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Tigers Moving Colt Keith To First Base

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Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris met with reporters this afternoon, shortly after the team finalized its one-year deal with Gleyber Torres. The team provided video of the 16-minute media session.

Harris confirmed the Tigers will play Torres at second base. Colt Keith will move to first base. Harris indicated that Keith could return to the keystone in future years but noted that “for 2025, our best team has Gleyber at second base and Colt at first base.” Keith spent the entire ’24 campaign at second base, where he logged nearly 1100 innings as a rookie.

Keith’s defensive grades were mixed. Statcast rated him as a slightly above-average second baseman. Defensive Runs Saved was a lot less enthusiastic, estimating he was eight runs below par. Scouting reports on the 6’2″, 211-pound infielder have pegged him as a bat-first player. Keith may be a capable defender at the keystone but wasn’t likely to develop into a Gold Glove winner.

That was the youngster’s first full season as a second baseman. Keith was drafted as a third baseman and continued playing the hot corner until midway through the ’23 campaign. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press wrote this morning that the Tigers weren’t willing to move Keith back to third base because of concerns about a prior labrum injury in his throwing shoulder.

Keith’s bat guarantees him a spot in the starting lineup. The lefty hitter had a .260/.309/.380 slash with 13 homers. Those numbers are weighed down by a terrible first few weeks. Keith had a .154/.222/.165 showing through the end of April. He hit .282/.328/.426 in 457 plate appearances from the start of May onward. Keith managed solid production against pitchers of either handedness. He should be in the lineup against almost all right-handed pitchers. Skipper A.J. Hinch could shield him from a few lefties, but the Tigers are unlikely to relegate Keith to a strict platoon role.

If the Tigers aren’t willing to play Keith on the left side of the infield, the Torres deal essentially forced him to first base. Torres has been a full-time second baseman since the Yankees moved him off shortstop in 2022. The Nationals showed interest in moving him to third base. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported last night — before Torres signed with Detroit — that the infielder rebuffed Washington because he didn’t want to change positions.

Between the infield shakeup and some early offseason chatter about the Tigers potentially pursuing a veteran first baseman, it’s fair to wonder if former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson still has a role on the roster. Unsurprisingly, Harris suggested publicly that remains the case. Detroit’s front office leader said he spoke with Torkelson before the Tigers announced the Torres signing. “My message to Tork was: ’if you have a big offseason and a big spring training, there’s a role for you on this team.’ This team needs more right-handed power and we’ve seen Tork do that in the past,” Harris said.

The Tigers have sought right-handed hitting since the start of the offseason. Torres addresses that to some extent, though he’s more a solid hitter than a great one. His 38-homer showing from 2019 looks like a clear outlier. Torres respectively hit 24 and 25 homers in 2022 and ’23. That dropped to 15 round-trippers this year, in part because of an ice cold April in which he didn’t hit a single home run.

Torkelson connected on 31 homers with a .233/.313/.446 slash line in 2023. A strong second half provided optimism coming into this year. Instead, he stumbled to a .219/.295/.374 mark with 10 homers through 92 games — struggles that led the Tigers to option Torkelson to Triple-A Toledo for a stretch. A change-of-scenery trade still seems a distinct possibility.

Kerry Carpenter should get the bulk of playing time at designated hitter. The lefty-swinging Carpenter will be in the lineup at either DH or in the corner outfield against all righty pitching. He’ll probably be shielded from left-handers, but carrying Torkelson as a short-side platoon bat with limited defensive value isn’t a great use of a roster spot. Harris said today that the Tigers don’t view Torkelson as a candidate for any reps at third base or in the corner outfield, though he opined that “with the DH plate appearances and opportunity at first base, there are still plenty of plate appearances for him.”

Justyn-Henry Malloy, a righty hitter, is also in the DH/first base mix. Malloy has been a high-OBP bat in the minors. He hit just .203/.291/.366 with eight homers in 71 MLB games as a rookie. He still has a full slate of minor league options, but he’s another hitter without a clear defensive fit and a limited major league track record.

The Tigers are one of a handful of teams that has been recently linked to the top unsigned position player, Alex Bregman. While the Torres signing doesn’t directly impact third base, it deepens the infield more generally. Harris declined comment on Bregman, as the CBA prohibits team personnel from saying whether they’re in or out on specific free agents.

He indicated there’ll be more moves on the horizon while suggesting he’s encouraged by how the roster is shaping up. “The roster isn’t done yet. It’s not even 2025 yet. There’s still some time in the offseason to fully flesh out our roster. But when I stare at our group right now, this is the deepest we’ve ever been — on both sides of the ball,” Harris said.

Since signing Alex Cobb, the Tigers have downplayed their desire for another starting pitcher. The exception is their pursuit of NPB star Roki Sasaki, who’ll be limited to a signing bonus below $10MM because of his status as an international amateur. Harris said that the Tigers have presented an initial presentation to Sasaki’s representatives at Wasserman. He indicated that the Tigers are awaiting a response from Sasaki’s camp as to whether they’ll get an in-person meeting after the holidays.

Agent Joel Wolfe suggested at the Winter Meetings that Sasaki, who took preliminary meetings with a handful of teams last week, would begin narrowing the field after returning to Japan for the holiday. The Tigers don’t seem a likely landing spot for Sasaki, but they’d certainly welcome an opportunity to make a pitch to the 23-year-old righty.

Phillies Sign Guillo Zuniga, Nabil Crismatt To Minor League Deals

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The Phillies signed relievers Nabil Crismatt and Guillo Zuñiga to minor league contracts earlier this month. Both deals are reflected on the team’s transaction log at MLB.com and the players’ respective social media accounts.

Both pitchers logged limited major league action in 2024. Crismatt, who turned 30 on Wednesday, made five appearances for the Dodgers early in the year. He spent the remainder of the season in Triple-A, which he divided between three organizations. Crismatt pitched in the minors between Los Angeles, San Diego and Texas. He had a tough showing in the Pacific Coast League, allowing 5.81 earned runs per nine through 79 innings. Crismatt struck out a slightly below-average 20.7% of batters faced against a decent 7.5% walk rate.

The Colombian-born hurler has struggled over six Triple-A seasons. His major league track record is quite a bit better. Crismatt owns a 3.71 earned run average through parts of five MLB campaigns. Most of that production came during a strong two-year run in San Diego between 2021-22. He has logged 20 major league innings over the past two seasons.

Zuñiga, 26, debuted with two appearances for the Cardinals in 2023. St. Louis dealt him to the Angels in a cash deal in February. Zuñiga made 15 appearances for the Halos. He tossed 17 2/3 innings, allowing 10 runs with 12 strikeouts and eight walks. Zuñiga pitched 26 innings at the Triple-A level, where he turned in a 5.19 ERA with a well below-average 14.3% strikeout rate. The Angels designated him for assignment when they acquired Travis d’Arnaud and released him a few days later.

This year’s drop in strikeouts marked a bizarre change from the bulk of Zuñiga’s minor league career. He’d fanned a quarter of batters faced over 29 appearances in Triple-A during the ’23 season. His strikeout rate frequently pushed 30% during his time in the low minors. Zuñiga averaged 97 MPH with his four-seam fastball this year and sat just under 99 MPH during his limited MLB stint with the Cardinals in 2023.

Mets Sign Sean Manaea

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On Friday evening, the Mets officially announced the signing of left-hander Sean Manaea to a three-year deal. The Boras Corporation client receives a $75MM guarantee. The deal reportedly contains $23.25MM in deferred money, which will be paid between 2035-44. New York had multiple open roster spots, so no further move was necessary.

Manaea, 33 in February, is now poised to sign with the Mets for the second consecutive offseason. In the first week of January earlier this year, the southpaw landed with New York on a two-year deal that guaranteed him $28MM and included an opt-out following the 2024 campaign. It was the second winter in a row that saw Manaea sign a two-year deal with an opt out after he signed with the Giants on a $25MM guarantee during the 2022-23 offseason.

That first contract in San Francisco was inked on the heels of a brutal 2022 season in San Diego that saw Manaea struggle to a 4.96 ERA (76 ERA+) with a 4.53 FIP in 158 innings of work. His time with the Giants went better than that; while his 4.44 ERA (94 ERA+) was still below average but he nonetheless entered the offseason boasting much stronger peripherals (3.91 FIP, 3.83 SIERA) and a solid run of starts down the stretch that September where he posted a 2.25 ERA and 3.21 FIP.

The Mets clearly believed that portended better days in Manaea’s future, and it certainly did. The lefty emerged as a quality mid-rotation option for New York in 2024 as he posted a 3.47 ERA (114 ERA+) with a 3.83 FIP in a career-high 181 2/3 innings of work across 32 starts. With a career year in the books ahead of his third consecutive trip to free agency, it seemed as though Manaea was looking for longer-term security. The Mets opted to tag the lefty with the Qualifying Offer at the outset of the winter, but it was hardly a surprise when Manaea rejected that one-year, $21.05MM offer and entered the open market anyway. After all, the lefty came into the winter ranked by MLBTR as the #10 free agent available on our annual Top 50 MLB Free Agents list and the #5 starter behind only Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Max Fried, and Jack Flaherty.

Early in the offseason, the fact that Manaea was encumbered by the QO led a number of clubs that likely would’ve had interest in a mid-rotation veteran like him to turn towards alternative options. The Angels, Dodgers, and Cubs turned in the early days of the offseason to unencumbered free agents like Yusei Kikuchi, Snell, and Matthew Boyd rather than delve into the markets of qualified free agents like Manaea, Nick Pivetta, or Luis Severino.

That’s not a consideration for the Mets, however, as reuniting with Manaea only costs the hypothetical draft pick they would’ve received had he signed elsewhere. That’s allowed Manaea to land a healthy guarantee despite a fairly small list of teams connected to him this winter: his three-year, $75MM deal exceeds the three-year, $60MM guarantee MLBTR predicted for him at the outset of the offseason but that’s hardly a surprise given that virtually every starting pitcher’s contract has exceeded expectations. Additionally, it’s of course possible that the deferred money in Manaea’s deal drops the net present value closer to MLBTR’s prediction.

For New York, a reunion with Manaea serves as a likely capstone on the club’s efforts to reconstruct its starting rotation after he, Severino, and Jose Quintana all hit the open market last month. The club added Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes to their rotation mix earlier this winter, but that duo offers little stability given Montas’s struggles in 2025 and the fact that Holmes last started a game in the majors back in 2018. Manaea provides that much-needed stability while slotting towards the front of a rotation that also includes talented right-hander Kodai Senga and young southpaw David Peterson.

With depth options like Paul Blackburn, Tylor Megill, and Griffin Canning all in the wings to help cover for potential injuries, it would hardly be a surprise if Manaea’s return wrapped up the team’s rotation additions for the winter. That doesn’t mean the club is done entirely, however. Even with a hefty 2025 payroll that RosterResource estimates will land just shy of $280MM as things stand, that still leaves $56MM of room to work with before the Mets match their 2024 figure. That should leave plenty of room for the Mets to sign a corner infield bat to pair with Mark Vientos, whether that ends up being a reunion with Pete Alonso or an alternative option such as Alex Bregman and perhaps bolster other areas of the roster such as the bullpen or the bench.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Mets and Manaea had agreed to a three-year, $75MM deal. Will Sammon of the Athletic reported that the deal included $23.25MM in deferred money to be paid between 2035-44. Image courtesy of Imagn.

Red Sox, Noah Davis Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Noah Davis last week. The former Colorado pitcher announced the news on social media on Saturday.

Davis has pitched in the majors in each of the last three seasons. That included a career-high nine outings for the Rockies this year. Davis tossed 20 1/3 innings of 5.85 ERA ball with a below-average 15.6% strikeout rate. The 6’2″ righty owns a 7.71 earned run average across 51 1/3 frames in his major league career. He has started six of 18 appearances.

The UC Santa Barbara product has also worked in a swing role at the Triple-A level. Davis has started 23 of 34 outings for the Rockies’ top minor league team. He has a 5.06 ERA across 133 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. Davis has fanned just under 20% of batters faced against a higher than average 11.3% walk percentage.

While the numbers aren’t especially impressive at either stop, Davis has had the misfortune of pitching in difficult environments. He averaged nearly 94 MPH on his sinker in a multi-inning role for the Rox. That hasn’t resulted in huge swinging strike or ground-ball numbers. The Red Sox will try to translate that repertoire into more consistent results in a new setting.

A’s President Dave Kaval Announces Resignation

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A’s president Dave Kaval announced Friday that he’s resigning from his role in order to “pursue new business opportunities in California.”  His last day with the team will be Dec. 31. Kaval, former president of Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes, has been with the A’s since 2016. Board member Sandy Dean will serve as the A’s interim president while the club conducts a search for a new president early in 2025.

“We are grateful for Dave’s contributions and leadership over the past eight years,” owner John Fisher said in a statement within today’s press release. “He guided our organization through a period of significant transition, and we sincerely thank him for his unwavering commitment to the team. As we look ahead to the next chapter of our franchise, the team will continue to grow under new leadership, driving the organization toward success during our interim years in West Sacramento and at our new home in Las Vegas.”

Kaval joined the A’s in 2016, when former managing partner Lew Wolff sold his stake in the team to Fisher, who assumed an even broader role at the time. He’s been the public face of the A’s now-abandoned efforts to build a new stadium in Oakland. During Kaval’s tenure with the A’s, the team explored the possibility of new facilities at Howard Terminal, Jack London Square and even at the site of their now-former home, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Kaval played an integral role in the construction of what’s now known as PayPal Stadium in San Jose, home to MLS’ Earthquakes (also owned by Fisher). At the time of his hiring, he pledged his enthusiasm for “[pursuing] a world-class ballpark in Oakland for the best fans in baseball.”

Clearly, that never panned out. Kaval and Fisher drew sharp criticism from A’s fans throughout the latter portion of his time with the team, as many questioned the sincerity of the team’s desires to remain in Oakland. The A’s announced in 2023 that they planned to relocate to Las Vegas and have since begun the process of relocating to a 33,000-seat stadium located on the Las Vegas strip at the site of the since-demolished Tropicana Casino. The A’s will play the next three seasons at West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park — the home of the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. They’re expected to move into their new permanent Las Vegas home in 2028.

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat this afternoon, exclusively for Front Office subscribers!

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Tigers Designate Bailey Horn For Assignment

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The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve designated left-hander Bailey Horn for assignment. He’ll be the corresponding 40-man roster move for newly signed infielder Gleyber Torres, whose one-year, $15MM deal with the Tigers is now official.

Horn, 26, was claimed off waivers out of the Red Sox organization a month ago. He’ll now be traded to another club or claimed off waivers within the next week. He made his big league debut in Boston last season, pitching 18 innings and yielding 13 earned runs (6.50 ERA) on 22 hits and 10 walks with 13 strikeouts.

It wasn’t the best first impression in the majors, but Horn was sharper for Boston’s Triple-A club, rattling off 29 1/3 innings of 2.15 ERA ball with a 29.2% strikeout rate against a bloated 11.7% walk rate. Horn has missed bats in droves in the minors, fanning 29% of his career opponents, but he’s also walked nearly 13% of his opponents along the way. He’s a former fifth-round pick of the White Sox who’s been traded multiple times, most notably going from the Sox to the Cubs in exchange for Ryan Tepera back in 2021.

Horn’s ability to miss bats, coupled with a heater that averages 95 mph and a pair of minor league option years still remaining, could prompt another team to take a look.

D-backs Among Teams With Interest In Kirby Yates

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The D-backs have been in the market for a high-leverage reliever throughout the offseason, and they’re among the clubs with interest in right-hander Kirby Yates, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The Snakes have checked out several options on the trade market but balked at the asking price for Devin Williams — since traded to the Yankees — and their interest in Cardinals stopper Ryan Helsley might be moot if St. Louis ultimately opts to hold him.

Arizona GM Mike Hazen has left no doubt about his team’s desire to add a closing option this offseason. “I still feel like a back-end bullpen guy to help out with [Justin Martinez] and with [A.J. Puk] and those guys, I still see that,” Hazen said in a radio appearance back in early November. “I thought when [Paul Sewald] was closing, we had the best version of who we were, frankly. … But, we know [Martinez and Puk] can close, too, so we’ll see.

Yates, 38 in March, is fresh off a dominant rebound campaign with the Rangers, for whom he saved 33 games while pitching to a 1.17 ERA over the life of 61 2/3 innings. Yates earned his second career All-Star nod, fanned 35.9% of the opponents he faced, and issued walks at a 9.6% clip (higher than average but generally offset by the gaudy strikeout rate).

The 2024 season was Yates’ second consecutive year with 60-plus innings pitched, but injuries have hindered the righty at various points in his career. He threw only 11 1/3 big league innings from 2020-22; he was limited to six appearances in 2020 thanks to an elbow injury — one that wound up requiring Tommy John surgery a year later in 2021 (his second TJS operation). That procedure wiped out his entire 2021 season and the majority of his 2022 campaign.

When healthy, Yates has been a lights-out late-inning option in recent years. He’s the epitome of a late bloomer, as he didn’t truly solidify himself as a quality big league reliever until his age-30 season and didn’t break out in full until his age-31 campaign with the Padres, in 2018. Since that breakout, Yates boasts a scintillating 2.21 ERA with 93 saves, 30 holds, a 35.5% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate.

Yates would (clearly) fit the Diamondbacks’ desire for a bona fide stopper at the end of the bullpen. The question is whether he’ll fit into the budget. After last year’s brilliant showing, he’s in position to command an eight-figure salary, perhaps even over a multi-year deal if a team isn’t scared off by offering two years to a 38-year-old who’s twice required UCL surgery.

Hazen said in the aforementioned radio appearance that he expected payroll to be in the general vicinity of 2025’s $173MM mark. RosterResource currently projects a $160MM payroll for the Diamondbacks. Yates could command the bulk or perhaps even the entirety of the remaining budget, though it’s always possible that other trades will impact the payroll. The D-backs have received trade interest in their young outfielders and in their starting rotation. The club surely still hopes to shed at least a portion of the $22.5MM owed to Jordan Montgomery.

A multi-year deal for Yates would be nearly unprecedented for a reliever this old. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the only free agent relievers in the past decade to sign multi-year deals beginning in their age-38 season are Jason Grilli and Darren O’Day, both of whom signed for a total of $8MM or less. The only real comp for a pitcher of this age commanding a multi-year deal at a premium rate is Daniel Bard’s two-year, $19MM extension with the Rockies back in July 2022 — a deal that obviously did not pan out.

Third Base Rumors: Bregman, Arenado, Yankees, Tigers, Astros

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With the Yankees in need of infield help, both Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado have been linked to the club this offseason, with the idea being that one would become New York’s new third baseman and Jazz Chisholm Jr. would become the full-time second baseman.  However, during an edition of the YES Network’s “Yankees Hot Stove” show earlier this week, Jack Curry said that the Bronx Bombers weren’t in on either Bregman or Arenado, and pushed back on the idea that the Yankees ever had interest in trading for Arenado.

This runs counter to last week’s report (from MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, John Denton, and Bryan Hoch) that the Yankees offered Marcus Stroman to the Cardinals as part of a trade package for Arenado, though St. Louis rejected the deal.  As always with seemingly contradictory offseason reports, the truth could lie somewhere in the middle.  Hypothetically, it could be that New York’s interest in Arenado was limited to this scenario that would’ve seen Stroman’s salary moved off the team’s books.

Whatever the depth of the Yankees’ interest in Arenado might be, it could be a moot point if Arenado himself isn’t interested in joining the team.  The Yankees aren’t one of the six clubs (the Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Phillies, Mets, Red Sox) Arenado is reportedly willing to waive his no-trade protection to join, and Arenado has already vetoed a proposed deal to the Astros.  There was speculation that New York’s deal with Paul Goldschmidt was made in part to entice Arenado to accept a trade to the Bronx to join his old teammate, yet Curry’s report seems to close the door on that possibility.

In addition to signing Goldschmidt and Max Fried, the Yankees have also traded for Cody Bellinger, Devin Williams, and Fernando Cruz, as GM Brian Cashman has aggressively reloaded the roster after Juan Soto left to sign with the Mets.  Even with some holes left to be addressed, New York is projected (by RosterResource) for a luxury tax number of $303.2MM, and thus the team is already over the maximum penalty threshold of $301MM.

The Yankees could reduce their tax bill by trying to move Stroman or another unfavorable contract, yet the payroll situation might hint at why Arenado or Bregman aren’t (or no longer are) on the radar.  Signing Bregman would require a far higher investment than taking most or all of Arenado’s contract in a trade, plus since Bregman rejected Houston’s qualifying offer, the Yankees would need to give up two draft picks and $1MM in international bonus pool money.  Since the Bombers already paid that extra penalty to sign another qualified free agent in Fried, the club would very likely prefer to avoid further depleting its draft pool and bonus pool by adding Bregman.

If the Yankees are indeed out on Bregman, that leaves the Phillies, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Mets, and Tigers as teams known to have some level of interest in Bregman’s services this winter.  Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press shed a little more light on the Tigers’ link in the latest edition of the Days of Roar podcast, noting that “there has been an increase in the Tigers’ prioritization of Bregman” as the offseason has developed, with “more dialogue, more conversation” between the club and Bregman’s camp.

Heading into the offseason, Detroit was viewed as a logical landing spot for Bregman for multiple reasons — his past history with manager A.J. Hinch, the lack of long-term money on the Tigers’ books, and the perception that the Tigers were going to be aggressive in the wake of their Cinderella run to the ALDS last season.  The latter point hasn’t played out to date, as Alex Cobb’s one-year, $15MM deal represents the Motown team’s only major investment of the winter.

Bregman’s reported asking price of at least $200MM appears to be the hold-up, as the Tigers aren’t willing to spend to that level.  What remains unclear is if Detroit is willing to at least approach Bregman’s demands, or if the team is aiming lower overall.  Most of the free agents or trade targets publicly linked to the Tigers in rumors this winter (i.e. Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana, Walker Buehler, Kirby Yates, Erick Fedde, Steven Matz, Andrew Heaney, Kyle Gibson) are either already under contract on short-term deals, or would likely require only one- or two-year investments.  Apart from Bregman, Jack Flaherty and Ha-Seong Kim are the other free agents on the Tigers’ list of targets that would require bigger contracts, and even Kim’s situation is fluid due to the lingering uncertainty surrounding his shoulder surgery.

Bregman already turned down a reported six-year, $156MM offer from the Astros earlier this winter, which was the first step towards what now looks like the end of a reunion possibility between the third baseman and his longtime team.  Acquiring corner infielder Isaac Paredes in the Kyle Tucker trade left open the possibility that Bregman could still be re-signed and Paredes could play first base in Houston, but the Astros’ three-year, $60MM deal with first baseman Christian Walker has now addressed the team’s needs in the corner infield.

While not officially stating that the Astros were now out on Bregman, GM Dana Brown left things pretty clear by stating “Paredes is going to play third and Walker is going to play first” when speaking with reporters (including the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara) earlier this week.  Brown felt “the negotiations stalled” with Bregman’s camp, leaving the Astros in search of an alternative.

“I thought we made a really competitive offer and showed that we wanted [Bregman] back,” Brown said.  “But we had to pursue other options, we couldn’t just sit there.  We locked in Paredes early in that trade knowing that he could play third or first. And then when the opportunity to add another bat [Walker] came up, we just jumped on it.”

Gary Sutherland Passes Away

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Former major league infielder Gary Sutherland passed away on December 16 at age 80. His obituary was provided by a Monrovia, California funeral home.

Sutherland was an L.A.-area native who attended USC. He signed with the Phillies out of college. The right-handed infielder debuted during his age-21 season. He appeared in parts of three seasons for Philadelphia. The Phils lost him to the Expos in the 1968 expansion draft. Sutherland was the everyday second baseman on the inaugural Montreal team. He played three years for the Expos, hitting .234/.287/.299 over 368 games.

Montreal dealt Sutherland to the Astros after the ’71 season. He barely played over two years in Houston before he was on the move again. The Tigers acquired him during the 1973-74 offseason. Sutherland took a career-high 672 plate appearances during his first season in Detroit. He hit 20 doubles with a .254/.282/.313 showing. He played three years in Detroit. Sutherland finished his playing career with brief stints between Milwaukee, San Diego and St. Louis.

Over a 13-year playing career, Sutherland picked up 754 hits with a .243/.291/.308 batting line. He appeared in more than 1000 major league games between seven teams. Sutherland remained in the game after his playing days as a scout and worked as a special assistant in the Angels’ front office into the 2010s. MLBTR sends condolences to his family, loved ones and friends.

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