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Tigers Agree To Minor League Deal With Devin Smeltzer, Release Manuel Margot

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The Tigers have agreed to a minor league deal with southpaw Devin Smeltzer and released veteran outfielder Manuel Margot, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Smeltzer has been assigned to Triple-A Toledo.

Smeltzer, 29, has seen big league time in parts of five major league seasons — nearly all with the division-rival Twins. The Vayner client is a former Dodgers fifth-round pick who went from L.A. to Minnesota a deadline swap for Brian Dozier. Smeltzer has worked both as a starter and long reliever in the big leagues, compiling a total of 162 1/3 innings with a 4.32 ERA. He’s only fanned 16.5% of his opponents but boasts a sharp 6% walk rate.

Smeltzer posted a 3.99 ERA in 140 innings with Minnesota from 2019-22, but his inability to miss bats and his susceptibility to home runs led fielding-independent metrics to cast a far more bearish outlook on his performance (4.82 FIP, 4.78 SIERA). Smeltzer’s 2023 season with the Marlins indeed brought a good bit of regression; he pitched 22 1/3 innings but was rocked for a 6.45 ERA as he served up seven round-trippers in that limited role.

That 2023 season in Miami saw Smeltzer regularly designated for assignment, passed through waivers, and outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville. The Fish designated Smeltzer for assignment four different times, and he accepted an outright on each occasion. He also returned on a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason and pitched well (3.69 ERA) in 31 2/3 innings with Jacksonville in 2024 before being released.

Smeltzer has been pitching for los Dorados de Chihuahua in the Mexican League this year, logging a 5.17 ERA, 17.6% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate in an extremely hitter-friendly setting, where the league-average ERA is a staggering 6.01. He’d been working as a starter, averaging better than six innings per outing across 13 starts, so Smeltzer will provide Detroit some depth for the rotation or a swingman candidate.

The Tigers currently have Sawyer Gipson-Long, Alex Cobb, Jackson Jobe, Ty Madden and Jose Urquidy on the injured list. Jobe’s season is over due to Tommy John surgery. Cobb has yet to pitch for the major league club since signing a one-year deal over the winter. Madden, the No. 32 pick in 2021, has been out all season with a shoulder strain. Gipson-Long has been out since late June due to a neck injury. Urquidy signed a free agent deal over the winter while recovering from Tommy John surgery and will likely be an option in the second half.

As for the veteran Margot, he appeared in six games with the Tigers earlier this year and went 6-for-19 (all singles) in 20 plate appearances. He’s had a very rough showing in Toledo, slashing only .211/.299/.266 in 144 plate appearances for the Mud Hens.

Now 30 years old, Margot is a former top prospect who had a solid run from 2017-22 between the Padres and Rays, slashing .254/.309/.386 with plus baserunning, elite defense and quality production against left-handed pitching. He suffered a severe strain of the patellar tendon in his right knee back in 2022, however, and his sprint speed, baserunning and defensive grades have all plummeted since that injury. (He also missed time earlier this season with an injury in his other knee.) When Margot debuted late in the 2016 season, Statcast credited him with 99th percentile sprint speed — an average of 30 feet per second. In his brief look with the Tigers earlier this season, he was covering 25.3 feet per second, all the way down in the ninth percentile of MLB players.

Since returning from that career-altering knee injury in 2022, Margot has taken 862 plate appearances in the majors. His average hasn’t changed much, but he’s walked less often and seen the minimal power he previously possessed dry up. He’s a .250/.395/.348 hitter (82 wRC+) in that time, and this year’s bleak minor league showing doesn’t create a lot of reason for optimism. He’ll be an option for teams seeking some righty-swinging outfield depth, but it’s been years since Margot has performed at peak levels.

Angels, Sammy Peralta Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Sammy Peralta, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’d been pitching with El Aguila de Veracruz in the Mexican League and will head to Triple-A Salt Lake for the time being. He’s represented by Premier Talent Sports & Entertainment.

Peralta, 27, has spent the majority of his career in the White Sox system. He reached the majors in both 2023 and 2024, logging a combined 35 innings of 4.37 ERA ball with a 17.9% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 41.7% ground-ball rate. The soft-tossing southpaw has averaged just 89.3 mph on his four-seamer in the majors and complements that pitch with a slider sitting just north of 78 mph and a changeup that averages just under 82 mph.

Peralta opened the 2025 season with a strong showing in an intensely hitter-friendly setting in Mexico — interestingly doing so as a starting pitcher. The 6’2″ lefty has spent nearly his entire professional career as a reliever but started four games with Veracruz and notched a 2.53 ERA with a 22-to-2 K/BB ratio in 21 1/3 innings (26.5 K%, 2.4 BB%). All 25 of Peralta’s major league appearances have been relief outings, and only nine of his 150 minor league games have been starts. He’d never pitched more than four innings in a single professional appearance prior to signing in Mexico.

It’s not yet clear which role Peralta will hold with the Halos. I’m told he stretched out in Mexico not necessarily due to a preference to move to a starting role but just to expand his versatility. Angels starters rank 19th in the majors with a 3.99 ERA, though both Jack Kochanowicz (4.71 ERA) and Kyle Hendricks (5.32 ERA) have struggled in nine starts apiece. The Angels’ bullpen is dead last in the majors with a 6.82 ERA, and they recently lost Ben Joyce to season-ending shoulder surgery. Peralta posted a 4.44 ERA in 50 2/3 relief innings at the Triple-A level in 2025 and carries a career 4.80 earned run average, 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in 125 2/3 innings at the top minor league level.

Huascar Ynoa Signs With Mexican League’s Leones De Yucatán

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The Mexican League’s Leones De Yucatán announced that they have signed right-hander Huascar Ynoa. He had signed a minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins in the offseason but he was released last month, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com.

Ynoa, turning 27 this month, didn’t have a good tenure with the Twins. He made five Triple-A appearance but allowed five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. He issued seven walks and hit a batter while only recording one strikeout. That poor performance seemingly led to his release. Now that he’s signing in Mexico, it seems he didn’t get much interest from the other affiliated clubs.

However, he is still relatively young and put up some good numbers a few years ago. With Atlanta in 2021, he tossed 91 innings with a 4.05 earned run average. His 26.9% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 47.3% ground ball rate were all better than average.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to build off that solid season in subsequent years. In 2022, he had two bad starts to begin the year and spent most of the season in Triple-A, putting up a 5.68 ERA at Gwinnett. He required Tommy John surgery in September of that year, which wiped out his entire 2023. Last year, he missed more time due to a stress reaction in his elbow. He logged only 29 2/3 innings in the minors with a 6.37 ERA. He was non-tendered by Atlanta, which led to his minor league deal with the Twins.

After missing most of the 2023-24 seasons, it’s perhaps not shocking that Ynoa showed some rust to start this year. Ideally, the Leones can give him some time to get back into a groove and rediscover his previous form. If that comes to pass, he would likely have MLB clubs calling him up again.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Kyle McCann, Art Warren Sign With Mexican League Teams

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Former A’s catcher Kyle McCann signed with los Piratas de Campeche in the Mexican League over the weekend, the team announced. He’s not the only former big leaguer headed to Mexico this week. MLBTR has learned that former Reds and Mariners reliever Art Warren is signing with los Tecos de los Dos Laredos. McCann is represented by the Ballengee Group. Warren is a client of Gaeta Sports Management.

McCann, 27, made his big league debut last year and got into 54 games with Oakland. He posted a .236/.318/.371 slash in 157 plate appearances, smacking five homers and six doubles along the way. The former fourth-rounder drew walks at a strong 10.2% clip but was also set down on strikes in an ugly 37.6% of his plate appearances. The year prior, McCann posted a .270/.351/.474 line in Triple-A Las Vegas, but in that ultra-hitter-friendly setting, that seemingly strong slash line actually checked in 11% worse than league average by measure of wRC+ (89).

Defensively, McCann had some issues. His 19% caught-stealing rate was worse than the 21.9% league average, and he posted well below-average framing marks in his 324 innings behind the plate. Statcast credited him with average numbers in terms of blocking balls in the dirt. McCann didn’t play any first base in the majors, but he’s played more than 800 minor league innings there and Baseball America called him an average defender at the position back in their 2021 scouting report.

Warren, 32, posted strong numbers in his first two big league looks with the 2019 Mariners and 2021 Reds. In 26 1/3 innings between those two teams, he notched a sparkling 1.03 earned run average with a massive 37.9% strikeout rate against a 9.7% walk rate. He looked set for a nice run in the Reds’ bullpen after that 2021 showing, but his 2022 follow-up was wrecked by injury.

Warren logged 36 innings for the ’22 Reds but was rocked for a 6.50 ERA. His four-seam fastball, which had averaged 95.2 mph in 2021, saw a sharp drop to a 93.5 mph average. The right-hander’s eye-popping 19.2% swinging-strike rate plummeted to 12.1%, resulting in a deflated 24.2% strikeout rate. His command also eroded, evidenced by a 13.3% walk rate.

The Reds placed Warren on the injured list with a flexor strain that July. He returned six weeks later, struggled for about a month, and was optioned to Triple-A Louisville. That option was quickly rescinded when elbow damage was discovered, and Warren was instead placed on the major league injured list. Two weeks later, the team announced that Warren had undergone a UCL procedure that would wipe out the rest of his 2022 campaign and his entire 2023 season.

Warren was non-tendered and eventually signed a minor league deal with the Yankees once he was healthy. He struggled immensely with their Triple-A squad last year in his return from surgery. In 26 2/3 frames, he served up 26 runs (8.78 ERA) on 36 hits and 22 walks. Eight of those hits were long balls. Warren still punched out 29 batters in his 26 2/3 innings of work, but with the barrage of walks, that only came out to a 21.2% strikeout rate (against a 16% walk rate). His average fastball in Triple-A sat at the same 93.5 mph average he showed in 2022 before undergoing his UCL repair.

The hope for both McCann and Warren is surely to parlay solid play in Mexico into a return to affiliated ball on a minor league deal. McCann has actually already suited up for three games — two at catcher, one as a DH — and gone 3-for-11 with a pair of doubles but also seven strikeouts. Warren’s new club, los Tecos, has been picked over by MLB teams in recent weeks. They’ve seen Cory Abbott (Rangers), Beau Burrows (Pirates), Nick Margevicius (Tigers), Sean Poppen (Angels) and Andrew Vasquez (Angels) all sign minor league deals with affiliated clubs.

Pirates Sign Beau Burrows To Minor League Deal

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Right-hander Beau Burrows, who opened the season pitching with los Tecos de los Dos Laredos in the Mexican League, has signed a minor league deal with the Pirates. Beisbol Puro first reported the signing, which Burrows himself has also announced on social media this morning.

Burrows, 28, was selected by the Tigers with the No. 22 overall pick out of Weatherford High School in Texas back in the 2015 draft. He ranked among the Tigers’ top prospects for several years following that draft and garnered some top-100 fanfare at MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus in the 2017-18 offseason after logging 135 frames of 3.20 ERA ball between High-A and Double-A. The 6’2″ righty punched out 24.9% of his opponents that season and limited walks at a solid 8% clip.

A second year at the Double-A level in 2018 yielded lesser results (4.10 ERA in 134 innings), but Burrows reached 26 starts and topped 130 innings for a second straight season. He seemed like a good bet to make his big league debut in 2019 — at least until the injury bug bit. Burrows missed more than two months at the beginning of that ’19 season due to biceps tendinitis and inflammation in his right shoulder. He returned in June and was back on the shelf two months later after straining an oblique muscle, which cost him another month. He pitched only 74 innings across three levels — including his Triple-A debut — and worked to a 4.84 ERA.

Burrows felt very much like a pitcher who could use a mulligan at Triple-A in a hopefully healthier 2020 season. Of course, the pandemic wiped out the entire minor league season that year, depriving him of that opportunity. Burrows pitched at the Tigers’ alternate site and wound up making his MLB debut with five relief appearances (four runs in 6 2/3 innings). He was trounced for 17 runs in just 11 big league innings the following season and struggled to an ERA north of 5.00 in Triple-A between the Tigers and the Twins (who claimed him off waivers following a midseason DFA).

In the three years since that time, Burrows has pitched between the Dodgers, Phillies and Braves organizations but never returned to the majors. His work in a tiny sample during Mexican League play this season hasn’t exactly stood out; he’s tossed 5 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and allowed six earned runs on seven hits and nine walks.

Rough as those numbers appear, Beisbol Puro notes that Burrows’ velocity and curveball have caught the attention of major league scouts. He’s typically sat around 93 mph in recent Triple-A stints but has bumped that a couple ticks in 2025 and has seen his heater climb as high as 97 mph. This would only be Burrows’ second full season as a pure reliever, and if those velo readings are accurate, it’s a jump over his 2024 stint in the Phillies’ system, when he averaged 93.3 mph even following a move to short relief.

For the Pirates, there’s little harm in betting on ostensibly improved stuff from a former first-round pick who’ll still pitch nearly the entire 2025 season at 28 years of age. (Burrows turns 29 in mid-September.) He’ll presumably head to Triple-A Indianapolis, and if he can rein in his command while maintaining the improved stuff, Burrows could pitch his way into consideration for a big league look later this summer. Pittsburgh relievers rank 20th in the majors with a 4.24 ERA this season, but that includes a combined 20 2/3 innings of excellent work from Justin Lawrence and Tim Mayza, both of whom were recently moved to the 60-day injured list.

Danny Duffy Signs With Mexican League’s Piratas de Campeche

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Former big league left-hander Danny Duffy is signing with the Piratas de Campeche of the Mexican League, according to a report from Robert Murray of Fansided.

Duffy, 36, is a veteran of 11 major league seasons who last pitched in the big leagues back in 2021. The lefty was a third-round pick by the Royals back in 2007 and never pitched at the big league level with another club. Duffy’s first season in the majors back in 2011 saw him make 20 starts, though his 5.64 ERA left much to be desired. Despite that middling rookie season, Duffy earned a spot in the club’s starting rotation the following year. He ultimately made just 11 appearances between 2012 and 2013 due to Tommy John surgery, however, though he did post an impressive 2.94 ERA across those outings.

When Duffy had his first healthy season since his rookie year in 2014, he was extremely successful with a 2.53 ERA in 149 1/3 innings of work split between 25 starts and six long relief outings. Duffy’s success came in spite of a lackluster 18.6% strikeout rate, however, and his lackluster peripherals caught up to him during a far more pedestrian 2015 season. Once again pitching primarily out of the rotation with occasional cameos in the bullpen, Duffy’s results took a big step back that year as he pitched to a 4.02 ERA (102 ERA+) in 136 2/3 innings during the regular season. The 2014 and ’15 seasons also saw Duffy make the only postseason appearances of his career as Kansas City went to the World Series in back to back campaigns and won it all in 2015. Duffy’s contributions to those runs were relatively minimal as he pitched to a 5.06 in 10 2/3 innings, though that did include outings in the club’s Game 1 and Game 4 victories against the Mets in 2015.

Following the Royals’ championship, Duffy pitched quite well in 2016 with a 3.51 ERA in 179 2/3 frames with a solid 25.7% strikeout rate. That showing was enough to earn Duffy a five-year extension with the club worth $65MM. The next several years saw Duffy provide generally solid middle-to-back of the rotation production for the Royals, with a roughly league average 4.42 ERA (102 ERA+) in 87 appearances (86 starts) from 2017 to 2020. When the final year of Duffy’s deal in Kansas City came around, he enjoyed a phenomenal start to the season as he posted a 2.51 ERA with a 25.8% strikeout rate in 61 innings of work, but he found himself slowed by a flexor strain. Duffy was traded to the Dodgers over the summer, but did not throw a pitch for L.A. that year.

Since being traded away from the Royals, Duffy pitched in the minor leagues for the Dodgers and Rangers but did not crack either club’s big league roster. Last season, he posted a 5.50 ERA in ten outings for Texas at the Triple-A level before being granted his release in May of last year. He then pitched to a 3.24 ERA in the Puerto Rican Winter League, which evidently caught the attention of the Piratas de Campeche. Duffy will now get the opportunity to continue his professional career in Mexico on a team that also features former big league names like Hanser Alberto and Chris Carter.

Carl Edwards Jr., Matt Foster Sign With Mexican League Teams

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A pair of former big league relievers are among those who recently signed with Mexican League teams. Carl Edwards Jr. rejoined the Tigers de Quintana Roo on Tuesday, while Matt Foster signed with the Algodoneros del Unión Laguna last week.

This is the second time this year that Edwards has signed with Quintana Roo. He initially joined the team in mid-March. He left to sign a minor league deal with the Angels before the season began. Edwards made seven Triple-A appearances and was called up by the Halos last month. He pitched twice in the big leagues, allowing three runs in as many innings. The Angels designated him for assignment, and he elected free agency after going unclaimed on waivers.

Edwards evidently preferred to return to Mexico rather than accept an outright assignment with the Halos. He’s making his Mexican League debut tonight. This year’s brief stint with the Angels marked his 11th consecutive season logging major league action. He’s only made three combined appearances over the past two years but was a decent middle reliever for the Nationals between 2022-23.

Foster, 30, is a righty who elected free agency at the start of the offseason after being waived by the White Sox. The Alabama product had pitched in parts of four seasons with Chicago, tallying 119 1/3 innings. He spent most of the 2020-22 seasons in Chicago’s middle relief group. Foster underwent Tommy John surgery early in the ’23 campaign.

That cost him nearly a year and a half of action. He tossed 6 2/3 frames of two-run ball for the Sox late last season after his return. That came with a 91.9 MPH average fastball velocity that was down two ticks from where he’d been sitting before the surgery. MLB teams were clearly skeptical of the diminished stuff. He allowed a run on three hits in an inning of work in his debut with the Algodoneros.

Andrew Vasquez Drawing Interest From MLB Clubs

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Left-hander Andrew Vasquez is currently pitching for Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League but Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reports that multiple MLB clubs are interested in him. His deal has a $0 buyout for MLB affiliates.

Vasquez, 31, is out to a great start in Mexico. He has tossed 7 2/3 innings over seven appearances without allowing an earned run. He has only struck out six of the 32 batters he’s faced, an 18.8% pace, but has surrendered just one walk. He has done that while serving as the club’s closer, with three saves already. The Mexican League is generally very hitter-friendly. The league-wide earned run average is 5.73 this year while batters have a combined line of .292/.371/.458.

Of course, that’s a tiny sample size, but Vasquez also has some decent numbers in affiliated ball. He has 63 2/3 major league innings on his track record with a 4.24 ERA. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate are a bit worse than average but not by much, while his 48.1% ground ball rate is strong.

He had a rough season in 2024, being stuck in Triple-A with the Tigers and posting a 5.11 ERA for the Toledo Mud Hens, but he has previously had good minor league numbers. From 2021 to 2023, he logged 87 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.89 ERA, 36.4% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate.

Several teams are dealing with injuries to left-handed relievers, with the Mets one prominent example. They recently lost both A.J. Minter and Danny Young to the injured list. Young will undergo Tommy John surgery and Minter might require season-ending lat surgery. The club signed Brooks Raley but he’s recovering from his own Tommy John procedure and has already been placed on the 60-day IL. A.J. Puk of the Diamondbacks and Tim Mayza of the Pirates are also on the 60-day IL for their respective clubs.

Taking it all into consideration, it’s understandable that clubs are sniffing around. Vasquez has a competent résumé and his Mexican career has started well. With the rate of pitching injuries, it seems he may get a chance somewhere.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images.

Willie Calhoun, Carl Edwards Jr. Sign In Mexican League

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The Tigers de Quintana Roo in the Mexican League have recently added a pair of former big leaguers. Designated hitter Willie Calhoun signed with the team tonight, according to an MiLB.com article. The team also announced on social media last night they’re bringing in reliever Carl Edwards Jr.

Calhoun and Edwards each appeared in the majors last season. The lefty-hitting Calhoun played in 68 games for the Angels. He hit .245/.315/.380 with five homers through 254 plate appearances. That brings his career batting line to .241/.303/.399 in more than 1300 trips to the dish. That’s underwhelming for a player whose game is built entirely around his bat. Calhoun can occasionally play at first base or in the corner outfield, but he’s close to a full-time DH.

Edwards, a 33-year-old reliever, pitched in one game for the Padres last year. He issued two walks and allowed a hit without recording an out. That qualified for the lanky righty’s 10th consecutive season getting some big league action. Edwards turned in decent results in middle relief with the Cubs and Nationals earlier in his career. He owns a 3.54 ERA across 280 big league innings. Edwards spent most of last season in the minors, where he combined for a 4.11 ERA in 70 innings between the Cubs’ and Padres’ systems.

Nick Senzel Signs With Mexican League’s Tecolotes De Los Dos Laredos

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Infielder/outfielder Nick Senzel has signed with the Tecolotes De Los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Senzel is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Senzel, 30 in June, was once a notable prospect but he wasn’t able to take advantage of his major league opportunities. The Reds selected him with the second overall pick in the 2016 draft and he posted huge numbers in the minors, slashing .314/.390/.513 over the 2016-18 seasons. Baseball America ranked him as Cincinnati’s top prospect and one of the ten best league-wide from 2017 to 2019.

That got him plenty of big league chances, which he never was able to capitalize on. The Reds gave him fairly regular playing time from 2019 through 2023. Injuries limited him to just 23 games in 2020 and 36 in 2021 but he got into at least 104 contests in the other three seasons of that stretch.

By the end of the 2023 campaign, he had 1,366 big league plate appearances but just 33 home runs, a 7.6% walk rate and a .239/.302/.369 slash line. His 76 wRC+ in that span indicates he was 24% worse than league average on the whole. An infielder as a prospect, the Reds had moved him around and given him some outfield time to improve his versatility, but it didn’t matter much with that lackluster offensive performance and he didn’t get strong defensive grades anywhere either.

Going into 2024, the Reds moved on. They declined to tender him a contract for that season, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a $3MM salary, sending Senzel to free agency instead. He signed a $2MM deal with the Nationals with the plan of Senzel taking over as the everyday third baseman in Washington.

Unfortunately, he broke his thumb prior to the game on Opening Day and missed the first couple of weeks. He returned in mid-April and then slashed .209/.303/.359 in 64 games as a Nat. He was designated for assignment in early July. He then signed with the White Sox but hit just .100/.129/.133 in ten games for them. He was designated for assignment and back in free agency before the end of August. He remained unsigned until now.

It seems as though Senzel didn’t get a major league offer from any club, which isn’t surprising based on his numbers. He’ll instead head to Mexico to join the Tecolotes and see if he can turn things around. Based on his past prospect pedigree, teams will surely keep an eye on him to see if his results improve. If that comes to pass, perhaps he could return to affiliated ball down the line.

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