Veteran right-hander Spencer Turnbull has signed with Cerveceros de Tecate of the Mexican Northern League, relays Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. Turnbull made a handful of appearances with the Blue Jays last season. He closed the year in the Royals’ minor league system.
Turnbull, 33, spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues. The majority of his time in the majors came with the Tigers. Detroit selected Turnbull with a second-round pick in the 2014 draft. He briefly debuted with the club in 2018, then emerged as a full-time member of the rotation in 2019. The righty had a sub-4.00 FIP and a 4.62 SIERA, but didn’t get much help from a Detroit squad that lost 114 games. Turnbull led the league with 17 losses that year.
After a decent performance in the shortened 2020 campaign, injuries derailed Turnbull’s career. He got off to a strong start in 2021, including a no-hitter against the Mariners, but went down with a forearm strain after nine appearances. The injury eventually required Tommy John surgery. Turnbull missed all of 2022. He came back the following season but was limited to seven starts with a neck injury.
Turnbull landed with the Phillies in 2024 after wrapping up his time in Detroit. He looked like a reliable swingman piece in the Philadelphia bullpen. The righty struck out more than a batter per inning across 54 1/3 innings, which included seven starts and 10 relief outings. He had a solid 3.80 xFIP and a 3.67 SIERA in the multi-faceted role. Turnbull’s season was cut short in late June due to a lat strain. He made three appearances for the Blue Jays last year, posting an ERA above 7.00. Turnbull had minor league stints with the Cubs and Royals before heading to Mexico.
Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images
Would he really have no offers from the Asian baseball leagues? Mexican League seems like a large dropoff considering he was recently in MLB games.
Injuries, the one thing you can count on in baseball to derail a potentially outstanding career…
He couldn’t get a minor league deal? Baseball doesn’t make sense sometimes.
It was more weird last year when he didn’t get a big league deal after his 2024 season and got cut loose by the Blue Jays so quickly after a couple poor outings.
Big clubhouse issues with this guy, as I understand it.
I began to question Big Red when he seemingly withheld an injury from the Tiger front office until they sent him to the minors. But I admire his willingness to travel with then-teammate Matthew Boyd to Africa to spend time with children in Boyd’s Kingdom Home charity. Seeing two giant American men holding hands with these kids was heart-warming. Of course, that can be viewed in a creepy sense, but knowing the reputational risk they could endure makes their involvement even more genuine.
Attitude and working well with others are among his history of problems. Tigers, gave up on his not getting along with management. He has a reputation of not being a team player. That is why the Tigers and Phillies let him leave for greener pastures.
This is the Mexican minor leagues too. Kind of odd.
Hmm. That info negates my question of whether he was playing with or against Justin Turner