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Tigers Re-Sign Franklin Perez To Minors Deal

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The Tigers have re-signed right-hander Franklin Perez to a minor league contract, the team announced. Detroit put Perez on release waivers on Wednesday, but he cleared and will return to the organization he has been with since 2017. He won’t occupy a 40-man roster spot as a result of this deal.

Perez was a prospect of significance when the Tigers acquired him as part of their Justin Verlander trade with Houston, but he hasn’t been able to stay healthy since switching organizations. The Tigers’ version has thrown just 27 minor league innings, none above the High-A level, owing in part to ongoing shoulder problems. Perez won’t pitch at all this season after the Tigers revealed Tuesday that he will undergo right shoulder surgery.

Despite his health issues, the Tigers understandably don’t want to give up on Perez, who’s still just 23 years old. While he’s no longer the high-end farmhand he used to be, Perez still ranked as a top 35 Tigers prospect at Baseball America (No. 28) and FanGraphs (No. 34) entering the season. Of course, this latest setback hasn’t done anything to help Perez’s stock.

Tigers Select Eric Haase, Place Franklin Perez On Release Waivers

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The Tigers announced a series of roster moves Wednesday, placing catcher Grayson Greiner on the 10-day IL with a strained left hamstring, selecting the contract of catcher Eric Haase in his place and placing right-hander Franklin Perez on unconditional release waivers.

The Perez move comes just one day after the Tigers announced that he’s in for a lengthy absence due to surgery on his continually problematic right shoulder. It sounds callous, but teams aren’t able to place injured players on outright waivers, so the only means of removing Perez from the 40-man were to release him or call him up to place him on the Major League 60-day IL, where he’d accrue MLB service time and a big league salary. While another club could claim Perez, or he could sign elsewhere in the likely event that he clears, it’s also fairly common to see players in these circumstances quickly re-sign on minor league deals.

Perez was the top-ranked prospect the Tigers received in return for Justin Verlander back in 2017, but injuries and last year’s canceled minor league season have limited him to just 27 innings with the organization. Perez missed three months back in 2018 due to a strained lat, and he’s since battled shoulder tendinitis and a shoulder strain and has yet to even reach the Double-A level. Last year’s canceled minor league season obviously contributed to his lack of innings, but the injury troubles have tanked Perez’s prospect status. Baseball America rated him as the No. 35 overall prospect in baseball heading into the 2018 season, but he was listed just 28th in the Tigers organization even before the news of this surgery.

As for the catchers in question, Haase’s call to the roster was necessitated both by Greiner’s injury and by the fact that starting catcher Wilson Ramos is currently on the IL due to a back injury. Haase will serve as the backup to 26-year-old Jake Rogers, who was coincidentally one of the other two players the Tigers received in exchange for Verlander. (Outfield prospect Daz Cameron is the third.)

Haase, 28, has appeared in each of the past three big league seasons, spending time with the Indians in 2018-19 and with the Tigers in 2020. He’s struggled mightily, hitting just .122/.170/.184, albeit in a minimal sample of 53 plate appearances. Haase has played parts of four seasons in Triple-A, slashing .234/.306/.479 with 49 homers in 906 plate appearances.

Tigers Outright Buck Farmer

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  • The Tigers have outrighted reliever Buck Farmer to Triple-A Toledo, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. The team designated the right-hander for assignment last week, but he cleared waivers and will stay with the organization. Farmer had the best two-year run of his major league career from 2019-20 – an 89-inning stretch in which he logged a 3.74 ERA with a 23.1 percent strikeout rate, a 7.7 percent walk rate and a 48.6 percent groundball rate. But this season has been a nightmare for Farmer, whom hitters have lit up for 13 earned runs on 12 hits – including a whopping eight home runs – in 9 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old also put up almost as many walks (eight) as strikeouts (10) before the Tigers demoted him.

Tigers’ Franklin Perez To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Tigers right-handed prospect Franklin Perez will undergo surgery on his pitching shoulder, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com relays. Manager A.J. Hinch said the hurler “will be out awhile.”

This is the latest in a growing line of injury woes for Perez, whom shoulder and lat troubles have hampered throughout his professional career. As a result, Perez has thrown only 27 minor league innings in the Detroit organization since it acquired him from Houston in a 2017 blockbuster centering on ace Justin Verlander.

It was easy to see why the Tigers wanted Perez as part of their return when the Verlander deal occurred. He was a highly regarded and productive prospect with the Astros who then topped out as Baseball America’s 35th-ranked farmhand and No. 1 in the Tigers’ system in 2018. BA wrote then that Perez didn’t seem far away from joining the Tigers, and it contended he could have a future as a mid-rotation starter. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to fruition yet for the 23-year-old, who hasn’t climbed above the High-A level since Detroit landed him. BA now places him a much less promising 28th in the team’s system.

Perez is on the Tigers’ 40-man roster right now, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll keep his spot in the wake of his latest setback. As Woodbery points out, Perez is in his final option season, which will make it even more difficult for him to stay in the organization heading into 2022.

Jordan Zimmermann Retires

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After spending parts of 13 seasons in the Major Leagues, veteran right-hander Jordan Zimmermann has announced his retirement, via a statement released by the Brewers. The two-time All-Star and Wisconsin native made it back to the big leagues this year for a brief run with his home state’s team, but he’ll now call it a career after 1614 innings and 279 appearances in the Majors.

Jordan Zimmermann | Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

“I have had the joy of playing the game that I love for the past 15 years,” Zimmermann said. “I will forever be thankful to the Washington Nationals and Detroit Tigers for allowing me to live out this dream. It has been particularly special to be able to end it all playing for my hometown team, the Milwaukee Brewers. Thank you to all of my friends, teammates and family members who have been by my side throughout this incredible journey. I will miss the game greatly, but I’m ready for the new phase of my life.”

A second-round pick out of Division-III University of Wisconsin Steven’s Point back in 2007, Zimmermann was in the big leagues not even two years later. He cracked the Nationals’ rotation early that year despite limited minor league experience and held his own through 16 starts, pitching to a 4.63 ERA in 91 1/3 frames. Unfortunately, Zimmermann’s elbow began barking early that summer, and by August he’d undergone Tommy John surgery that wiped out his next year. He returned late in 2010 and tossed 31 innings.

It was the 2011 season, however, where Zimmermann truly cemented his place in the Nationals’ plans. He broke out with 161 2/3 innings of 3.18 ERA ball and was a fixture in the club’s rotation for the next half decade. Zimmermann made the All-Star team in both 2013 and 2014 and finished among the top seven in Cy Young voting during both seasons. In his final five seasons with the Nats, Zimmermann was a durable workhorse who averaged 194 innings per year while pitching to a combined 3.14 ERA and 3.30 FIP with some of the best command of any pitcher in the game.

Zimmermann’s highlight with the Nationals was undoubtedly a 2014 no-hitter in his final appearance of the season — a 10-strikeout, one-walk masterpiece that will go down as one of the best performances in franchise history. He nearly went the distance in his next start, too: a National League Division Series showdown with the eventual World Champion Giants. Zimmermann had thrown 8 2/3 shutout innings before walking Joe Panik — at which point then-manager Matt Williams hooked him for Drew Storen. Storen famously served up back-to-back hits, blowing the Nationals’ 1-0 lead in a game that would turn into an 18-inning marathon which the Giants won.

That excellent showing unsurprisingly made him one of the market’s top free-agent starting pitchers as he headed into his age-30 season. The five-year, $110MM contract he eventually signed with the Tigers actually came in a bit lighter than some prognosticators expected — including our prediction here at MLBTR (six years, $126MM). For a pitcher with Zimmermann’s durability and consistency, it seemed like an eminently reasonable contract that would help stabilize the Tigers’ rotation for the foreseeable future.

As we all know, that isn’t how things panned out. Zimmermann was slowed by a neck injury in his first season with Detroit and struggled to a 4.87 ERA in 19 appearances. Zimmermann made 29 starts the following year but was clobbered for a 6.08 ERA, and the 4.52 mark he managed through 25 starts in 2018 wound up being the best of any of his five years in Detroit.

It was a constant struggle to stay healthy in Detroit for Zimmermann, who spent time on the injured list not only due to the previously mentioned neck strain but also with a lat strain, a shoulder impingement, a UCL sprain, cervical spasms in his back, and a forearm strain. That mountain of injuries clearly took its toll on the former All in all, Zimmermann spent a half decade with the Tigers and mustered just a 5.63 ERA in 514 frames.

This offseason, Zimmermann inked a minor league deal with his hometown club. He headed to the Brewers’ alternate training site when he didn’t win a roster spot in Spring Training, and the righty rather candidly acknowledged that he was in the process of retiring when the Brewers called him to the big leagues. Zimmermann jokingly told reporters earlier this month that he was retired “for about two hours” before getting the call. He tossed 5 2/3 innings in a Brewers jersey to put a bow on what was overall a very fine career, even if injuries derailed the second half of his Major League tenure.

Few Division-III hurlers even get noticed by big league scouts — let alone second-round draft status and an accelerated, 18-month skyrocket journey through the minors and up to the big leagues. Zimmermann did just that, however, and as the dust now settles, he heads into retirement with a career 4.07 ERA through 1614 Major League innings. The righty posted a 95-91 record, struck out 1271 hitters in the Majors and tallied more than $143MM in earnings over the course of a career valued at 20.3 wins above replacement at Baseball-Reference and 25.5 WAR at FanGraphs.

Tigers Activate Nomar Mazara From Injured List

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The Tigers activated Nomar Mazara from the injured list today, optioning Victor Reyes to Triple-A to create the roster spot, per the team. Mazara returns to the lineup carrying a .237/.275/.395 line from 40 plate appearances prior to his injury. Reyes didn’t fair any better, however, slashing .143/.169/.238 in 65 plate appearances.

Erasmo Ramirez has also been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right pectoralis strain. Ramirez warmed up in the bullpen yesterday, but he ultimately did not enter the game, notes MLB.com’s Jason Beck (via Twitter). In fact, he has not appeared in a game yet this season. For his career, Ramirez owns a 4.31 ERA/4.56 FIP over 655 innings with the Mariners, Rays, Mets and Red Sox.

In his place, Joe Jimenez has been recalled from Triple-A. Jimenez walked seven and allowed five earned runs in just one full innings spread out between two appearances before being optioned to the minors.

Tigers Designate Buck Farmer For Assignment

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The Tigers announced a series of roster moves Friday, designating right-hander Buck Farmer for assignment and selecting the contract of veteran righty Erasmo Ramirez in his place. Detroit also placed Wilson Ramos on the 10-day injured list due to a lumbar strain and recalled catcher Jake Rogers from Triple-A Toledo.

MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery wrote not long before the announcement that the Farmer-for-Ramirez shuffle could be on the horizon. It’s not a huge surprise, given the extent of Farmer’s struggles in 2021; the 30-year-old righty has been tattooed for 15 runs on 15 hits (six homers) and nine walks with 10 strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings so far on the young season.

Grisly as those number are, Farmer was one of the team’s better relievers from 2018-20. During that time, the former fifth-round pick tallied 158 1/3 innings of 3.92 ERA with continually improving control and ground-ball rates. Last year’s 15.7 percent strikeout rate in 21 1/3 frames was a career-low, but Farmer’s 5.6 percent walk rate and 52.2 percent grounder rate both represented career-bests. His 93.9 mph average heater in 2021 is down from its 95.1 mph peak in 2019 but also an improvement over last summer’s 93.3 mph mark.

On the whole, since Farmer established himself as a staple in the Detroit bullpen four years ago, he’s posted a 4.47 ERA, a 20.8 percent strikeout rate, a 10.7 percent walk rate and a 44.3 percent ground-ball rate. This year’s catastrophic results obviously weigh that performance down, but at his best he’s been a hard-throwing righty who can both miss bats and induce grounders at an above-average clip. Whether that leads to interest from another club can’t be known, but the Tigers will have a week to trade him or try to pass him through outright waivers.

Farmer is out of minor league options, so if another club does acquire him, he’ll need to be placed on the big league roster. He has more than the three years of service time needed to reject an outright assignment even if he goes unclaimed. However, as Woodbery rightly points out, doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of this year’s $1.85MM salary, as he doesn’t yet have the five years of service required to retain salary in the event of rejecting an outright. That salary might make it tough for Farmer to be claimed on waivers, and if he does pass through, he’ll surely accept the assignment rather than surrender the $1.44MM he’s yet owed through season’s end.

The veteran Ramirez will give the Tigers some depth as a potential long man in the ’pen or perhaps even in the rotation, should a need arise. He spent the 2020 season with the Mets and fared quite well, allowing just a run on eight hits and four walks with nine punchouts in 14 1/3 innings.

Ramirez, 31, has spent time in the big leagues with the Mariners, Rays and Red Sox as well, with his best season coming back in 2015-16 when he gave Tampa Bay a combined 254 innings of 3.76 ERA ball.  He struggled in limited samples of work from 2018-19, but Ramirez has pitched in a variety of roles at the MLB level and on the whole carries a 4.31 ERA through 655 Major League frames.

Latest On Matthew Boyd

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MAY 1: It seems Boyd will avoid an IL stint. Hinch told reporters (including Jason Beck of MLB.com) that while the lefty won’t start in Boston, he is expected to pitch during next weekend’s series against the Twins.

APRIL 30: Tigers manager A.J. Hinch is hopeful that Boyd will only miss one start – a scheduled outing against Boston on Wednesday – though he’s unsure whether the lefty will go on the IL, Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic relays.

APRIL 29: Tigers southpaw Matthew Boyd exited his start against the White Sox on Thursday with left knee tendinitis, according to the team. Boyd departed in the second inning after allowing two earned runs on three hits and a walk, and the club then replaced him with right-hander Michael Fulmer.

Until Thursday, this season had been going smoothly for Boyd, who has offered much better results than he did in 2020. After emerging as a coveted trade chip in 2019, Boyd’s value took a hit last year, during which he recorded the majors’ worst ERA (6.71) over 60 1/3 innings. He also saw his strikeout rate fall by 8.1 percent from the previous season, while his walk rate increased by almost 2 percent.

Strikeouts have been even harder to come by this year for Boyd, who has fanned batters at a lowly 17.3 percent clip. He has made up for that to some degree with a terrific 5.o percent walk rate, though, helping him to a 2.27 ERA across 35 2/3 innings. Before Thursday, Boyd hadn’t gone fewer than 5 2/3 frames in any of his starts, nor has he allowed more than three earned runs in any of his six appearances. Boyd’s fielding-independent metrics have been a mixed bag (2.95 FIP, 4.60 SIERA, 4.93 xFIP), but he ranks comfortably above average in such Statcast categories as average exit velocity against, hard-hit rate, expected weighted on-base average and expected ERA, to name a few.

It’s unclear whether Boyd will be able to build on his impressive start in the near future, as this injury could require a stint on the 10-day IL. But if Boyd’s healthy and effective leading up to the July 30 trade deadline, it’s possible he’ll resurface on the rumor mill. At 8-17, the Tigers look as if they’re well on their way to another non-contending season, and Boyd is only under club control through 2022.

Latest On Anibal Sanchez

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April 29: Sanchez is still evaluating his options and will throw a four-inning bullpen on Friday, Rosenthal tweets. He wants to build up to the 100-pitch mark before he signs anywhere.

April 28: Sanchez is planning to sign this week and could settle on a team as early as tomorrow, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link).

April 23: The Yankees, Phillies, Marlins, Tigers, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays were among the teams at Sanchez’s showcase this morning, Heyman tweets.

April 21: Sanchez will throw yet another bullpen session for teams this Friday, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He worked out for clubs in the offseason and reportedly turned down a couple offers, opting instead to see how health-and-safety protocols played out. He then worked out for teams early in the season but suffered the aforementioned finger laceration midway through his bullpen.

April 20: Free-agent righty Anibal Sanchez has been working out for clubs around the league and is drawing interest from several of his former employers, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins have all looked into Sanchez, whose last bullpen session was truncated by a laceration on his middle finger that ought to have healed up by now. There’s interest from a couple of AL clubs as well, per Rosenthal.

Interest from any of the clubs linked to Sanchez this morning makes plenty of sense, given the pitching situations on each of the three. The Braves have recently placed Max Fried and Drew Smyly on the injured list, where they’ve joined Mike Soroka, whose recovery timeline recently hit a setback. None of the injuries is thought to be especially long-term, but the team’s depth has been tested early on.

The Nationals placed Stephen Strasburg on the injured list this week and have watched as left Patrick Corbin has been crushed by opposing lineups (15 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings). Last night’s rough start from Joe Ross only added fuel to the fire, sending the team’s collective rotation ERA to a disastrous 6.24 that ranks last among all big league teams. Currently, Max Scherzer is the only Nats pitcher who has started more than one game and has an ERA south of 5.00.

Meanwhile, Marlins righties Sixto Sanchez and Elieser Hernandez have dealt with injuries early in the 2021 season. They’re also carrying a pair of Rule 5 right-handers, Zach Pop and Paul Campbell, who have been hit hard in their first exposure to big league pitching.

Sanchez, 37, didn’t sign over the winter and is coming off a rough 2020 showing. The veteran right-hander was tagged for a 6.62 ERA in 53 innings with the Nationals last summer, although he’s only a season removed from 166 innings of 3.85 ERA ball during his first season with Washington.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/26/21

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Tigers have outrighted Renato Nunez to their alternate training site, the team announced.  Nunez cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.  Nunez inked a minor league deal with the Tigers after being released by the Orioles prior to December’s non-tender deadline, and Nunez has hit .148/.207/.444 with two home runs over his first 29 plate appearances for Detroit.  As noted by Evan Woodbery of MLive.com, Nunez had the right to reject the outright assignment, but he decided to stick with the Tigers rather than return to the free agent market.
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