.
Before the Tommy John surgery, Effross looked to be establishing himself as a bullpen weapon in his first two Major League seasons. He debuted in 2021 as a member of the Cubs, and posted a 2.78 ERA, 27.9% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate, and 45.1% grounder rate over 71 1/3 combined innings with the Cubs and Yankees during the 2021-22 seasons. New York was intrigued enough to acquire Effross in a one-for-one swap for Hayden Wesneski at the 2022 deadline, in what ended up being a nice trade for Chicago.
Effross’ few cups of coffee in the majors over the last two seasons have yielded only a 7.71 ERA and a 12.3% strikeout rate across 14 innings. His K% was also diminished (through not to that extent) during his minor league work in 2024-25, and Effross struggled to a 6.37 ERA in 29 2/3 frames with at the Triple-A level last year.
Tigers get an Eff for this signing.
Depth
Sounds like he has potential. Hope he stays healthy.
Another Cashman failed trade
@Captain
Oh yeah…a trade that sent them Hayden Wesneski a former 8th round pick that they couldn’t keep in the 40 man. Can a trade be a failure for a career minor leaguer you had no use for anyway?
Are you saying the author is wrong ?
New York was intrigued enough to acquire Effross in a one-for-one swap for Hayden Wesneski at the 2022 deadline, in what ended up being a nice trade for Chicago.
also another Hoyer failed trade.
Not according to the author
Finally Scott made a big signing.
Yep, this will be the biggest signing of the offf season for Harris, the boy wonder.
He made three already for the bullpen.
Resigning a guy you already had, signing a 40 year old with bad peripherals, and signing a guy coming back from overseas because he wasn’t good enough for mlb in the first place does not count as big impactful signings.
They count more than Effross was the point.
Depth is good. So is signing or trading for a big bat and a #2 starter!
I miss when Effross was on the Cubs when David Ross was manager. He was like a subtle jab at his manager just by merely existing.
What a bust this guy was . In 4 seasons managed to pitch 26 innings.
The season is saved!!!
Who needs Imai, Valdez, Bregman, or Bichette.
We’ve got an EFF!!!
Stud pitcher for the Cubs back in the day. So far back I don’t actually recall anything but remember the name.
Effed in the tigers AAA ,Think he’ll wind up there?
Prefer they effricketts but hes the monopoly man so watchagonna do
Talking with a fellow Tiger fan, I mentioned a starter to bridge the probable loss of Skubal (Ranger Suarez?), a power leadership bat, and some relief help. Scott Effross wasnt who I had in mind, but he can always serve as minor league depth.
7 more weeks. Can’t hardly wait. It’s looking like a healthy off season for the team, and hopefully that continues. Will McGonigle break camp, will he sign a long term deal like Keith did ? Exciting season once again for Detroit in store as its once upon a time rookies feel like M.L.B. veterans now. GO TIGERS !
I vigorously defended Scott since his arrival and up to this offseason. Gave him time to assess the entire org.
While I see much needed improvements in scouting and development for the minor league system, those are all he has done right.
The Tigers KNEW they weren’t going to pony up for Skubs. Should’ve traded him last offseason for the maximum returns. They didn’t, nor a the trade deadline.
The QO for Torres was beyond ignorant with the number of 2B players/prospects that we have.
Acquiring a 3B has been completely ignored.
The SP’s he targets are generally number 3’s at best.
At this point, I believe Scott is too afraid to make a bigger trade or cannot make a decision as to the future roster regarding our prospects. He is, apparently, a good organizer, yet a very below average GM, as dumpster diving is an obsession.
I thought I was the only person who thought Harris is either terrible or restrained by the cheap ownership group we have
Harris is addicted to dumpster-diving….he needs an intervention…..AND WHEN ARE WE GONNA SIGN AN EXPERIENCED STARTING PITCHER??
Never, unless they’re willing to take a 1 year/15 mil contract or have one foot in the grave ala Alex Cobb or Kenta Maeda
@brass
Harris is not the GM.
@jammin
They have signed experienced FA pitchers.
Someone needs to let Harris know there are other ways to build a team outside of internal development and claiming cast offs.
Tigers don’t get into the playoffs without Skubal. You have to get into the playoffs to have a chance to win the world series.
And you just have to get hot at the right time to get there. Look at past surprise teams to make it. Best team? Maybe not. But they were playing the best during the playoffs.
Skubal gives you a chance *now*.
Good luck with that pipe dream. The lineup is nowhere near good enough. They blew a 15 game lead. Sorry, but they are largely a AAAA team.
AAAA? And yet they sent how many players to the All Star game? Their offence was top ranked for most of the season.
I also agree they need to grab more offense though.
Another Dodgers Fan: YEAH! Let’s make a real run while we still have him! AND HOW ABOUT INVESTING IN THE TEAM? Tiger fans were under the impression that ownership would start to open the purse.once we started to win, and the park looked full every game, even on Mondays….the fans deserve SOMETHING this offseason!
@another
Skubal only won 13 games last year. He is an awesome pitcher for certain. 74 wins came from guys not named Skubal so it was a team effort to get to the playoffs.
I can’t find the answer to this but maybe you know. What was the Tigers record in games Skubal started? How many games did he leave with a lead?
These stats matter as well as win loss, which can be affected by poor offense or relief pitching.
He’s not single handedly getting them to the playoffs, but he’s a large part.
I don’t know the answer to your question. I do believe you raise a valid point. Skubal had 31 starts but was not the pitcher of record in 12 of them. So something in those 12 starts happened when he wasn’t the pitcher of record.
I think it is a stretch when people claim the tigers don’t make the playoffs without him. Skubal only played 31 out of 162 games. The other 25 guys on the roster had to contribute their share or the tigers don’t make the playoffs.
Wesneski didn’t do anything in Chicago. That trade was a total wash.
He was healthy enough to pitch in ’23 & ’24 and would have had the opportunity in NY. Might of saved us the Stroman signing too.
Does he throw a Effross pitch? Sorry …
🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱
The way they option players back and forth to Toledo, he will pitch in Detroit this season. They can option him without losing him, but they had Lee and dumped him for the roster spot basically. Might as well DFA Jung and Sweeney, Brieske too. Sign more scrap heap players, I hear Kanhe and Montero are still available. Padduck is still out there too, and maybe we can sign Kyle Farmer to play 3B too
Harris was in the Cubs front office when they drafted Effross
Yet another classic Scott Harris move. He’s constantly trying to catch lightning in a bottle with journeymen, reclamation projects, guys coming off Tommy John surgery, etc.
He cycles guys like Effross into and out of the organization. Every once in a while you get a winner like Tyler Holton.
Yeah, anyone criticizing this move is pretty shortsighted. A healthy Effross is a steal. And the cost is virtually zero. I wish my team had taken a flyer on this guy. One can question some of Harris’s moves, but this isn’t one of them. To draw larger conclusions about Harris’s tenure because of acquisitions like this one is beyond silly.
Well, it’s like digging through a thrift store’s inventory = like going to Goodwill = and hoping to find some special deal on an undervalued item. Or…. going in and buying Walmart tennis shoes instead of plopping down the money for what the kids want; what the kids need – like the most current innovations from Nike – which include the sensory Nike Mind footwear concept (for reawakening the body and mind).
Don’t you know?
And the other 99 percent of the time you get useless nobodies who actively hurt the team in games. Good teams don’t have to rely on waiver claims to make up a majority of their bullpens
Nonsense. Smart teams use every avenue available to them to build a good team. Dumb teams (like people) turn up their nose at “what’s beneath them.”
Harris’s waiver claims last year hurt the team not saying there’s no place for a waiver claim, but it shouldn’t have a majority stake in building a roster. Harris needs to learn how to make trades & talent outside of the organization. Not everything can come from internal development
Interesting. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Kyle Finnegan come from just the kind of transaction you think Harris “needs to learn”? And didn’t Finnegan make a measurable contribution to the team last year?
As a competitor to Detroit, I’d love for Harris to embark on a path you recommend and start trading from his deep pool of young talent for “established” veterans who are getting paid big bucks for past achievements. Or overpaying for free agents.
If Harris learns from the mistakes of Alex Cobb, Jack Flaherty, and Gleyber Torres and chooses to ignore the prescription from fans like you, I’ll be very sad. Because it will mean the Tigers will be better longer than if they make ill-advised short-term moves to assuage the fans.
So Scott’s big claim to fame is Kyle Finnegan? What about Charlie Morton, Rafael Montero, Paul Sewald, Chris Paddock, and Codi Heuer? All those acquisitions hurt the team. What about the countless other no name waiver claim bullpen guys that helped blow a 15 game division lead? Nobody is saying trade their top prospects or sign Soto for 800 mill. But doing nothing is unacceptable.
Clearly you didn’t watch the games last season. The players responsible for the 15 1/2 game collapse were the same players who built that lead. Pointing the finger at a bunch of stopgap arms who had limited playing time (and not understanding Finnegan offset a lot of that) is misplaced blame, typical for fans who don’t want to accept that their core players are the ones wholly responsible.
Fans always want to assign responsibility to managers and the front office for failures that happen between the lines. But it’s the players who you need to reserve your ire for.
Cleveland did absolutely nothing at the deadline and ran down Detroit…so who gets the credit there? It’s the players. It’s ALWAYS the players. Credit OR blame. Face it: Detroit wasn’t as good as it showed early in the year and it wasn’t as bad as it showed at the end of the year. Cleveland was just the reverse. The final standings were appropriate.
Everyone not named Harris knew the Tigers were over performing. Everyone was asking for bullpen adds and a middle of the order bat. This team is full of young players. That’s the whole idea of acquiring a few more veteran players to fill the gaps and provide some track record of consistency. I didn’t just blame the waiver guys, the young core fell off a cliff. Nobody is asking for the top free agent in every class, or a Mason Miller trade. Give me a David Bednar for some mid level prospects, or a Tyler Rodgers. Grab a Merrill Kelly, or a Sonny Gray. Someone with a track record. This team is no longer in a position to just throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. They need to fill the weaknesses and make a real push, especially even most of their rotation will be gone after this year.
Riiiight…point me to a single post you made on or before July 8th that the Tigers were overperforming. Because when that day closed, Detroit had a 14 game lead and had by far and away the best record in the Major Leagues and folks like you were celebrating how many Tigers were going to the All Star Game. You weren’t complaining about nuthin’.
This moaning and groaning is all retrospective, and now you need a scapegoat, and who better than your smug general manager who you were heaping praise on until September hit. Give me a break. A “middle of the order bat”? Who doesn’t need one of those? Lockdown reliever? The Mets got one of those from the Cardinals…how did that work out? (I notice you didn’t mention him; you only mention players who were good after the deadline, just like you conveniently left off Finnegan when naming the guys the Tigers grabbed who didn’t work out. Guess you had a crystal ball?)
The Tigers have have lost two consecutive closely contested ALDS series in five games and yet you act like your team is a mess. Gimme a break. You’re running the highest payroll in the division by far and you have one of the very best farm systems in the game. Yes, you have issues (next year’s rotation is definitely one) but so does everyone else in the game. Wake up and enjoy the ride.
@Avory log off your burner account, Paul Dolan. Focus more on your Guardians instead of bootlicking yourself in the comments section of MLBTR, please.
Find a post where I was heralding Harris as the second coming. No, I didn’t trust the Tigers to be who they were the first few months. Why? Because they were largely the same team they were the previous season. Their offense was bad in 2024, so sorry if I didn’t buy that they were an elite offense out of nowhere.
Harris took flyers on a bunch of guys who were about to be cut by their own teams at the deadline. Nobody was surprised when those players didn’t do well in Detroit. Analyst were underwhelmed, and fans who watch the team were too. It’s not because the Tigers aren’t a solid team, it’s that the front office/ownership sits on their hands, instead of making a push and showing they’re trying to win a world series, and not just settling for a wild card spot.
It comes down to not using all avenues to get better. I’m happy that they’re improving their developmental staff. I’m happy they aren’t trading all of their too prospects. But at some point you need to push the chips in and make a big trade, or sign an impact guy. They have the young core, now fill in the gaps with proven commodities.
True. Also nice ,they are not just getting a name just to have gotten someone.
Out.of all the.big stars, who could actually help amongst who’s left?
Belli? another lefty…ok Bo..maybe…
Berg my favorite presser? No! One of best parts of the 25 season actually in play was not having to suffer Bergman articles. I couldn’t stand it if he was on the Tigers. I might stop watching unless/until he does really, really well….
Any pitchers left?
Not anymore. Because Harris is waiting for the scraps after the actual contenders get their guys
Good luck to the Tigers and Effross!