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Dietrich Enns

Tigers Trade Dietrich Enns To Orioles

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The Orioles and Tigers apparently made a last minute trade before the deadline. Detroit dealt left-hander Dietrich Enns to Baltimore for cash. He’d been designated for assignment just this afternoon when the Tigers acquired Codi Heuer from Texas.

Enns, 34, could get a look in the Baltimore rotation. The O’s traded Charlie Morton and placed Zach Eflin on the injured list. They’re more or less playing out the string and need pitchers who can take innings behind Trevor Rogers and Tomoyuki Sugano. Enns has struggled in a limited big league look, giving up 12 runs in 17 2/3 frames spanning seven appearances. He has posted excellent numbers over 14 Triple-A starts, working to a 2.89 ERA with a near-27% strikeout rate against a tidy 5.6% walk percentage.

Prior to this season, Enns’ major league experience consisted of brief stints with the 2017 Twins and ’21 Rays. He has also pitched in Japan and Korea, turning in a 4.19 ERA over 30 starts in the KBO last season. The O’s will give him an opportunity to see if they can get similar mid-30s production from Enns as they did with Albert Suarez a year ago.

Tigers Acquire Codi Heuer From Rangers

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The Rangers announced they’ve traded reliever Codi Heuer to Detroit for cash. This opens a 40-man roster spot for Texas, who will likely acquire some kind of relief help in the coming hours. Detroit designated lefty Dietrich Enns for assignment and optioned Heuer to Triple-A Toledo.

Heuer signed an offseason minor league deal with Texas. The Rangers called him up on June 1 but optioned him back to Triple-A a couple days later. He made one appearance, working an inning and a third while giving up a home run. That was the 6’5″ righty’s first major league action in four years. Heuer has had a nice season in the upper minors, working to a 3.43 ERA with a 31% strikeout rate over 35 appearances.

Texas probably viewed the 29-year-old Heuer as a DFA candidate if they’re able to make a more notable bullpen move today. Rather than wait until finalizing an acquisition, they preemptively cleared a spot while picking up a bit of cash. Detroit jumps the waiver order to get a pitcher with options who is having a good Triple-A season. Heuer sits around 96 MPH with his fastball and has a mid-80s slider. He has a history of elbow injuries, including 2022 Tommy John surgery and a ’23 fracture that required another operation.

Enns was called up last month. The 34-year-old southpaw has logged 17 2/3 innings with a 5.60 ERA across seven outings. He has posted excellent numbers with Toledo, turning in a 2.89 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate over 14 starts. He’ll likely end up on waivers in the next few days.

Tigers Designate Matt Gage For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated left-handed reliever Matt Gage for assignment, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. His spot on the roster goes to lefty Dietrich Enns, whose contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Toledo (a move that was first reported earlier in the week).

Gage, 32, signed a minor league deal over the winter and was selected to the big league roster a couple weeks ago. He’s tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings out of A.J. Hinch’s bullpen, albeit with a sub-par 3-to-2 K/BB ratio (12% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate). It’s the third season in which Gage has seen major league time. Despite having enjoyed success in small samples during all three seasons — Gage has a career 1.42 ERA — he’s only gotten 25 1/3 innings in the big leagues.

Detroit is Gage’s third major league team in three seasons. He’s also suited up for the Blue Jays and Astros. The lefty has fanned 22.5% of his opponents against a 10.8% walk rate. He’s never been an especially hard thrower, but this year’s 91.9 mph average fastball is down noticeably from the 94 mph he averaged with the Astros in 2023. Be that as it may, Gage pitched well with the Tigers and was excellent in Triple-A Toledo prior to his promotion as well: 32 1/3 innings, 1.67 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate. That’s Gage’s seventh season logging time in Triple-A. He has a career 4.64 earned run average at the top minor league level. He’s logged a 4.64 ERA in 316 1/3 innings there and recorded a 20.9% strikeout rate with an 8.1% walk rate.

Gage is out of minor league options, so the Tigers didn’t have the ability to simply send him to the minors without first exposing him to waivers. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, he can be traded or placed on waivers at any point in the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so we’ll know within the next week what Gage’s next step is. Because Gage has been outrighted in the past, he’ll have the option to elect free agency and explore opportunities with other teams if he passes through waivers unclaimed once again.

Tigers To Select Dietrich Enns For Thursday’s Game

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The Tigers are going to select left-hander Dietrich Enns to the roster to start Thursday’s game, as first reported by @juiceyballl. The southpaw will have to be added to the 40-man and active rosters beforehand.

Enns, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in the offseason. He has since made 14 Triple-A starts, logging 62 1/3 innings with 2.89 earned runs allowed per nine. He has struck out 26.7% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 5.6% clip and getting grounders on 41.5% of balls in play.

That strong performance will get Enns back to the majors, which has been a long and winding road. He previously made two appearances with the 2017 Twins and then another nine with the 2021 Rays. That stint with Tampa was pretty decent, as he had a 2.82 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate in 22 1/3 innings.

Despite those solid numbers, he may not have felt great about his job security going into 2022, as he was out of options. He decided to head overseas and signed with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He had a strong performance that year, tossing 122 1/3 innings with a 2.94 ERA. He stuck with the Lions for 2022 but his results backed up, posting a 5.17 ERA over 12 starts. He then headed to Korea for the 2024 season, signing with the LG Twins. He made 30 starts for that club last year with a 4.19 ERA.

In the past month-plus, the Tigers have lost Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe to the injured list, blowing two holes in their rotation. Olson has been battling finger inflammation while Jobe required Tommy John surgery. In recent weeks, they have had a rotation core of Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Sawyer Gipson-Long, with Keider Montero also pitching in a sort of bulk role.

Montero was optioned to the minors recently, so Enns will step in for him. It’s unclear if Enns will get to make more than one start, however, as Olson is going to be back soon. Per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, he’s making another rehab start tomorrow and the club hopes he can return after that. Perhaps that means this will just be a spot start for Enns, though Gipson-Long also has options and could be bumped for Olson’s return instead. As mentioned, Enns is out of options. If the Tigers plan to bump him off the roster after his outing, he’ll effectively need to be designated for assignment.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Tigers, Dietrich Enns Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Dietrich Enns. The 33-year-old southpaw announced the news on social media last week.

Enns is trying to work his way back to the majors for the first time since 2021. He tossed 22 1/3 innings across nine relief appearances for Tampa Bay that season. Enns turned in a 2.82 earned run average in that limited sample. That caught the attention of the Seibu Lions in Japan. Seibu finalized a deal to purchase his contract. Enns spent two seasons there, combining for a 3.62 ERA through 176 1/3 innings at the NPB level.

The Central Michigan product changed countries but stayed in Asia for the ’24 season. Enns signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins. He started 30 times and logged 167 1/3 frames of 4.19 ERA ball. Enns struck out 22% of opponents against a 7% walk rate. After the season, the Twins brought in Yonny Chirinos and re-signed Elieser Hernández to serve as their foreign-born pitchers for 2025.

Enns figures to open the season with Triple-A Toledo. He can start or work in long relief on a Detroit staff that’ll place a premium on flexibility. A.J. Hinch used plenty of openers and bulk relievers behind Tarik Skubal this past season. That’ll presumably continue in the final two rotation spots after Skubal, Reese Olson and Alex Cobb.

Dietrich Enns To Sign With KBO’s LG Twins

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Former big league left-hander Dietrich Enns is finalizing a deal with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, per Dan Kurtz of My KBO. The terms of the contract are not yet known.

Enns, 32, was selected by the Yankees in the 19th-round of the draft back in 2012. Enns was swapped to the Twins in 2017 and made his major league debut that same year, though he struggled to a 6.75 ERA in just four innings of work. The lefty spent the next several seasons in the minor leagues, bouncing between the Twins, Padres, and Rays organizations before returning to the big leagues in 2021 with Tampa Bay. Enns found more success with the Rays that season, pitching well in multi-inning relief. In 22 1/3 innings of work across nine appearances, Enns posted a 2.82 ERA with an even stronger 2.32 FIP, striking out 28.4% of batters faced while walking just 6.8%.

Despite that strong performance in 2021, Enns was unable to secure a big league role for the 2022 season and instead departed for a role overseas, joining the Seibu Lions of Japan’s NPB. Enns pitched very well for the Lions in his first NPB season, with a 2.94 ERA in 122 1/3 innings of work across 22 starts. Unfortunately, that success did not carry over to 2023 as the lefty struggled to a 5.17 ERA in just 54 innings of work.

Still, Enns’s success in both the majors in 2021 and NPB in 2022 make him an interesting addition to the Twins, who Kim Geun-han of MK Sports indicates hope that Enns can replace five-year MLB veteran Adam Plutko on the club’s pitching staff for the 2024 campaign. Plutko, for his part, is hoping to return to stateside ball this offseason after posting a 2.49 ERA across 49 starts in Korea the past two seasons.

NPB’s Seibu Lions Sign Dietrich Enns

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TODAY: Enns is heading to Japan to sign with the Seibu Lions, the team announced.

NOVEMBER 17: The Rays are in the process of finalizing an agreement to send left-hander Dietrich Enns to a team either in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Organization or Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Enns will be placed on release waivers today and, upon clearing Friday, will be free to sign with his new club.

Moves such as this one generally benefit all parties and are, of course, made with full consent from the player in question. Whichever team held interest in Enns would first contact the Rays, who’d then gauge the player’s interest in the opportunity before proceeding to negotiate a release agreement. Tampa Bay will likely receive some financial compensation for releasing Enns, while the pitcher himself will receive a larger salary in NPB or the KBO than he’d have earned as a fringe big leaguer in 2022 — if he’d even stuck on the Rays’ 40-man roster.

Enns, 30, was quite effective in 22 1/3 frames for the Rays this past season, pitching to a 2.82 ERA with an impressive 28.4% strikeout rate against a strong 6.8% walk rate. That marked the first big league action for Enns since a brief four-inning cup of coffee with the 2017 Twins, however, and the lefty’s minor league track record generally isn’t as strong as this past season’s results. Enns did post a 2.64 ERA in 71 2/3 Triple-A frames, but he carries a career 4.26 ERA with pedestrian strikeout and walk rates in nearly 400 innings at that level.

The benefit to the arrangement for Enns could be twofold. In addition to securing a guaranteed salary of some note for the first time in an 11-year professional career, he’ll also set himself up for the opportunity to potentially return to Major League Baseball outside the constructs of the arbitration system.

Had Enns remained with the Rays, he’d have needed another three years on the roster before qualifying for arbitration eligibility as a 33-year-old (at least, as the arbitration system currently stands). However, by going to NPB, the KBO or the CPBL, Enns could impress for only a season or two and then return on a guaranteed Major League deal. Chris Flexen, Merrill Kelly, Josh Lindblom and Miles Mikolas are among the recent players to go this route, securing considerable salaries overseas before returning to the big leagues on guaranteed, multi-year contracts that typically allow them to become free agents upon completion (rather than remain under control via arbitration). It’s not a foolproof gambit, of course, but even if Enns struggles in his new environs he’d still likely come away with more than he’d have earned with a big league club in 2022.

With the removal of Enns, the Rays’ 40-man roster will have three open spots. Topkin suggests that the Rays may look to open another spot or two prior to Friday’s Rule 5 protection deadline.

Rays Select Evan Phillips

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The Rays announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Evan Phillips. Lefty Dietrich Enns was optioned to Triple-A Durham to open a spot on the active roster. Tampa Bay had an open 40-man spot, so an additional corresponding move was needed.

Phillips, 26, recently inked a minor league deal with the Rays and will give the club a fresh arm to keep the bullpen fresh. He’s shown considerable strikeout potential in past MLB stints with the Orioles but has also given up far too many walks to remain effective. From 2019-20, Phillips pitched 42 1/3 frames with the O’s and fanned 28.7 percent of his opponents but also walked about 14.4 percent of them. Between that and a sky-high .398 average on balls in play, he was knocked around for a 5.95 ERA in that time.

This will be Phillips’ first big league stint of the season. He’s split the year between the Triple-A clubs for Baltimore and Tampa Bay, working to a 4.76 ERA in 28 1/3 innings. He’s spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A, compiling a 3.67 ERA with a 27.6 percent strikeout rate and a 10.7 percent walk rate. He averages just shy of 95 mph with his heater and also features a mid-80s slider and lesser used changeup (also clocked in the mid-80s).

Rays Select Dietrich Enns

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The Rays announced they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Dietrich Enns. Righty Chris Mazza was optioned to Triple-A Durham to open active roster space, while fellow righty Ryan Thompson was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man roster spot.

Tampa Bay signed Enns out of independent ball last August, and he’s now in line to make his team debut a little less than a year later. The 30-year-old has two career big league appearances under his belt, both of them with the 2017 Twins. He bounced between a couple affiliated organizations and independent teams before landing with the Rays.

Assigned to Triple-A Durham, Enns pitched his way back to the big leagues for the first time in four years with a very strong season. He’s made fourteen appearances (ten starts), totaling 59 innings of 2.44 ERA ball. Enns’ peripherals back up the elite run prevention, as he’s punched out a whopping 32.3% of batters faced against a tiny 6.5% walk rate. Those numbers are even more impressive when considered against the league’s hitter-friendly environment. Enns ranks 3rd in ERA, fourth in strikeout rate, and third in strikeout/walk rate differential among the 49 Triple-A East pitchers with 50+ innings pitched this season.

Thompson landed on the IL with right shoulder inflammation on June 30. He’ll miss at least sixty days from the date of that original placement, meaning he can’t return to the majors until the end of this month. The sidearming reliever has quietly worked to a 2.38 ERA/3.17 SIERA across 34 innings this season.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/18/20

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Cardinals announced before Tuesday’s game that they selected right-hander Jesus Cruz and optioned lefty Rob Kaminsky to their alternate training site. Kaminsky will remain on the Cardinals’ taxi squad. The 25-year-old Cruz is in his fourth season with the Cardinals organization. He has generally produced very good numbers at the lower levels of the minors, but his first stint with Triple-A Memphis last season did not go well. Cruz wound up with a 6.24 ERA and a 6.4 BB/9 in 57 2/3 innings, though he did punch out 12.33 hitters per nine.

Earlier:

  • The Rays have signed Dietrich Enns to a minor league contract, as announced yesterday by Enns’ independent league team in Joliet, Illinois.  Enns will report to Tampa Bay’s alternate training site and MLB.com’s Juan Toribio (Twitter link) adds that Enns has been added to the Rays’ 60-man player pool.  Originally a 19th-round pick for the Yankees in the 2012 draft, Enns compiled a 3.40 ERA, 2.48 K/BB rate, and 8.3 K/9 over 667 1/3 career minor league innings with the Yankees, Twins, and Padres.  His lone bit of MLB experience came in 2017, when Enns tossed four innings over two games with Minnesota.  Enns has mostly worked as a starter during his career and it isn’t out of the question that the Rays could deploy him in that role given how creative the club is with its pitching options, though it probably seems more likely that Enns will work as a reliever should he crack the big league roster.
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