Tigers Notes: Peralta, Chafin, Cisnero
The Tigers’ bullpen could have some reinforcements on the way, with righty Wily Peralta and lefty Andrew Chafin making their way back.
Peralta was signed to a minor league deal in mid-March, on the heels of a solid 2021 campaign. In 93 2/3 innings over 18 starts and one relief appearance, he put up an ERA of 3.07. His 14.4% strikeout rate was well below average, but he paired that with a 50.7% ground ball rate. Due to issues with the work visa process, he wasn’t able to report to camp until April 3rd, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. He’s now pitching in the minors and seems to be on a good track. “We’ll probably have a couple outings there where he pitches a day, maybe a day off and pitch again like a reliever,” manager A.J. Hinch tells Petzold. “But we’d like him on our team as soon as he’s ready.” Peralta isn’t currently on the 40-man roster and will require a corresponding move.
As for Chafin, he was signed to a two-year, $13MM contract after having the best season of his career. In 68 2/3 innings between the Cubs and A’s, he had a miniscule 1.83 ERA, along with a 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. He’s yet to make his debut as a Tiger due to a left groin strain, though he did throw a bullpen yesterday. “It’s the best his arm has felt and his body has felt the entire spring, even when his leg wasn’t injured,” Hinch says. Although there’s no specific timetable, Hinch says “It’s trending in the right direction.”
As for Jose Cisnero, he won’t be re-joining the club any time soon, as he was placed on the 60-day IL to start the season with a strained right shoulder. The good news is that he won’t be undergoing surgery, per Jason Beck of MLB.com. “He’s going to strictly get rid of the inflammation and build strength,” Hinch told Beck. That’s got to be somewhat encouraging for the club’s fans, as Cisnero has had a nice stretch in Detroit. Over the previous three years, he threw 126 2/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball, with a 24.7% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate.
AL Central Notes: Royals, Singer, Lynch, Tigers, Peralta, Pineda, Twins
The Royals finalized their season-opening rotation yesterday, with manager Mike Matheny telling reporters (including Alec Lewis of the Athletic) that southpaw Daniel Lynch will claim the final spot behind Zack Greinke, Brad Keller, Kris Bubic and Carlos Hernández. Notably, that means right-hander Brady Singer — who has started all 39 of his MLB appearances — is set to work out of the bullpen initially. Matheny indicated the Royals still view Singer and righty Jackson Kowar as starting pitchers long-term, but it’ll be Lynch who gets the nod for now.
It’s a bit of a surprising move, as Singer is coming off the better season. Neither hurler had a good ERA in 2021, but Singer had a better strikeout and ground-ball rate than Lynch while issuing slightly fewer walks. Lynch generated a slightly higher whiff rate, but Singer was among the league’s best pitchers at picking up called strikes. Some evaluators raised concerns during Singer’s prospect days about whether his below-average changeup and lower arm slot could diminish his ability to turn a lineup over multiple times, but he’s not shown marked second or third times through the order splits in his career thus far. Injuries and/or underperformance to the front five figure to give Singer another rotation look in the near future.
More pitching updates from around the division:
- The Tigers are planning to use Wily Peralta in relief this season, writes Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. The righty started 18 of 19 appearances with Detroit last year, posting a solid 3.07 ERA but an underwhelming 14.4% strikeout rate. The Tigers brought Peralta back on a minor league contract this spring. He seems likely to get another big league call fairly soon, but he was delayed in reporting to Spring Training because of visa issues and is set for further ramp-up work in the minors. The Tigers added Michael Pineda on a one-year big league deal to assume the final rotation spot behind Eduardo Rodríguez, Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning. Pineda — held up by visa concerns of his own — consented to be optioned to Triple-A Toledo to open the year for more build-up time, giving Tyler Alexander the #5 spot for the season’s first couple weeks. Pineda tossed three innings for the Mud Hens yesterday, and Petzold notes he’s likely to make two more appearances there before being recalled to the majors.
- The Twins made a last-minute addition to their rotation before Opening Day, acquiring Chris Paddack from the Padres in a deal that involved four MLB players changing hands. Minnesota already had a starting five of Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Dylan Bundy, Bailey Ober and Chris Archer lined up, and manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com) the Twins will roll with a six-man starting staff to open the season. Active rosters are expanded from 26 to 28 through April, giving teams flexibility to carry plenty of arms. Minnesota is also carrying top prospects Josh Winder and Jhoan Duran on the Opening Day roster, with both working in relief. Duran is expected to remain in that role (where he shined in two innings during his MLB debut this afternoon); Winder could be a rotation option down the line, and Baldelli said Winder could shoulder as much as five innings during an appearance out of the ‘pen in the early going (Park link).
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/7/22
The Mariners have signed right-hander Jairo Diaz to a minor league deal, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
Diaz had an excellent season for the Rockies in 2019, throwing 57 2/3 innings out of their bullpen. His 4.53 ERA might not look impressive at first glance, but for someone calling Coors Field home during the “juiced ball” season, that’s nothing to sneeze at. His 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate were both better than league average.
Unfortunately, things went in the wrong direction for Diaz in 2020, as his ERA shot up to 7.65, along with a 16% strikeout rate and 13.2% walk rate. He was outrighted in 2021, throwing just 7 1/3 Triple-A innings on the year due to injuries. For the Mariners, this is a no-risk way of bolstering their bullpen depth.
Some other moves from Opening Day 2022…
- The Mariners also signed minor league deals with lefty Rob Kaminsky and infielder Taylor Featherston, per the team’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. Kaminsky has 4 2/3 innings of MLB experience, which came with the Cardinals in 2020. Last year, he signed a minors deal with the Phillies but was held to just one inning of work in the minors due to a left elbow osteophyte. The last time he saw extensive work was 2019, when he pitched 56 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, with a 3.54 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate. As for Featherston, he saw MLB action from 2015-2017, appearing in 137 games but hitting just .160/.221/.256. He didn’t play at all in 2020 or 2021, meaning his last action was 2019. He split that year between Double-A and Triple-A with the Royals, hitting .241/.303/.426, but with a 38.7% strikeout rate.
- The Orioles traded minor league shortstop Mason McCoy to the Mariners for cash considerations, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. He was selected by the Orioles in the sixth round of the 2017 draft and has been with the organization for his whole career thus far. In 2020, he cracked Baseball America’s list of the top 30 Baltimore prospects, coming in at #29. BA’s report indicated that his defensive game is stronger his offensive output, which he certainly showed in 2021. In 112 Triple-A games, McCoy hit .221/.288/.368, striking out in 29.2% of his plate appearances. However, he did steal 13 bags and spent time at shortstop, second base, third base, left field and center field.
- Tigers announced that left-hander Miguel Del Pozo, who was designated for assignment yesterday, has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Toledo. The 29-year-old logged 5 1/3 MLB innings last year, throwing 38 1/3 in Triple-A. In that time with the Mud Hens, he had a 2.82 ERA with a 34.6% strikeout rate and a 10.3% walk rate.
Tigers Announce Several Transactions, Finalize Opening Day Roster
The Tigers announced a landslide of roster moves Wednesday as they set their Opening Day roster. Most notable among them is the formal selection of top prospect Spencer Torkelson‘s contract. It was already known that Torkelson, the No. 1 overall pick from the 2020 draft and a consensus top-five prospect in all of baseball, would make the Opening Day roster, but his promotion to the big leagues is now official.
Detroit also selected the contracts of right-handers Drew Hutchison, Jacob Barnes and Will Vest. In a series of corresponding 40-man roster moves, Detroit designated left-hander Miguel Del Pozo for assignment and placed catcher Jake Rogers (recovering from Tommy John surgery), Spencer Turnbull (recovering from Tommy John surgery) and Jose Cisnero (strained right shoulder) on the 60-day injured list.
The Tigers also announced an additional series of placements on the 10-day injured list: lefty Andrew Chafin (groin strain), outfielder Derek Hill (hamstring strain) and righty Kyle Funkhouser (shoulder strain) are all beginning the season on the 10-day IL. Top outfield prospect Riley Greene is being placed on the minor league injured list after fracturing his foot late in Spring Training. The Tigers also announced that righty Elvin Rodriguez made the roster over infielder Willi Castro, and the team has assigned veteran right-handers Chase Anderson (Triple-A) and Wily Peralta (Class-A Advanced) to minor league affiliates to begin the year.
None of Hutchison, Vest or Barnes has an extensive track record of big league success, but they’ve all logged MLB action in the past and will give Detroit some bullpen depth early in the season, particularly while Cisnero sits out at least the first two months of the season mending a shoulder injury. That absence is perhaps the most surprising revelation in today’s sequence of moves. Cisnero was behind schedule to start camp and felt some discomfort in his most recent outing, but prior to today’s announcement there was no indication he’d require such a lengthy absence. It’s a notable loss for the Tigers, given the 32-year-old’s 3.45 ERA, 24 holds and four saves over the past two seasons.
Chafin, who signed a two-year, $13MM contract with an opt-out after the 2022 season will hope for a minimal absence. There’s been no indication from the club that he’s expected to require a long stay on the IL, but he’s been trending toward a 10-day placement since originally experiencing pain at the end of March. Hill has also been ailing since the final day of March, so his move to the IL doesn’t rate as much of a surprise.
As for the 29-year-old Del Pozo, he lasted the offseason on Detroit’s 40-man roster after allowing two runs on eight hits and no walks with four punchouts during a brief Detroit debut late in the 2021 campaign. He’s allowed a total of 20 runs in 18 1/3 Major League innings, however, and didn’t help his cause this spring when he appeared in two games and was tagged for a combined five runs in just one inning of work. Detroit will have a week to trade him or try to pass him through outright waivers.
Veterans Anderson and Peralta will give the Tigers some pitching depth in the minors to begin the season. Anderson joined the club on a minor league deal in mid-March and allowed three earned runs on nine hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts in five innings during camp. He’s struggled substantially in the Majors across the past two seasons but from 2014-19 was a solid back-of-the-rotation arm, logging a combined 3.94 ERA in 857 innings between the D-backs and Brewers.
Peralta seems even likelier to be added to the big league roster, despite his assignment to a Class-A affiliate. The right-hander had a strong showing in Detroit last year after signing a minor league pact, pitching to a 3.07 ERA across 18 appearances (17 starts) — a total of 93 2/3 innings. But Peralta was slow to get to camp, owing to visa issues, and he’ll remain at the Tigers’ Lakeland facility, where their High-A team plays, as he builds up toward game readiness. Peralta didn’t make it to Tigers camp until this past weekend and didn’t have time to get into an official spring game, but once he’s built up he’ll be an option to join the club’s rotation or pitch in a long-relief role.
Jordy Mercer Announces Retirement
Veteran infielder Jordy Mercer took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that he’s retiring after a decade-long career at the big league level.
“Thank You baseball!” wrote Mercer. “Thank you for the opportunity and love you have given me. I hope I loved you back just as much. Thank you to the ones that have supported me, especially my family every step of the way. It’s time!! Excited for the next chapter.”
Mercer, 35, was a third-round pick out of Oklahoma State University by the Pirates back in 2008 and made his big league debut with Pittsburgh four years later in 2012. He logged just 68 plate appearances over 42 games and didn’t hit much as a 25-year-old rookie. However, Mercer seized the Pirates’ starting shortstop role the following season when he slashed .285/.336/.435 with eight homers, 22 doubles and a pair of triples in 395 plate appearances.
Over the next five seasons, Mercer was a constant in the Pirates’ lineup and in their infield. From 2013-18, he racked up 2928 plate appearances over 779 games while batting .257/.317/.387 with 54 home runs, 145 doubles, 14 triples and 13 stolen bases. That steady play at shortstop for the Buccos earned him a one-year, $5.25MM deal with the Tigers in free agency during the 2018-19 offseason.
Mercer managed just 74 games in his first season with the Tigers thanks to a pair of quadriceps strains that resulted in multiple stints on the injured list, but his overall production was sound when healthy. In 271 plate appearances, he smacked nine homers and 16 doubles while batting .270/.310/.438. He returned to the Tigers on a minor league deal but was immediately selected to their big league roster in July once the season was finally able to get underway. Mercer appeared in just three games with the Tigers before clearing waivers, electing free agency and signing with the Yankees, for whom he played another six games that season.
Last winter, Mercer inked a minor league deal with the Nationals and, by the end of Spring Training, had played his way onto the big league roster. Quadriceps and calf strains again hampered him in 2021, however, and Mercer was limited to just 46 games and 127 plate appearances as a National, during which time he slashed .254/.307/.364.
That brief stay in D.C. proved to be the final chapter of what wound up being a ten-year career at the MLB level for Mercer. He’ll head into retirement with a lifetime .256/.315/.386 batting line, 66 home runs, 173 doubles, 15 triples, 796 total hits, 330 runs scored and another 308 runs driven in. He may never have been an All-Star, but Mercer was a solid regular for several years in Pittsburgh who was able to celebrate three postseason berths (2013-15 with the Pirates) and suit up for 950 Major League games — all while topping $20MM in career earnings.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Tigers, Spencer Turnbull Agree To Two-Year Deal To Avoid Arbitration
The Tigers announced this afternoon they’ve agreed to terms with starter Spencer Turnbull on a two-year contract. The deal doesn’t affect his window of club control, but it will prevent the team and player from worrying about arbitration hearings for the next couple seasons. Turnbull will still be arb-eligible in 2024. That’s his final season before hitting free agency.
Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press reports the terms (on Twitter). He’ll make $1.5MM this season, followed by a $2.15MM salary in 2023. The deal also contains $125K in possible performance bonuses for the latter campaign. Prior to the extension, Turnbull had filed for a $2.1MM salary while the club had filed at $1.325MM. The right-hander settles at a figure nearer the team’s asking price this year, but he’ll see a bump towards his desired number for the following campaign.
In all likelihood, Turnbull wouldn’t have been in position to net much of a raise next winter had he proceeded through arbitration. The 29-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery last July. He has expressed optimism this spring about returning to the big leagues late in the season, but a best-case scenario would probably see him back in short stints for the final few weeks of the year.
The forearm tightness that necessitated that procedure marked an unfortunate end to what had been shaping up as a productive season. Through nine starts, Turnbull owned a 2.88 ERA. His 21.9% strikeout rate was a couple ticks below average, but he racked up ground-balls at a huge 57.2% clip in that time. It was the second straight productive season for Turnbull, who posted a 3.97 ERA in 56 2/3 frames during the condensed 2020 season.
For the upcoming season, Detroit looks likely to rely on Eduardo Rodríguez, Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning and Michael Pineda as the starting five. Wily Peralta and Tyler Alexander are the top depth options thereafter for manager A.J. Hinch. If healthy, Turnbull will certainly return to the rotation in 2023.
Tigers Acquire Austin Meadows
The Tigers announced this evening they’ve acquired outfielder Austin Meadows from the Rays for infielder Isaac Paredes and a Competitive Balance Round B selection. Tampa Bay had reportedly been shopping Meadows in recent weeks, and he’ll land in Detroit.
It’s a notable, largely unexpected strike for Detroit. There wasn’t any indication the Tigers were on the hunt for outfield help, as they’d seemingly been content to open the year with a Robbie Grossman, Víctor Reyes, Akil Baddoo trio. Top prospect Riley Greene fractured his foot over the weekend, however, and is expected to be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks. Whether Greene’s injury increased the urgency for general manager Al Avila and his staff to add to the outfield isn’t clear, but they’ll do so by bringing aboard a player who’s only a couple seasons removed from an All-Star campaign.
Meadows was part of the Rays now-famous haul from the Pirates at the 2018 trade deadline for Chris Archer. A top prospect during his days in the Pittsburgh farm system, he hit the ground running with a solid rookie showing before breaking out the following season. Meadows hit a massive .291/.364/.558 with 33 home runs in 591 plate appearances in 2019, seemingly emerging as one of the sport’s top young sluggers.
He hasn’t kept up that pace in the past two seasons. The lefty-hitting Meadows stumbled to a .205/.296/.371 line during the shortened 2020 campaign, striking out at an alarming 32.9% clip. That was obviously an anomalous year, and the the former 9th overall pick did bounce back this past season — albeit not close to his 2019 levels. Meadows hit .234/.315/.458 in 591 plate appearances, somewhat offsetting his 27 homers with a mediocre batting average and on-base percentage.
To his credit, the strikeout woes that had plagued Meadows in 2020 were corrected. He only fanned in 20.6% of his trips to the dish last season. His 77.2% contact rate was right in line with the league mark, while his average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard contact percentage were all a bit higher than average. Meadows was instead plagued by a career-low .249 batting average on balls in play.
That can’t all be chalked up to misfortune, as he has gotten increasingly fly-ball oriented over the past couple seasons. Among 135 hitters with 500+ plate appearances in 2021, no one had a higher fly-ball rate than Meadows’ 53% clip. That’s a recipe for hitting for power but also for poor ball in play results, as non-homer fly balls rarely turn into hits.
Whatever concerns one may have about Meadows’ batted ball profile, it’s still easy to see his appeal to the Tigers. Over parts of four big league seasons, he owns a .260/.333/.489 slash line — offensive production that checks in 22 percentage points above league average by measure of wRC+. While he hasn’t been at his best in two years, he was still an above-average hitter in 2021, and the 2019 campaign offers a hint of the kind of offensive upside he possesses if he can again bring his fly-ball rate closer to that season’s 42.9%.
Meadows does have rather marked platoon splits. For his career, he’s a .271/.351/.525 hitter against right-handed pitching. He owns a more pedestrian .237/.295/.412 slash against southpaws. The Tigers outfield already skewed a bit left-handed, with Greene and Baddoo hitting from that side of the dish while Reyes are Grossman are switch-hitters. Meadows doesn’t need to be a strict platoon player, though, and the rest of the Detroit lineup is heavily right-handed. Presumably, Meadows will step into an everyday corner outfield role for skipper A.J. Hinch, who’ll have the freedom to perhaps drop him down a bit in the order on days when the opposing team will roll out a tough lefty starter.
It’s an immediate upgrade for a Detroit team that has also added Javier Báez, Eduardo Rodríguez, Tucker Barnhart, Andrew Chafin and Michael Pineda this winter. Avila and his staff are clearly trying to pull out of their recent rebuild, and the Meadows addition should be a notable upgrade to the offense. It’s not an absolute win-now move, though, as the 26-year-old (27 next month) is controllable for three seasons via arbitration. Meadows and the Rays had settled on a $4MM salary for 2022, and he’s not slated to hit free agency until after 2024.
That makes Meadows a fairly affordable pick-up for Detroit, but he was part of a large arbitration class that might’ve put a strain on the Rays payroll. Even after subtracting his $4MM salary from the books, Tampa Bay has a projected franchise-record $83MM player payroll, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. The Rays reportedly made a run at Freddie Freeman, so they were willing to stretch beyond their typical comfort zone for the right player, but that surprising pursuit always seemed to be a recognition of Freeman’s star status.
In addition to whatever payroll constraints president of baseball operations Erik Neander and his staff might’ve been facing, they clearly felt prepared to deal from a position of organizational depth. The Rays have Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot on hand as outfield options. Top prospect Josh Lowe, meanwhile, seems ready for a big league look after hitting .291/.381/.535 in 111 games with Triple-A Durham last season.
The team apparently feels Lowe is ready for a significant role on a team with World Series aspirations. Rays pre-game broadcaster Neil Solondz tweets that the club plans to recall the 24-year-old to break camp in the majors. Given his status as a consensus Top 50 prospect, Lowe will certainly be in line for regular at-bats. He, Margot and Kiermaier are each possible plus defenders at all three outfield spots, giving manager Kevin Cash a chance to run some excellent defensive groups on the grass. (Arozarena is primarily a corner outfielder but rates well there in his own right).
In exchange for dealing from that outfield depth, the Rays add another young bat to their infield mix. Paredes has been on the prospect radar for quite some time, but he only recently turned 23 years old. A right-handed hitter, he doesn’t possess overwhelming power or athleticism but he has excellent bat-to-ball skills.
Paredes hasn’t produced much in limited big league action the past couple seasons. Over 163 plate appearances, he owns a meager .215/.290/.302 line with a pair of home runs. He has posted excellent offensive numbers all the way up the minor league ladder, though, and the Rays are betting on those skills eventually carrying over against big league pitching.
Paredes, who appeared at the tail end of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects in both 2019 and 2020, is coming off a .265/.397/.451 showing in 315 Triple-A plate appearances. He hit 11 homers and walked at a huge 17.8% clip while only striking out 14.9% of the time. Among 96 Triple-A East hitters with 300+ plate appearances, Paredes sported the third-highest walk rate. No one in that group had a better walk to strikeout ratio, with minor league veteran Tyler White the only other player in the league to even walk more often than he punched out.
While Paredes has experience at each of second base, third base and shortstop, he’s primarily played the former two positions in recent years. He’ll step into a Tampa Bay infield mix that is quite crowded itself. Wander Franco and Brandon Lowe have the middle infield spoken for, while Yandy Díaz joins Paredes and fellow former top prospects Taylor Walls and Vidal Bruján in the mix at third base. Díaz figures to assume some DH at-bats vacated by Meadows’ departure, which would enable the Rays to get their younger players some action at the hot corner. All three of Walls, Bruján and Paredes have minor league option years remaining, so they can each bounce between St. Petersburg and Durham as well.
The Rays have never shied away from churning players off the big league club to bolster the long-term organizational depth. Paredes has just over one year of big league service under his belt. He won’t reach free agency until at least after the 2026 campaign, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he spends enough time in the minors this season to push that trajectory back a year further. Tampa Bay also adds a draft choice that’ll fall after the second round, currently projected for #71 overall. Along with a Competitive Balance Round B pick of their own, the Rays now own four of the top 75 selections — along with the accompanying bonus pool space that stockpiling picks provides.
It’s a fascinating deal between two teams envisioning both immediate and long-term contention in the American League. The Tigers add a potential middle-of-the-order bat, bolstering an outfield fresh off an injury setback. (In a fun tidbit, they also raise the possibility of Meadows pairing with his younger brother Parker — a High-A outfielder in the Detroit system — in the Comerica Park outfield someday). The Rays continue to preemptively stockpile young players and draft capital, building the kind of organizational depth that allows them to perpetually deal good players like Meadows with the knowledge that additional talented players are on the horizon.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Spencer Torkelson Makes Tigers Opening Day Roster
Spencer Torkelson, the former number one overall pick of the amateur draft, has made the Tigers opening day roster, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press (via Twitter). The team announced his official promotion via Twitter. Torkelson is the fifth-ranked prospect in the game per Baseball America, and fourth-ranked prospect overall by MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.
The news comes, perhaps not uncoincidentally, on the same day that Riley Greene, Detroit’s other top position player prospect, has been announced out to start the year with a foot fracture. Greene is perhaps the more important of the two, given his defensive prominence as a center fielder, but it will be Torkelson with the first opportunity to establish himself in Detroit’s lineup.
Still, Torkelson’s quick rise through the system is impressive. The 22-year-old was the top pick in the draft out of Arizona State in the June 2020 draft, not even two years ago. In his one pro season, Torkelson rose from High-A, through Double-A to the top development level in the sport, playing 40 games in Triple-A and hitting .231/.350/.531 line across 177 plate appearances. Across all three levels, Torkelson posted an impressive .267/.383/.552 line over 530 plate appearances.
Tigers Riley Greene To Miss Opening Day With Foot Fracture
12:02 PM: The preliminary timetable for Greene’s recovery pegs his return at 6-8 weeks, per The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen (via Twitter). Greene would almost certainly need time in the minors, and that’s far enough down the line that there are any number of factors that will determine when Greene might actually make his big league debut.
9:06 AM: Tigers top prospect Riley Greene has fractured his right foot, per MLB.com’s Jason Beck (via Twitter). The injury will not require surgery, but he won’t be ready for opening day. Greene is a consensus top prospect in baseball, ranked 4th overall by Baseball America, 5th by MLB.com, and 6th by Baseball Prospectus.
It’s a bummer of a break for the Tigers, who had dreams of seeing Greene take over as their everyday center fielder from day one. Instead, the former number five overall pick will begin the year on the injured list, and there’s no telling when he might be ready. Because he was not on the 40-man roster, however, Greene will not accumulate service time while on the injured list.
Instead, Victor Reyes figures to get a lot more playing time to start the year. He was told that he made the team a couple of days ago, per Evan Woodbery of the MLive Media Group (via Twitter). Reyes posted a .258/.284/.416 line over 220 plate appearances in 2021. The 27-year-old switch-hitter has an 81 wRC+ over 944 plate appearances over his four-year career.
Greene’s potential had helped raise the ceiling for Detroit, turning them into a popular sleeper pick to improve this season, but instead they will turn back to a familiar face in Reyes. Daz Cameron will not be recalled for now, and Derek Hill will not be physically ready for the opener, notes veteran reporter Chris McCosky (via Twitter).
That leaves Reyes as the likely regular in center, especially since Akil Baddoo is currently slated to start in left field. The other potential configuration would put Baddoo in center with Eric Haase or Harold Castro seeing some time in the outfield.
Andrew Miller Announces Retirement
Veteran reliever Andrew Miller is retiring after 16 Major League seasons, Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. In a text to Goold, Miller looked back on his career and gave to those who helped him along the way:
“The list of people who took me aside, put their arm around me, made me laugh when I needed to, or taught me something is endless. It’s safe to say I would have been faced with the next chapter much earlier on if it weren’t for them. As someone who thought their career was practically over in 2010, to be able to experience everything I did along the way is incredible. You shouldn’t ever hear complaints from me. It was a heck of a run.”
After being selected as the sixth overall pick of the 2006 draft, Miller was initially seen as a cornerstone piece of the Tigers’ future before he became part of one of the biggest trades in Detroit’s franchise history. Miller was one of six players dealt from the Tigers to the Marlins in exchange for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis in December 2007, though after three injury-plagued seasons in South Beach, the Marlins also parted ways with the left-hander.
Miller was dealt to the Red Sox in the 2010-11 offseason, and after more struggles in 2011, Miller became a full-time reliever in 2012 and essentially never looked back. The southpaw became one of baseball’s top relief pitchers, working in a variety of different roles depending on his team’s needs. Whether as a closer, set-up man, multi-inning workhorse, or lefty specialist, Miller became a valuable bullpen weapon in any capacity.
As flexible bullpens have become more and more prominent in recent years, it is also very easy to point to Miller as a trailblazer. As Cardinals teammate Adam Wainwright simply put it, Miller “changed the game and he kind of took that relief role back to when it first started, guys who could do two, three innings – and he was the guy who did it in the postseason.”
From 2013-17, Miller was next to unhittable, posting a 1.82 ERA, 41.1% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate over 291 2/3 innings with the Red Sox, Orioles, Yankees, and Indians. That tremendous stretch saw Miller named to two AL All-Star teams, and receive top-10 Cy Young placements in both the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Miller received a World Series ring for his contributions to Boston’s 2013 championship team, even if injuries kept him participating in the postseason. However, as Wainwright noted, Miller was at his best in baseball’s biggest spotlight. Miller retires with a tiny 0.93 ERA over 38 2/3 innings in the playoffs, even winning 2016 ALCS MVP honors with Cleveland in 2016. That particular season saw Miller help carry an injury-riddled Cleveland pitching staff to within an inch of a World Series, falling to the Cubs in extra innings in Game Seven.
“He kind of revolutionized all of it – your best pitcher doesn’t have to be your starter or your closer,” Cardinals pitching coach Mike Maddux said. “And he was the best pitcher on multiple staffs. What he did in the postseason to help his team was groundbreaking. I don’t think anybody really duplicated what he’s done – as far as throwing multiple innings in the hairy innings, whenever they are.”
Miller’s success was reflected in his free agent value, as he landed a four-year, $36MM deal from the Yankees in the 2014-15 offseason. Hitting the open market again following the 2018 campaign, Miller signed a two-year, $25MM contract with the Cardinals that became a three-year, $37MM pact when he pitched enough innings in 2020 to trigger a vesting option.
Injuries began to hamper Miller later in his career, and both his velocity and his overall performance took a step back over his three years in St. Louis. Miller had only a 4.34 ERA over 103 2/3 regular-season innings in a Cards uniform, but again remained effective come October. Over seven postseason games and 5 2/3 innings with the Cardinals, Miller didn’t allow a single run.
If anything, Miller drew even more respect from teammates and peers off the field, due to his work with the MLB Players Association. A longtime team union rep and a member of the MLBPA executive board, Miller was one of the most prominent and outspoken voices representing the players’ causes both during his career, and particularly this offseason during the lockout. While Miller will never himself play under the terms of the 2022-26 Collective Bargaining Agreement, it will stand as something of a legacy for his contributions to players both present and future.
“I have an appreciation for what he did for the entire game of baseball,” Wainwright said of Miller’s MLBPA work. “As many hours as that guy put in for the union over these past few years is kind of staggering. He may retire and that means this whole offseason he still spent 16 hours on the phone a day, for us, for who’s next – that means a lot.”
The 36-year-old Miller will retire with a career 4.03 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, 979 strikeouts, 10.6% walk rate, 63 saves, and 141 holds over his 829 innings with seven different Major League teams. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Miller on a great career, and we wish him all the best in retirement.
For the last word on Miller’s career, the lefty himself sums things up as part of his text message….
“I feel very fortunate that my career worked out the way that it did. Of course there were tough stretches, injuries, and times of doubt. I also won’t deny that I can find myself in moments of wondering what if this or that had happened differently, could it have somehow been better? I’m usually pretty quick to be able to step back though and see how lucky I have been. The hard times were necessary for me to grow and to be able to appreciate the highs along the way. Ultimately, I was able to play for many great franchises, wear historic uniforms, and play in some amazing ballparks. I made some of the best friends I will ever have in life through the game. I was able to work with the union and see the good it can do for players while learning so much about the game.”