3:45pm: The Tigers have made the move official, announcing they have selected Smith and optioned De Jesus. Left-hander Bailey Horn was transferred to the 60-day injured list as the 40-man move. Evan Woodbery of the MLive Media Group reported the Horn move prior to the official announcement. Horn began the season on the 15-day IL while recovering from left elbow arthroscopy. He began a rehab assignment earlier this month and pitched on April 7th and 11th but that rehab was shut down. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement, so he will be eligible for reinstatement in late May.
2:45pm: The Tigers are going to select the contract of right-hander Burch Smith. Left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding active roster move. The Tigers will need to open a 40-man spot to make it official. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic was among those to relay that Smith had a locker in the clubhouse and that De Jesus has been optioned.
Smith, 36, signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in the winter. He has been with Triple-A Toledo to begin the season and has been off to a hot start. Through eight appearances and ten innings, he has allowed just two earned runs via four hits, no walks and one hit batter while striking out 16. He has been throwing his changeup 12.6% of the time in that small sample, after only using that pitch about 1-3% of the time in recent years.
The Tigers will give Smith a chance to face major league hitters for the first time since 2024. Though he is in his mid-3os and debuted in the majors over a decade ago, his big league track record is still pretty limited. At the end of 2021, he had 191 major league innings with a 6.03 earned run average. He spent 2022 in NPB in Japan and 2023 in the KBO in South Korea.
He was back in the majors with the Marlins and Orioles in 2024 and posted a 4.95 ERA in 56 1/3 innings. Last year, he was stuck in the minors with the Pirates after signing a minor league deal. He bounced on and off the injured list in the minors and put up a 7.08 ERA in Triple-A before being released in July.
Though Smith didn’t sign anywhere else in the latter months of 2025, the Tigers may have been intrigued by a stint in winter ball in the Dominican Republic. Pitching for Águilas Cibaeñas, Smith logged 15 1/3 innings with a 1.76 ERA. He struck out 20 of the 63 batters he faced, a 31.7% clip. He has carried over that form so far this year, with a 29% strikeout rate in spring training and a huge 44.4% clip in Triple-A.
If he provide something close to that in the majors, it would be a nice under-the-radar find for the Tigers. If not, Smith has at least five years of service time, meaning he can’t be optioned back to the minors without his consent.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
I thought he retired like 10 years ago.
That was his cousin, Birch Beer.
He can’t keep doing this!
There is a law that says only so many seasons can pass without Burch Smith playing in one of them.
It was pretty obvious last night when Detroit left DeJesus on the mound that he was pitching for the last time as a Tiger. He should have been at Toledo earlier or just plain released. Cant throw strikes on a regular basis and the entire middle relief have been a disaster. Hinch gave up on the game or he had his instructions from Harris to sink or swim him. He sunk and everyone knew that would happen. Hopefully. Burch can do better than the rest.
Brant Hurter has been OK in middle relief. But you’re right, the rest of the middle relievers have been a major disaster!
How did his parents come up with that (Mr Harvey voice) silly A$$ name? 😂
Maybe his parents liked the birch trees from when they watched Bob Ross painting them haha!
😂
I’d rather be named Bob Happy-Ross Trees and then my last name.
This guy is the type of player where sabermetricians go to long lengths and buzzwords to justify his stats.