AL Notes: Bubic, Greene, Brnovich
The Royals announced yesterday that they optioned left-hander Kris Bubic to Triple-A Omaha, with righty Jonathan Heasley taking his spot on the active roster.
Over the past couple of years, Bubic seemed to be establishing himself as a solid, if unspectacular, part of the club’s rotation. Over 2020 and 2021, he made 30 starts and nine appearances out of the bullpen, throwing 180 innings with a 4.40 ERA. His 21% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate were all within a few points of league average. However, just about everything has gone in the wrong direction this year, as his ERA is currently at 12.83, with his strikeout rate dropping to 14.7%, his walk rate jumping to 16.2% and his grounder rate sinking to 38.3%. He’ll now head to Omaha and try to get the train back on the tracks. Despite having over two years of MLB service time now, he’s still just 24 years old and has plenty of time to recover.
The team is off to a disappointing 10-19 start. Although Bubic and Carlos Hernandez have struggled in the rotation, the club’s biggest weakness so far has been the bats. The team-wide slash line of .216/.282/.308 amounts to a wRC+ of 76, dead last in the majors.
Some other notes from the American League…
- During Spring Training, it seemed like the Tigers were poised to have their top two prospects crack the Opening Day roster. In the end, first baseman Spencer Torkelson followed through, but outfielder Riley Greene couldn’t make it after fracturing his foot just a few days before the opener. It seems he could be nearing a return to the field, with Jason Beck of MLB.com relaying word from manager A.J. Hinch that Greene is about to resume baseball activities. The club is out to a miserable 9-23 start, a worse record than every team except for the Cincinnati Reds. The primary culprit has been the offense, with Austin Meadows the only Tiger having a wRC+ higher than 101 in more than 50 plate appearances. There’s no guarantee a young player will hit the ground running in his first taste of MLB action, as evidenced by Torkelson’s .146/.276/.258 line, but it’s possible that Greene could provide a boost based on his .308/.400/.553 line in Triple-A last year. Since the demotion of Akil Baddoo, the outfield mix consists of Meadows, Willi Castro, Derek Hill and Robbie Grossman. With Grossman approaching free agency at season’s end, he’s a likely trade candidate, unless the Tigers can vault themselves back into contention over the next few months.
- The Orioles announced that pitching prospect Kyle Brnovich underwent Tommy John surgery this week, as relayed by Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Brnovich was drafted by the Angels and traded to the Orioles as part of the Dylan Bundy deal before pitching for his original organization. Last year, he logged 95 innings across High-A and Double-A with a 3.32 ERA, 31.5% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate. Based on that strong season, he’s now considered the #30 prospect in the organization by Baseball America and #17 by FanGraphs. He started the year in Triple-A but was only able to throw eight innings before being shut down. He’ll now miss the remainder of this season, but could be pushing for a rotation spot in the second half of next year, given the usual 12-18 month recovery time from the procedure. Even with this setback, the club’s future rotation picture is starting to look better. Bruce Zimmermann, Tyler Wells and Kyle Bradish are showing signs of promise in the early going, to varying degrees, with prospects Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall pitching well in Triple-A and surely nearing their MLB debuts.
Tigers To Designate Drew Hutchison For Assignment
The Tigers will designate righty Drew Hutchison for assignment prior to tonight’s game against the A’s, the team announced yesterday. The move will create a spot on the active 26-man roster for rookie Joey Wentz, whose call-up was covered here yesterday. Wentz will make his MLB debut tonight, and then the Tigers will decide whether he or fellow rookie Alex Faedo will get a start next week.
The Hutchison DFA will drop the Tigers’ 40-man roster down to 39. Hutchison, 31, is no stranger to being bounced off a 40-man roster. The Blue Jays’ 2015 Opening Day starter, Hutchison was outrighted by the Pirates in 2017, the Pirates and Rangers in 2018, and his current team, the Tigers, last year. So far, Hutchison has added another 15 2/3 innings to his resume in 2022, working as a low-leverage reliever for Detroit.
The Tigers’ rotation is the more pressing concern, with an ERA that ranks 22nd in baseball and has averaged 4.71 innings per start. Tarik Skubal has been a revelation, and free agent signings Eduardo Rodriguez and Michael Pineda have done acceptable work. Matt Manning is working his way back from a shoulder injury, while Casey Mize is set for his first rehab start tomorrow after an elbow sprain. Though Wentz, Faedo, and Beau Brieske are not considered top prospects, the rookies will continue to deserve as the Tigers’ primary depth options once everyone is healthy.
Tigers To Promote Joey Wentz
Left-hander Joey Wentz is being called up to start the Tigers’ game against the A’s on Wednesday, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press). It will be the first career Major League appearance for Wentz, the 40th overall pick of the 2016 draft.
The Braves selected Wentz in that draft, but dealt the southpaw to Detroit as part of the Shane Greene trade in July 2019. Wentz had run into some struggles at Double-A that season, but the deal was still seen as a nice score for the then-rebuilding Tigers, as Wentz was a well-regarded young starter. Baseball Prospectus even ranked Wentz as the 45th-best prospect in all of baseball prior to the 2018 campaign.
However, injuries took a toll, as Wentz underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020. Returning to action in May 2021, Wentz logged a 4.50 ERA over 72 combined innings with the Tigers’ A-ball and Double-A affiliates. Making his Triple-A debut this season, Wentz has a 4.12 ERA and a 33.8% strikeout rate in 19 2/3 innings for the Toledo Mud Hens, though his 13% walk rate and 25% homer rate are cause for concern.
Baseball America rates the 24-year-old Wentz as the ninth-best prospect in Detroit’s farm system, while MLB Pipeline has the left-hander 12th on its list. Wentz’s changeup is considered to be his best pitch, with BA’s scouting report citing Wentz’s changeup a nice complement with a fastball that clocks in the low 90’s. Control has been Wentz’s biggest issue throughout his minor league career, and BA feels his ceiling in the majors is as “a back-end starter who caps at five innings or a long reliever.”
Wentz hasn’t thrown more than 4 2/3 innings or 84 pitches in any of his five outings at Triple-A, so the Tigers figures to keep him on somewhat of a short leash on Wednesday. That said, Detroit will obviously take anything they can get, as the club continues to try and fill innings within a rotation shorthanded from injuries. A scheduling crunch is also in play — the Tigers have a doubleheader with the Athletics today, and are in the midst of a stretch of 17 games in 15 days.
As a result, Hinch said that Wentz or Alex Faedo (who starts the second game of today’s doubleheader) will remain in the rotation until some of the regular starters are available. “Some of it depends on performance. Some of it depends on matchup,” Hinch said of the criteria the team will use to evaluate between Faedo and Wentz.
Matt Manning, Casey Mize, and Tyler Alexander are all on the 10-day injured list, with Manning being the closest to a return. Manning already has one Triple-A rehab start under his belt, and he’ll toss a bullpen session today at Comerica Park before making at least one more rehab outing. Mize is also slated to start a rehab assignment this week.
While the Tigers aren’t going to do anything to rush their prized young hurlers, reinforcements are needed quick. The pitching injuries and an almost team-wide lack of hitting has resulted in an ugly 8-20 record for Detroit thus far, and the team has lost its last six games.
Tigers Option Akil Baddoo To Triple-A, Recall Rony Garcia
The Tigers optioned struggling outfielder Akil Baddoo to Triple-A today, the team announced. In a corresponding move, they recalled RHP Rony Garcia to take his spot on the roster.
While the demotion hardly writes the 23-year-old Baddoo out of GM Al Avila’s long-term plans, it does speak to the marked contrast between the outfielder’s start to the 2022 season, in which he’s slashed a meager .140/.218/.220, and the hot start to his 2021 rookie campaign, during which he logged a .271/.352/.462 triple-slash before fading down the stretch. Advanced statistics do suggest there’s at least some bad luck involved in his slow start, though that likely isn’t the whole picture. Baddoo has seen only a minor increase in his strikeout rate (from 26.5% in 2021 to 27.3 % in 2022) and a minor dip in his walk rate (from 9.8% to 9.1%), but his BABIP has fallen from .335 (against an MLB average of .290) to a mere .176. While some of this variance can likely be explained by his hard-hit rate (the percentage of balls in play with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher) falling from 32.3% to 22.9%, he’s also probably fallen victim to some poor batted-ball luck this year — and was perhaps the beneficiary of some good luck last year.
2014 first-rounder Derek Hill, who’s slashed .250/.273/.281 this year in limited action, is the likeliest candidate to take Baddoo’s spot in center, at least in the short term. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic notes that utility-man Willi Castro is also likely to see time there, though he’s only logged a handful of big-league innings as an outfielder — and all of them in left.
Though Baddoo is hardly the only culprit, he and second baseman Jonathan Schoop have been particularly unproductive for a Detroit squad that’s clearly underperforming expectations. After doling out $238MM in guaranteed money in free agency (to shortstop Javier Baez, starters Eduardo Rodriguez and Michael Pineda, and reliever Andrew Chafin) and acquiring catcher Tucker Barnhart and outfielder Austin Meadows via trade (from the Reds and Rays, respectively), the Tigers have limped along to a collective 80 wRC+ (ahead of only the Royals, Red Sox, A’s, and Reds) that’s seen them fall nine games off the pace in AL Central.
Given the lack of outfield depth in Detroit — and particularly the shortage of options in center — it’s unlikely Baddoo will remain in the minors for long if he can regain his stroke in Toledo. Should he fail to find his form, however, he does run the risk of being overtaken by consensus top-ten prospect Riley Greene, who’s been sidelined by a fractured right foot but is expected to return to action around the end of May — and could well prove himself ready for the majors not long thereafter.
In what will be his second stint with the club this season, Garcia, owner of a career 6.39 ERA (6.42 FIP) across 31 big-league innings, will slot in at the back end of the Detroit bullpen. The righty was effective in limited action before he was optioned to Triple-A ahead of the late-April return of Chafin from injury, notching 6 1/3 innings of 2.84 ERA ball.
Offseason in Review: Detroit Tigers
The Tigers were aggressive this winter in making calculated veteran additions to augment their rising core. It may not be enough to compete for a playoff spot this season, but it signaled the organization was putting the rebuild in the rearview mirror.
Major League Signings
- Javier Baez, SS: six years, $140MM (deal includes opt-out clause after 2023)
- Eduardo Rodriguez, SP: five years, $77MM (deal includes opt-out clause after 2023)
- Andrew Chafin, RP: two years, $13M
- Michael Pineda, SP: one year, $5.5MM
2022 spending: $48MM
Total spending: $238MM
Options Exercised
- None
Trades and Claims
- Acquired C Tucker Barnhart from Reds for IF Nick Quintana
- Acquired OF Austin Meadows from Rays for IF Isaac Paredes and a Competitive Balance Round B selection
- Acquired minor league IF Jamie Westbrook from Brewers for cash
Notable Minor League Signings
- Wily Peralta (selected onto 40-man roster to lock in $2.5MM base salary), Chase Anderson, Drew Hutchison, Ramon Rosso, Miguel Diaz, Jack Lopez, Carlos Sanabria, Chris Rabago, Jacob Barnes (selected onto 40-man roster), Ryan Lavarnway, Shea Spitzbarth, Derek Law
Extensions
Notable Losses
The Tigers had only one losing season from 2006 to 2014, capping off that highly-successful era with a four-year run atop the AL Central. But when the wheels fell off, they fell all the way off. As the wins dried up, so did their spending. Luxury tax payrolls that had drifted over the $200MM mark near the end of that competitive era began decreasing year-by-year to a low of ~$103MM last season.
For a while there, they’d stopped spending almost entirely, going five years from 2016 to 2021 without signing a free agent to a multi-year deal. That stretch ended last winter with Robbie Grossman‘s two-year contractl. As they entered this past winter, the Tigers had no plans to sit out the proceedings. In fact, they came into the winter with their roster needs clearly in mind, and they set about immediately to fill them.
The Tigers broke the seal on the offseason with a trade to bring in a veteran defensive catcher in Barnhart who could help usher their young cavalcade of starters into the next era of Tigers’ baseball. Barnhart doesn’t do much with the bat (82 RC+ over 2,584 career plate appearances), but he’s a respected gloveman. He’s also only under contract for one season, so while the Tigers have expressed interest in working out a long-term deal, they can move along at year’s end if the price doesn’t meet their expectations.
Tigers’ GM Al Avila made clear from the beginning of the offseason that bringing in a veteran starter was going to be one of their priorities. They checked that box by inking Eduardo Rodriguez to a five-year, $77MM deal that allows him to opt-out after the second season. Rodriguez brings veteran savvy and World Series experience to an otherwise youthful rotation. Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, Casey Mize, and company ought to learn much from seeing the example E-Rod sets at the top of the rotation.
From a more practical standpoint, Rodriguez should provide the bulk and stability that a rotation needs at the top. As they manage the workloads of their younger arms, Rodriguez will be asked to be a run-stopper and innings-eater. It might be that one day soon, Skubal, Manning, or Mize might take over in that role, but for the first couple years of the deal, Rodriguez will set the tone.
Javier Baez will serve a similar role on the offense. Though Baez’s bat will have its ups-and-downs, he fits Detroit’s model because of his defensive upside. Like Barnhart and Rodriguez, Baez is meant to supplement and aid the development of their young core. That means supporting them with his glove. His bat will absolutely help, but there is offensive help on the way in Detroit. Namely, in the form of Riley Greene, who began this year on the injured list, and Spencer Torkelson, the former first overall pick who started this season in Detroit.
Of course, El Mago signed for six years (although, like Rodriguez, he can opt-out after 2023), so his bat isn’t inconsequential. It’s a risk spending so much money on a volatile talent like Baez for his age-29 through age-35 seasons. But even if his career arc eventually takes his production back to the 96 wRC+ bat he was from 2015 to 2017, that’s still an above-average talent if the defense holds. Shortstop has been a black hole for the Tigers in recent seasons, and it was clear they were prepared to spend to address it. The Tigers reportedly offered Carlos Correa ten years and $275MM (presumably before settling on Baez as their long-term shortstop), but Correa was still seeking to handily top $300MM at the time.
The Tigers do have some infielders coming up through the system – Ryan Kreidler, Izaac Pacheco, Manuel Sequera, Javier Osorio – but with the exception of Kreidler, who just broke his hand, most of those prospects are many years away from the Majors. El Mago will excite the fanbase, provide defensive support for the young pitching staff, and by all accounts, he’s a positive clubhouse presence. Baez’s plate discipline can be worrisome, but he checks a lot of the supplemental boxes.
Just as the Tigers more-or-less opened the offseason with their trade for Barnhart, they also ended it with another trade. The day before Opening Day, the Tigers jumped to nab Austin Meadows from the Rays. Meadows is a player with warts, but he’s also an obvious upgrade for the Tigers, especially so long as Greene remains sidelined. Meadows turns 27 this year, he’s only making $4MM, and with two more seasons of arbitration beyond this one, the Tigers aren’t on the hook for a long-term commitment. Landing Meadows required parting with young infielder Isaac Paredes, a promising young minor league hitter but a player who has yet to find big league success.
Meadows is an upgrade for the offense this year, pairing with Robbie Grossman to form a reliable veteran corner outfielder tandem. Grossman is a free agent after this season, so the Meadows acquisition protects them somewhat from a potential Grossman departure. Akil Baddoo, if he continues to produce, can earn his reps his center, and if he doesn’t, he can transition to a fourth outfield role when Greene proves ready.
On the pitching side, E-Rod filled the greatest void on the roster, and he was, by far, the biggest addition on that side of the ball. But given the youth of their staff, and the inevitability of injuries these days, the Tigers dipped their toes into the bargain end of the veteran free agent market as well. They signed former Mariners, Yankees, and Twins right-hander Michael Pineda on March 19th to a one-year deal. Pineda has dealt with injuries throughout his career, but he was pretty solid during the three years he spent in Minnesota.
Just a few days prior to inking Pineda, they also brought back Wily Peralta on a one-year, $2.5MM deal that was contingent upon his making the big-league club – which he did. Peralta was a surprising success as a starter for the Tigers last year, posting a 3.07 ERA/4.94 FIP over 93 2/3 innings while making 18 starts. He’s more likely to serve as a bullpen arm this year, but they have him as an option for starter minutes as well.
The bullpen was kept largely intact, but they did add Andrew Chafin on a two-year deal. “The Sheriff” has been an undervalued arm for many years now. With a 3.31 ERA/3.17 FIP over 414 career appearances, he’s been about as reliable as can be expected of any bullpen arm. He’ll slot in with Gregory Soto and Michael Fulmer to take on high-leverage opportunities.
The Tigers weren’t the most active team this past winter, but they set out to fill a couple of holes, they targeted the players they wanted to fill those spots, and they got their targets. The primary growth of their organization will still have to come from the internal development of their core young players, but Baez, Meadows, Barnhart, Pineda, Chafin, and Rodriguez bring a decent jolt of talent and experience to their young core. Miguel Cabrera may have enough veteran experience and clubhouse presence to feed the whole organization, but he’s not the on-field contributor that he used to be. These additions should help in ways that Cabrera, the legend, no longer can.
Is it enough to turn these Tigers into a surprising upstart? Vegas says no, putting them third in the AL Central with 28-1 odds of winning the division. None of ESPN’s staff picked them for the playoffs. Five Thirty Eight pegged their most likely record to land at 71-91.
The Tigers knew they had weaknesses going into the offseason. They surely know they have weaknesses now. But there’s no doubt they have fewer holes on the roster now than they did at the end of last season. For a team looking to emerge from a rebuild, their approach was a reasonable one. They made additions, but they were relatively judicious at the same time. They didn’t blast their window of contention open, but if it’s open a crack, they nudged it open a little further.
Tigers To Promote Alex Faedo
The Tigers announced yesterday they’re recalling pitching prospect Alex Faedo to make his MLB debut. He’ll get the start in the second game of today’s doubleheader against the Pirates.
Faedo, 26, was Detroit’s first-round pick in the 2017 draft after a standout career at the University of Florida. Regarded as a potential top five talent at one point, he slipped to 18th after a bit of a slow start to his draft year. Faedo was excellent late in that season, though, helping the Gators to a national title. Between his college resume, strong sinker-slider combination and strike-throwing ability, he looked like a potential quick-moving rotation piece.
Things haven’t played out that way, in large part due to injury. Faedo didn’t pitch during his post-draft summer as the Tigers managed his innings following the deep postseason run in college. The following year, he got out to a decent start at High-A but struggled after a midseason promotion to Double-A. Faedo repeated that level in 2019 and fared better, posting a 3.90 ERA with a 28.3% strikeout rate in 115 1/3 innings. He looked as if he might be a potential MLB option by 2020, but Faedo suffered a forearm strain and was shut down that August.
While the team had initially hoped to avoid surgery, he required a Tommy John procedure in December. Faedo was nevertheless added to the Detroit 40-man roster to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft, but he spent the entire 2021 season on the injured list. Baseball America ranked him the #20 prospect in the organization this past offseason, noting that his recent injury history and below-average changeup may eventually push him towards a bullpen role. For now, he remains a starting pitching option, where he should at least pound the strike zone and miss some bats with his slider.
Faedo tossed five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts during his first start at Triple-A Toledo this year. That’s his only experience at the minors’ top level to date, and it’s possible he’ll head back out on optional assignment immediately after today’s outing. He figures to get an extended big league look at some point fairly soon, however, and Detroit’s recent spate of rotation injuries could force him to assume a significant role in the coming months.
The Tigers are without each of Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Tyler Alexander due to arm injuries. Eduardo Rodríguez, Tarik Skubal, Michael Pineda and rookie Beau Brieske are the top four currently-healthy arms. Detroit hasn’t expressed much concern about possible long-term absences for Mize or Manning, but both righties are in the early stages of throwing programs. The Tigers don’t have an off day until May 19, and they’re faced with doubleheaders both this afternoon and next Tuesday against Oakland.
Joey Wentz and Elvin Rodríguez are starting games in Toledo, as is non-roster veteran Chase Anderson. The Tigers also have former starters Drew Hutchison and Wily Peralta working as multi-inning bullpen options in the majors. Manager A.J. Hinch recently reiterated that he prefers Peralta in a relief role, so it doesn’t seem as if he’ll step into the rotation mix (link via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press).
Tigers Designate Dustin Garneau For Assignment
The Tigers designated catcher Dustin Garneau for assignment, according to an announcement from the team. Additionally, lefty Tyler Alexander hit the IL for an elbow sprain, bringing the team’s active roster down to 26 players.
The Tigers’ three-catcher plan has come to an end, with Tucker Barnhart and Eric Haase remaining to handle duties behind the plate. Garneau, 34, has led a journeyman MLB career, accumulating 506 big league plate appearances across eight seasons for six different teams. He’s never topped the 126 plate appearances he received in 2017 for the Rockies and A’s. Garneau had joined the Tigers last August as part of a full-circle series of transactions.
Even at age 34, an experienced catcher like Garneau with a “have glove, will travel” mindset is usually able to find a spot in an MLB organization, with the position always in short supply. And there’s always the possibility he clears waivers and remains with the Tigers. Though not known for his defense, the 29-year-old Haase will be Barnhart’s sole backup behind the dish, even though Haase has spent more time at left field than catcher so far this year.
Quick Hits: Musgrove, Alford, Kreidler, Arenado
The Padres and Joe Musgrove remain far apart in their potential extension talks. The latest offer from San Diego was reportedly in the ballpark of an eight-year deal with an $11MM AAV, per The Athletic’s Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal. The length of the deal is somewhat surprising for the 29-year-old Musgrove, though the overall value is probably south of what the righty is seeking. Musgrove was arguably the Friars’ most reliable starter last season, tossing 181 1/3 innings with a 3.18 ERA/3.70 FIP, 27.1% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate, and 43.5% groundball rate. He is a free agent at the end of the year.
- Outfielder Anthony Alford has cleared waivers and joined the Pirates Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis, per Jason Mackey of PG Sports Now (via Twitter). Alford has appeared in the Majors in each season going back to 2017, including this one. The 27-year-old went 1-4 in two games. He made 148 plate appearances last season, a career high, slashing .233/.311/.406, good for a 93 wRC+. Alford’s ability to man all three outfield spots could be a factor in finding his way back to the bigs, either for the Pirates or elsewhere later in the season.
- Tigers prospect Ryan Kreidler suffered a right hand fracture that will knock the Triple-A infielder out indefinitely, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The 24-year-old had yet to make his Major League debut, though with a .246/.346/.462 line through 78 plate appearances in Triple-A, he was on his way.
- Nolan Arenado was able to cut his suspension from two games down to one, per The Athletic’s Katie Woo (via Twitter). He will serve the suspension today, per MLB.com’s John Denton (via Twitter). The Cardinals third baseman was suspended for his part in a bench-clearing brawl with the Mets. The tiff was sparked by a high-and-tight fastball on Arenado from Yoan Lopez.
AL Central Notes: Kwan, Tigers, Funkhouser, Manning, Mize, Kirilloff
The Guardians suffered a 10-2 defeat to the Yankees and also lost outfielder Steven Kwan to right hamstring tightness in the third inning. Kwan started the game in left field and made his first two plate appearances before being replaced in the field in the bottom of the third. Guardians manager Terry Francona told MLB.com’s Joe Trezza and other reporters that it was a “preventative” removal for Kwan, and that the outfielder is day-to-day.
Making his MLB debut on Opening Day, Kwan has been one of the season’s early stories, hitting a whopping .341/.456/.500 over his first 57 plate appearances. Quite a bit of that production came in Kwan’s first five games, yet there is still plenty of hope that the rookie can stick as Cleveland’s everyday left fielder. Depending on his hamstring’s status, however, Kwan might soon be making his first trip to the big league IL. Kwan missed almost seven weeks of the 2021 Triple-A season while dealing with a strain of that same right hamstring.
More injury updates from around the AL Central…
- Kyle Funkhouser has yet to pitch this season due to a right shoulder strain, and the Tigers moved him yesterday from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. “We’re trying to resolve the symptoms before we can progress more aggressively,” Hinch said. “The timeline made it virtually impossible for him to be back prior to the 60 days,” manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky). Hinch also noted that Funkhouser is speaking with doctors about whether or not surgery could be required, so the reliever could be facing a much longer absence than just the minimum 60 days.
- In other Tigers news, Hinch said that Casey Mize will be resuming his throwing program today at the team’s spring training facility in Lakeland. Mize was placed on the 10-day IL on April 15 with a sprained MCL, though there were already early indications that the former first overall pick wouldn’t be out of action for too long, and that he has escaped a more serious injury. Matt Manning is also headed to Lakeland but won’t yet begin throwing, as his right shoulder was still feeling some discomfort when Manning threw off flat ground yesterday. Despite this update, Hinch said Manning didn’t have “a setback. It’s nothing we are overly concerned about. It’s just a slower ramp to playing catch before we get him back on the mound.”
- Twins outfielder Alex Kirilloff is slated to begin a Triple-A rehab assignment on Tuesday, according to multiple reporters (including Betsy Helfand of The St. Paul Pioneer Press). Right wrist inflammation sent Kirilloff to the injured list on April 13, so between the injury absence and a dismal 1-for-17 start to the season, Kirilloff will be looking for a reset once he returns to Minnesota’s lineup. Most importantly, Kirilloff and the Twins hope that this is the end of his wrist problems, as the former top prospect also underwent ligament surgery last year.
Tigers Promote Beau Brieske
TODAY: The Tigers officially selected Brieske’s contract in between games of today’s doubleheader with Colorado. Right-hander Angel De Jesus was optioned to Triple-A, and righty Kyle Funkhouser was moved to the 60-day IL to create 40-man roster space.
APRIL 21: The Tigers announced this afternoon that right-hander Beau Brieske will start Saturday’s game against the Rockies. The 24-year-old will be making his major league debut. Brieske is not on the 40-man roster, so Detroit will need to make another move in that regard to formally accommodate the selection of his contract.
Brieske signed for just $75K as a 27th-round pick out of Division II Colorado State-Pueblo in 2019. The Arizona native overcame that lack of draft pedigree to reach the big leagues less than three years later, a testament to his strong work in the minors. Brieske pitched well in 11 relief appearances during his post-draft summer. He didn’t appear in 2020 because of the canceled minor league season, but he traversed a pair of levels last year.
Assigned to High-A Lakeland to open the season, Brieske pitched to a 3.45 ERA with a stellar 30.2% strikeout rate over 13 starts. That earned him an August bump to Double-A Erie, where he posted a 2.66 mark in eight outings. Brieske’s strikeout rate fell to an average 23.3%, but he walked 6% of opponents or fewer at both levels.
That strong performance was paired with a better arsenal that caught the attention of prospect evaluators. Naming him the #18 prospect in the organization this past winter, Baseball America wrote that Brieske had pushed his fastball into the 92-95 MPH range with good life at the top of the strike zone. BA praised his average or better slider and changeup and above-average command and suggested he’d blossomed into a legitimate starting pitching prospect. Eric Longenhagen and Kevin Goldstein at FanGraphs largely echoed that sentiment in their write-up of the Tigers’ farm in January, slotting him #10 in the system.
Brieske opened this season with Triple-A Toledo, where he’s allowed five runs in ten innings over his first two starts. Despite his lack of experience at the minors’ highest level, the Tigers will add him to an MLB rotation that has lost Casey Mize and Matt Manning to the injured list in recent days. Manning, in particular, is expected back in fairly short order, at which point Brieske might wind up optioned back to the minors. Whether his initial call is a lengthy one, Brieske’s addition to the 40-man solidifies him as a near-term depth option for the Detroit rotation.