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Tigers Outright Akil Baddoo

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The Tigers announced that outfielder Akil Baddoo has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Toledo. Detroit designated him for assignment last week as the corresponding move for the Alex Cobb signing.

Baddoo was a Rule 5 success story in 2021, when he hit .259/.330/.436 with 13 homers across 461 plate appearances in his debut season. The lefty-swinging outfielder hasn’t maintained that form over the last three seasons. Baddoo struggled to a .212/.302/.331 slash in 178 games between 2022-23. The Tigers kept him on optional assignment for most of the ’24 season. Baddoo only played in 37 MLB games, hitting .137/.220/.301 while striking out in 27 of his 82 plate appearances (32.9% rate).

Strikeouts were also an issue in Triple-A. Baddoo fanned at an elevated 26.5% clip across 377 trips to the plate with Toledo this year. He walked at a strong 12.7% rate to post a respectable .340 on-base mark, but it was a roughly league average offensive showing in the International League. It was moderately surprising that the Tigers tendered him an arbitration contract with a $1.6MM projected salary.

Baddoo will stick in the organization and should receive a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training. He’ll likely begin the season in Toledo and try to hit his way back into the outfield mix alongside Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, and Matt Vierling.

Tigers, Brian Serven Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers are in agreement with catcher Brian Serven on a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball (X link). Serven, a PRIME client, will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.

Serven, 29, joins the fourth organization of his career. A fifth-round pick of the Rockies in 2016, he got to the big leagues six years later. The Arizona State product appeared in 62 games as a rookie, hitting .203/.261/.332 in a backup role. He only made 11 appearances the following season, spending the bulk of the year in Triple-A on optional assignment. Colorado placed him on waivers last winter.

The Cubs claimed Serven and briefly carried him on their 40-man roster. Chicago designated him for assignment around one week later. He landed with the Blue Jays on another claim. Toronto ran him through waivers at the end of January but reselected his contract after Danny Jansen broke a bone in his wrist in Spring Training.

Serven spent the majority of the season on Toronto’s 40-man. He only made 28 big league appearances, hitting .159/.243/.222 across 71 trips to the plate. Serven showed much better on-base skills in the minors. The right-handed hitter put up a .265/.390/.379 slash over 40 Triple-A contests. His overall offensive track record is middling, though, and the Jays designated him for assignment when they claimed Tyler Heineman off waivers in September. Serven elected minor league free agency at season’s end.

Jake Rogers will open the season as A.J. Hinch’s primary catcher. Dillon Dingler is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. He debuted this past season and struggled to a .167/.195/.310 batting line in his first 27 MLB contests. Dingler still has a couple minor league options remaining, so the Tigers could turn to a more experienced backup if they want the former second-round pick to continue playing regularly in Triple-A. Detroit could continue looking for upper minors depth, but there’s a decent opportunity right now for Serven to play his way into the backup role.

MLBTR Podcast: Winter Meetings Recap

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Bryan Sammons Signs With NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines

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Former Tigers left-hander Bryan Sammons has signed a one-year deal with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines, per announcements from the team and from Sammons’ agency, GSI.

Sammons made his big league debut as a 29-year-old rookie this past season, pitching 27 1/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball for the Tigers during their Cinderella push to the playoffs. The 6’4″ southpaw averaged 91.5 mph on his heater, fanned 17.3% of his opponents and logged a 8.7% walk rate. Sammons spent the bulk of his 2024 season in Triple-A Toledo, where he pitched 102 innings with a 4.15 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. Detroit outrighted Sammons off the 40-man roster after the season, and he became a minor league free agent.

The move to Japan is the latest step in the type of baseball odyssey for which all fans love to cheer. The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen penned a fantastic look at Sammons’ journey from under-recruited high schooler to an eighth-round pick of the Twins who wound up being released both by Minnesota and by Houston. (Readers are highly encouraged to check out Stavenhagen’s piece in full.) Sammons, who graduated from Western Carolina with an engineering degree, contemplated giving up baseball entirely to pursue a more traditional career before taking one last shot and pitching in the Atlantic League. Just over a year later, he was on the mound at Comerica Park.

While Sammons is joining the same team for which Roki Sasaki has starred in his NPB career, he’s effectively taking the place of veteran lefty Dallas Keuchel, who started eight games for the Marines in the second half of the 2024 NPB season. The Marines announced in early December that Keuchel had been released and was a free agent. Sammons’ role will be determined, but manager Masahito Yoshii said his hope is that Sammons can pitch out of the rotation in 2025 (link via Yahoo Japan).

Tigers Interested In Kirby Yates

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Right-hander Kirby Yates is one of the better relievers available in free agency. The Cubs have already been connected to him in rumors and now Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reports that the Tigers can be added to the list.

Yates, 38 in March, just wrapped up an excellent season with the Rangers. He tossed 61 2/3 innings for them this year, allowing just 1.17 earned runs per nine. He surely got a bit of help from a .168 batting average on balls in play and 88.1% strand rate, which were both on the fortunate side, but even adjusted numbers like his 2.50 FIP and 2.85 SIERA suggest he would have fared well even with less favor from the baseball gods.

His 11.1% walk rate was on the high side but he counteracted that by striking out 35.9% of batters faced and keeping 45.5% of balls in play on the ground. He took over the closer’s role in Texas, earning 33 saves on the year.

Despite that strong performance, Yates will be limited in the kind of contract he can secure. That’s both on account of his age and also his injury history. He hardly pitched at all during the 2020 to 2022 period, mostly due to undergoing Tommy John surgery, the second such procedure of his career. He bounced back in 2023 with a solid but not dominant season, posting a 3.28 ERA with a 31.5% strikeout rate, 14.6% walk rate and 36.4% ground ball rate.

Accounting for those factors, Yates is likely looking at a one-year deal this winter. At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted him for a one-year pact with a $14MM guarantee as part of our annual Top 50 Free Agents post.

The Tigers could have some budgetary wiggle room and seem to want to avoid long-term deals. It was reported last week that they wanted to keep their potential starting pitching signing to one- or two-year pacts, then they signed 37-year-old Alex Cobb to a one-year deal. If they have a similar mindset for upgrading their bullpen, then Yates make a lot of sense.

RosterResource projects their payroll at just $95MM for next year. That’s roughly in line with last year’s payroll but they’ve been far higher in the past. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they had a $200MM payroll as recently as 2017. That was the year that owner Mike Ilitch died and the club hasn’t been in that range since Mike’s son Christopher took over. However, the Tigers did run the payroll up to $135MM going into 2022 when they thought their rebuild was over. That didn’t end up being the case but they finally cracked the postseason in 2024 for the first time in a decade.

The Tigers currently have Beau Brieske, Jason Foley and Tyler Holton as some of their more interesting relievers but no one of that group has reached 200 MLB innings pitched or celebrated a 30th birthday. Just about any club in the majors could add someone like Yates and bump everyone else down a peg on the pecking order, but that’s perhaps especially true in Detroit where there aren’t a lot of guys cemented in.

2024 Rule 5 Draft Results

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The 2024 Rule 5 draft took place this afternoon at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. The results of the draft are below.

As a refresher, the Rule 5 draft is a way for players potentially talented enough for the big leagues but blocked by their current clubs to find opportunities elsewhere. Any players that were 18 and under at the time of their original signing and have played five professional seasons, and any players who signed at 19 years of age or older at signing that now have four professional seasons, who are not on a club’s 40-man roster are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.

Though the amateur (Rule 4) draft now has a lottery to determine the selection order, the Rule 5 draft still goes the old-fashioned way of reverse order of standings from the season that just ended. Clubs need to have an open 40-man roster spot in order to make a pick but aren’t obligated to make a selection on their turn. If they do make a pick, they will have to pay $100K to the team they select from. The selected players must stay on the active roster (or injured list) for the entire 2025 season or else be placed on waivers. If they clear waivers, they must be offered back to their original team. They cannot be optioned to the minors.

Last year’s edition saw some key players change clubs. The A’s took Mitch Spence from the Yankees with the top pick and kept him all year. Justin Slaten was plucked from the Rangers by the Mets and then traded to the Red Sox. Players like Anthony Santander and Ryan Pressly have been notable picks in other recent years while guys like George Bell and Roberto Clemente are found deeper in the history books.

Here are this year’s picks…

  1. White Sox: RHP Shane Smith (Brewers) (Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline relayed the pick on Bluesky prior to the draft)
  2. Rockies: pass
  3. Marlins: C Liam Hicks (Tigers)
  4. Angels: LHP Garrett McDaniels (Dodgers)
  5. Athletics: RHP Noah Murdock (Royals)
  6. Nationals: RHP Evan Reifert (Rays)
  7. Blue Jays: RHP Angel Bastardo (Red Sox)
  8. Pirates: pass
  9. Reds: 2B Cooper Bowman (Athletics)
  10. Rangers: pass
  11. Giants: pass
  12. Rays: LHP Nate Lavender (Mets)
  13. Red Sox: pass
  14. Twins: RHP Eiberson Castellano (Phillies)
  15. Cardinals: pass
  16. Cubs: 3B Gage Workman (Tigers)
  17. Mariners: pass
  18. Royals: pass
  19. Tigers: pass
  20. Astros: pass
  21. Mets: pass
  22. D-backs: pass
  23. Braves: RHP Anderson Pilar (Marlins)
  24. Orioles: pass
  25. Guardians: pass
  26. Padres: RHP Juan Nunez (Orioles)
  27. Brewers: LHP Connor Thomas (Cardinals)
  28. Yankees: pass
  29. Phillies: RHP Mike Vasil (Mets); Phillies later traded Vasil to Rays for cash considerations, per announcements from both clubs.
  30. Dodgers: pass

Second round (all but one club passed)

The minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft also occurred this afternoon. Those players will not go onto the selecting teams’ 40-man roster. Right-hander Hobie Harris, who pitched for the Nationals in 2023 and signed a minor league deal with the Mets last month, was taken by the Red Sox.

Rocky Colavito Passes Away

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Nine-time All-Star Rocky Colavito has passed away, the Guardians announced. The longtime MLB slugger was 91.

A native of the Bronx, Colavito signed with the Indians out of high school. He had consecutive 30-plus home run seasons in Triple-A and played his way to Cleveland by his age-21 season. Colavito carried that over against MLB pitching, hitting 21 homers over 101 games as a rookie in 1956. He finished runner-up to Luis Aparicio in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

Colavito hit 25 homers in 1957.  By the ’58 season, he was one of the sport’s most feared power bats. Colavito popped 41 homers while hitting .303 with an MLB-best .620 slugging percentage at age 24. He placed third in that year’s MVP balloting. Colavito drove in 113 runs that season and tallied 111 RBI the next. On June 10, 1959, he became the eighth player in MLB history to hit four homers in a game. He led the American League with 42 longballs en route to his first All-Star nod and a fourth-place MVP finish.

Early in the 1960 season, Cleveland traded Colavito to the Tigers in a one-for-one deal for star shortstop Harvey Kuenn. While Colavito hit 35 homers during his first season in Detroit, his average dropped to .249 in a disappointing overall season. He had a major rebound in ’61, as he set career marks in homers (45) and RBI (140). He hit .290 with a .402 on-base percentage, ranking top 10 among qualified hitters in OBP and OPS. He placed eighth in MVP voting in what was arguably the best year of his career.

Colavito played two more seasons in Detroit. He hit another 37 homers while leading the AL with 309 total bases in ’62. Detroit dealt him to the Athletics over the 1963-64 offseason. Colavito hit .274 with 34 longballs for the then Kansas City-based franchise. Things came full circle the next winter, as the A’s traded him back to Cleveland. Colavito combined for 56 homers over the next two seasons and paced the AL with 108 RBI in 1965. He saw limited playing time with the White Sox, Yankees and Dodgers to close his 14-year playing career.

A career .266/.359/.489 hitter, Colavito was one of the best run producers of his day. He drove in 1159 runs on more than 1700 hits, 379 of which cleared the fences. Colavito had seven 30-homer seasons, including a trio of years with at least 40 longballs. He topped 100 runs batted in on six occasions. Colavito is 81st on the all-time leaderboard in home runs and slots in the top 200 in RBI. While he never got much consideration from voters for Cooperstown, he was inducted into the Cleveland franchise’s Hall of Fame in 2006.

Colavito’s impact on baseball extended well beyond his playing days. He worked in the sport for decades as a coach and radio broadcaster. MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends, loved ones and many fans.

Tigers Designate Akil Baddoo For Assignment

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The Tigers formally announced their previously reported signing of right-hander Alex Cobb this evening. In a corresponding move, outfielder Akil Baddoo was designated for assignment as noted by MLive’s Evan Woodbery.

Baddoo, 26, was a second-round pick by the Twins back in 2016. The outfielder’s major league career wouldn’t begin until 2021, after he was selected by the Tigers in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft. That first taste of big league action went remarkably well for the youngster, as he slashed an impressive .259/.330/.436 with a 108 wRC+ in 124 games for Detroit while splitting time between left field and center. Baddoo’s 26.5% strikeout rate was somewhat elevated, but he made up for it by walking at a healthy 9.8% clip and clubbing 13 homers, seven triples, and 20 doubles while swiping 18 bases during his rookie season.

That combination of power and speed was tantalizing enough that the Tigers stuck with Baddoo on a part-time basis despite lackluster numbers at the plate. Between the 2022 and ’23 season, he hit just .212/.302/.331 (80 wRC+) in 582 combined trips to the plate. While he went a decent 23-for-32 on the bases in those years, his power evaporated as he posted a combined isolated slugging percentage of just .119, down from the solid .177 figure of his rookie campaign. That downturn in performance in conjunction with the emergence of exciting outfield options like Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter from the Detroit farm system left Baddoo with fewer and fewer big league opportunities as his time in the organization continued.

That dwindling playing time in Detroit came to a head in 2024, as after a winter that saw the Tigers add Mark Canha to the lineup and a phenomenal Spring Training performance from Wenceel Perez, Baddoo found himself as the odd man out on Opening Day. Baddoo was optioned to the minors and ended up spending the overwhelming majority of his 2024 campaign at Triple-A. He made just 82 trips to the plate in the big leagues this past year and struggled badly in that limited time with a .137/.220/.301 slash line and a 32.9% strikeout rate. The Tigers kept him on the roster through last month’s non-tender deadline despite Baddoo being projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $1.6MM salary in his second trip through arbitration, but he’s now lost his 40-man roster spot with the club nonetheless.

Looking ahead, any club in the league will now have the opportunity to claim Baddoo off waivers if the Tigers don’t work out a trade for him within the next few days. The 26-year-old’s combination of youth and past big league success could make him an intriguing option for outfield-needy clubs, although his recent struggles and arbitration-level price tag could turn some potential suitors away.

Tigers Sign Alex Cobb

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The Tigers announced the signing of veteran right-hander Alex Cobb to a one-year, $15MM deal. He’d unlock $1MM bonuses at each of 140 and 150 innings. Detroit designated outfielder Akil Baddoo for assignment in a corresponding move. Cobb is represented by Beverly Hills Sports Council.

The move fits with the Tigers’ recent modus operandi when it comes to rotation building. Since Scott Harris was hired as president of baseball operations in September of 2022, the club has tended towards short-term deals for starting pitchers. Detroit’s first offseason under Harris resulted in one-year deals for Matthew Boyd and Michael Lorenzen. Last winter, it was a one-year deal for Jack Flaherty and a two-year pact for Kenta Maeda.

Going into 2025, it would have been fair to expect more aggression. The Tigers surged in the second half of 2024, making the playoffs or the first time in a decade. They have an exciting core of young players and almost no money on the long-term payroll. Moving to the top tiers or even just to the middle of the rotation market could have been viable, but it was reported in recent days that the Tigers preferred to stick to chasing upside on shorter pacts.

Cobb, 37, is certainly a buy-low move since he’s coming off a mostly lost season. He was with the Giants at the start of the year, recovering from offseason hip surgery. It was initially hoped that he would be recovered from that procedure fairly early in the year but he ended up battling through some shoulder discomfort. He still hadn’t made his season debut when he was traded to the Guardians ahead of the deadline.

With the Guards down the stretch, he was able to get on the mound but also dealt with some fingernail/blister issues that got in his way and sent him back to the injured list twice down the stretch. Cleveland made the postseason regardless and Cobb was activated for the American League Division Series but he was later bumped from the Championship Series roster due to an acute left low back strain.

Around all those injury setbacks, Cobb only made five starts on the year, three in the regular season and two in the playoffs. He only threw 22 innings overall between those five outings, a tiny sample that would be tough to draw meaningful conclusions from.

The Tigers are surely hoping Cobb can bounce back from that tough season, something he’s done before. He was a rotation regular for the Rays over the 2012-14 seasons but then missed all of 2015 and most of 2016 due to Tommy John surgery. He was back on the mound and made at least 28 starts in both 2017 and 2018, but then various ailments limited him to just three starts in 2019.

He wasn’t terribly effective in the shortened 2020 season but went on to have a strong three-year run after that, his most recent stretch of being both healthy and effective. From 2021 to 2023, he made 74 starts and tossed 394 1/3 innings with a 3.79 earned run average. He struck out 22.8% of batters faced in that time, limited walks to a 6.8% clip and and kept 58.1% of balls in play on the ground. Among pitchers with at least 350 innings in that stretch, only Framber Valdez and Logan Webb had better ground ball rates.

The Tigers are obviously hoping that the injuries are behind him and Cobb can get back into that 2021-23 form. There is some risk there, as Cobb is now 37 years old and can’t keep coming back from injuries forever, but he’s done it before and has a long track record. He has 233 starts under his belt overall with a 3.84 ERA.

As Detroit engineered its fairytale finish to the 2024 season, manager A.J. Hinch used the term “pitching chaos” to describe the approach. Thanks to some trades and some injuries, the Tigers were effectively down to just Tarik Skubal as the only regular starting pitcher, otherwise cobbling games together via openers, bulk guys, bullpen games and whatever Hinch could make work.

That did the trick for a while but could be difficult to maintain over an entire 162-game schedule, so bolstering the rotation was a natural target for the Tigers this winter. Skubal and Cobb should have two rotation jobs with Reese Olson in another.

Guys like Maeda, Casey Mize, Jackson Jobe and Matt Manning could be in the mix for roles as well, but there are question marks with each of those. Maeda struggled badly this year and got bumped to the bullpen, finishing the year with a 6.09 ERA. Mize and Manning are former top prospects but with middling results thus far in their careers. Jobe is one of the most exciting young pitchers in the league but only just made his major league debut late in the year and only has two Triple-A starts under his belt.

Perhaps the Tigers will make further additions to that group. Finances shouldn’t be standing in the way. Before factoring in Cobb, RosterResource projects the Tigers for a payroll of just $80MM next year. As mentioned, there’s almost nothing on the long-term books. Cot’s Baseball Contracts had Detroit at $98MM on Opening Day this past year and they’ve been far higher than that in the past.

Though if the recent past in any indication, they’ll be looking to chase upside on fairly modest deals. They’ve been connected to arms like Kyle Gibson, Walker Buehler and Andrew Heaney in recent days, with each of those guys expected to land a one- or two-year deal. For now, the Tigers have added some stability to an area of the roster that was fairly lacking in it.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Tigers and Cobb had agreed to a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of the New York Post had the financials.

Jace Jung Underwent Wrist Surgery, Expected To Be Ready For Spring Training

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Tigers third baseman Jace Jung underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his right wrist in October, the team announced this evening. The talented infielder has already begun a hitting program and is expected to be full go for Spring Training.

Jung is the in-house favorite for Detroit’s third base job. The Tigers have been frequently connected to Alex Bregman, largely because of the history with manager A.J. Hinch, but there’s no indication they’re willing to make that level of long-term commitment. Jung’s minor surgery isn’t going to have any impact on a potential Bregman pursuit, of course. Assuming he recovers as expected, he’s on track to vie with Matt Vierling and Andy Ibáñez for playing time.

A former 12th overall pick, Jung made his MLB debut late in the season. He appeared in 34 games, hitting .241/.362/.304 without a home run through 94 trips to the plate. The lefty-hitting Jung had a strong year in Triple-A. Over 91 games, he hit .257/.377/.454 with 14 longballs and an excellent 16.1% walk rate.

In another development on the Detroit infield, Cody Stavenhagen of the Athletic tweets that Colt Keith and Justyn-Henry Malloy will take offseason reps at first base. Keith is expected to remain the team’s primary second baseman, as the measure is simply designed to increase his versatility on the right side of the infield.

It could be a more consequential development for Malloy, who has always been a promising hitter without a defensive home. Malloy worked in the corner outfield or at designated hitter as a rookie. He played third base in the minors through 2023 but was panned by scouts for his glove. Malloy logged a little bit of first base action in college but hasn’t played there professionally. Former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson could have a tenuous hold on the starting job. Detroit is reportedly among the teams that have been in contact with Paul Goldschmidt as they look for a right-handed bat this winter.

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