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Tigers Decline Anibal Sanchez’s Option, Outright Eight Players

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TODAY, 5:12pm: The Tigers have also outrighted catcher Bryan Holaday and first baseman Efren Navarro. Both are eligible to decline the assignments and instead elect free agency, though they’ll qualify for minor-league free agency in a few days regardless.

Holaday, 29, saw brief action for the Tigers this year and spent most of the season at Triple-A. He slashed .269/.325/.450 over 347 plate appearances at Toledo and will certainly land somewhere as a depth option. As for the 31-year-old Navarro, it was much the same story. He saw 557 plate appearances at Triple-A, posting a .276/.370/.395 batting line.

YESTERDAY, 9:10pm: Detroit has also placed righty Myles Jaye and lefty Kyle Ryan on outright waivers, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free-Press (via Twitter).

The 25-year-old Jaye cracked the bigs for the first time, but received a rude welcome. In 12 2/3 frames, including two starts and three relief appearances, he was tagged for 17 earned runs and managed just four strikeouts against ten walks. That said, Jaye has been a steadier option in the upper minors; in 25 starts in the Detroit system in 2017, he compiled 131 2/3 innings of 3.96 ERA ball with 7.9 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.

As for Ryan, 26, he has thrown 128 MLB innings over the past four seasons and was rather effective in 2016. But he struggled badly in just eight major league appearances in the 2017 campaign. In his 45 1/3 Triple-A frames, Ryan managed only a 4.96 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9.

1:43pm: The Tigers announced that they have formally declined their $16MM club option on right-hander Anibal Sanchez, opting instead for a $5MM buyout. Additionally, the Tigers announced that right-hander Jeff Ferrell and outfielders Tyler Collins, Jim Adduci and Alex Presley have been outrighted off the 40-man roster after clearing waivers. Each can become a free agent. Detroit also added that utilityman Andrew Romine was claimed off waivers by the Mariners, as Seattle had announced.

The 33-year-old Sanchez signed a five-year, $80MM contract with the Tigers that spanned the 2013-17 seasons and turned in a sensational campaign in the first year of that deal. In 182 innings that year, Sanchez captured the American League ERA title with a mark of 2.57, averaging 10.0 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 along the way. He finished fourth in the AL Cy Young voting and was worth roughly six wins above replacement per both fWAR and rWAR. Though he was limited to 126 innings in 2014, Sanchez was again quite good, logging a 3.43 ERA with improved control but diminished strikeouts.

Since contributing about nine wins’ worth of value in those first two seasons, though, the Sanchez contract has been regrettable for the Tigers. He’s logged a total of 415 2/3 innings in that time and surrendered 262 earned runs (5.67 ERA) on the strength of 462 hits (85 homers) and 131 walks. Sanchez still shows a penchant for missing bats (8.2 K/9 over the final three years of the deal, 8.9 K/9 in 2017), but his ground-ball rate has eroded and he’s become stunningly homer prone.

Collins, 27, showed promise back in 2015 when he hit .266/.316/.417 in 207 plate appearances as a 25-year-old, but his bat has tailed off since that time. In 2016-17, he’s managed just a .213/.291/.357 line through 320 trips to the plate. He struggled enormously in Triple-A in 2016 as well, though he bounced back with a strong .288/.358/.462 slash there in 296 PAs this season.

Presley, 32, posted a very solid .314/.354/.416 with three homers and five steals through 264 PAs. A veteran of eight big league seasons, Presley hasn’t settled in as a regular with one organization but has found his way onto a 25-man roster in each of the past eight campaigns. Since 2011, he’s averaged 211 MLB plate appearances per season and batted .263/.306/.390 in the process. He shouldn’t have much trouble finding an opportunity to head to camp and compete for a roster spot in 2018.

Adduci, also 32, returned from a strong stint in the Korea Baseball Organization this year and made his way to the Tigers’ big league roster, where he batted .241/.323/.398 in 93 PAs. Adduci has just 241 big league PAs, which have resulted in a .209/.283/.302 slash.

Ferrell will turn 27 in three weeks and just wrapped up his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. He has a career 6.53 ERA in 20 2/3 big league innings but owns strong K/BB numbers in a limited sample of 65 2/3 innings in Triple-A. Ferrell has averaged better than 93 mph on his fastball in the big leagues and otherwise relies primarily on a changeup for his secondary offering.

Tigers Activate J.D. Martinez From DL

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10:38pm: The Tigers have now announced that Martinez has been activated and that Adduci has been placed on the 10-day DL.

10:25pm: The Tigers will get one of the most productive bats in their lineup back tonight, as they’re set to activate right fielder J.D. Martinez from the disabled list, as Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Detroit had been hoping to get Martinez a few more at-bats on a minor league rehab assignment, but an oblique injury to outfielder Jim Adduci instead forced the team’s hand a bit. Aducci will head to the 10-day DL as a corresponding roster move for Martinez’s reinstatement.

As Fenech points out, it’s been seven weeks to the day since Martinez suffered a lisfranc sprain in his right foot while making a sliding catch in Spring Training. The team originally projected an absence of five weeks, but Martinez required a bit more time to work up to running the bases and playing right field on a regular basis. He played the outfield on consecutive days during his abbreviated rehab stint, however, and is seemingly able to run the bases well enough to return to the lineup. Manager Brad Ausmus told Tigers reporters that Martinez is said to “feel fine moving around,” tough he noted that there could be “some residual soreness” in Martinez’s foot.

In Martinez, the Tigers will be getting back one of the American League’s premier sluggers across the past three seasons. Released by Houston late in Spring Training 2014, Martinez blossomed after inking a minor league deal with the Tigers. Since joining Detroit, he’s mashed at a .299/.357/.540 clip and slugged 83 home runs in 401 games. All of that has positioned him quite nicely as a free agent this coming offseason. While missing the first five weeks of the year certainly doesn’t do his free-agent stock any favors, Martinez remains a candidate to sign a contract worth more than $100MM in free agency this coming winter — a notion that would’ve been unfathomable when he initially signed with Detroit.

Of course, it remains to be seen how Martinez will perform on the defensive side of the ball in 2017. While both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating pegged Martinez as an above-average defender in right field back in 2015, those same metrics characterized him as one of baseball’s worst defenders in 2016. If there are any lingering limitations on his mobility in 2017 due to the lisfranc injury, that could understandably hamper his defensive play, which could, in turn, alter his perception on the free-agent market.

It’s also worth noting that the play of both Martinez and the Tigers will be worth monitoring as trade season approaches. The 17-16 Tigers are currently just a game out of first place in the AL Central, and assuming they remain in contention, the team could be content to keep Martinez and issue him a qualifying offer at season’s end. However, if the Tigers’ team performance begins to slip, then Martinez could find himself as a trade candidate.

Speculatively speaking, the 29-year-old could even find himself on the block if the Tigers are in the Wild Card hunt but appear long shots to take home an AL Central crown. The newly restructured collective bargaining agreement drastically reduced the compensation that teams will receive when free agents that decline a QO sign elsewhere; as such, the Tigers wouldn’t even be able to pocket a first-round pick as compensation in the event of a Martinez departure.

Though Martinez has yet to suit up for even a single game with the Tigers this season, he nonetheless landed at No. 6 on the most recent edition of MLBTR’s Free Agent Power Rankings. If Martinez comes out of the gates strongly, that ranking could rise, as well, especially considering the struggles of several players that previously rated ahead of him (e.g. Jake Arrieta, Johnny Cueto, Masahiro Tanaka).

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/22/17

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Saturday’s minor moves from around baseball:

  • The Giants have outrighted catcher Tim Federowicz to Triple-A, tweets Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. The club designated Federowicz for assignment Tuesday, and he subsequently cleared waivers. San Francisco no longer had a need for Federowicz after Buster Posey returned from the seven-day concussion DL. Federowicz appeared in two games during Posey’s weeklong absence.
  • The Tigers have placed center fielder JaCoby Jones on the 10-day disabled list and selected the contract of first baseman/outfielder Jim Adduci from Triple-A Toledo. Jones took a 90 mph fastball to the mouth from Twins reliever Justin Haley on Saturday, after which he received nine stitches and underwent a CT scan, per Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. The scan ruled out a major injury for Jones, who will nonetheless miss at least a week and a half. The 24-year-old has batted a subpar .150/.244/.300 with 18 strikeouts in 45 plate appearances this season. Jones’ absence should leave center to Andrew Romine, who has fared somewhat better despite not having drawn any walks in 40 PAs (.231/.250/.410). The 31-year-old Adduci’s only big league action came as a Ranger from 2013-14, when he combined to hit .189/.259/.242 in 148 trips to the plate. Adduci owns a respectable .283/.352/.401 line in 1,203 Triple-A PAs.

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