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Keider Montero

Tigers Promote Chase Lee For MLB Debut

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The Tigers announced that right-hander Chase Lee has been recalled to the major league roster. He was already on the 40-man but is still looking for his major league debut. Righty Keider Montero was optioned as the corresponding move.

Lee, 26, was a sixth-round pick of the Rangers in 2021. He was flipped to the Tigers as part of the deal sending lefty Andrew Chafin to Texas in July of last year. The Tigers added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

He isn’t a power arm but throws hitters off with his sidewinding delivery, which allows him to succeed even though his fastball tops out around 90 miles per hour. Overall, he has 182 minor league innings on his track record thus far with a 3.86 earned run average. He has struck out 31.4% of opponents while issuing walks at a reasonable 8.1% clip and getting grounders on roughly half the balls in play he’s allowed.

The Tigers had recently recalled Montero to make a couple of spot starts, thus giving the other members of their rotation a breather. Brenan Hanifee had been optioned out, leaving the club with a slightly shorter bullpen for a few days. (Hanifee was later recalled when Beau Brieske landed on the IL.) Lee’s recall will get things back to the standard five/eight ratio of starters to relievers.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

The Tigers’ Rotation Camp Battle

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The Tigers expected to enter Spring Training with four rotation spots secured. Jack Flaherty’s surprisingly quiet market allowed Detroit to reinstall him as the #2 starter behind Tarik Skubal. Righty Reese Olson filled that role down the stretch last year after the Tigers traded Flaherty to Los Angeles. Free agent signee Alex Cobb would’ve had a mid-rotation role in his own right.

It didn’t take long for an injury to intervene. Cobb is battling inflammation in his right hip, which is likely to lead to a season-opening injured list stint. It’s an alarming start to his Detroit tenure, as the veteran righty missed a good portion of last year rehabbing a 2023 labrum repair in his opposite hip.

What had been a camp battle for one spot expands to a competition for two vacancies. Detroit has a handful of recognizable names — including a few one-time top prospects who are still looking to establish themselves — in the mix for those jobs behind the Skubal/Flaherty/Olson top three.

Jackson Jobe

Aside from Roki Sasaki, the 22-year-old Jobe may currently be the sport’s most talented pitching prospect. Baseball America, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, and MLB Pipeline each placed him as their #2 pitching prospect. Keith Law of The Athletic ranks Jobe as the #1 pitching prospect — Law excluded Sasaki from his ranking based on the latter’s NPB experience — while Eric Longehagen of FanGraphs had Jobe behind Sasaki and Andrew Painter.

Evaluators agree that Jobe has top-of-the-rotation ceiling. He’s the most exciting player in this group, but he’s far from a lock to break camp. The 6’2″ righty’s MLB experience consists of four relief appearances — two apiece in the regular season and playoffs — last fall. He has started all of two Triple-A games.

Jobe spent most of last season at Double-A Erie, where he turned in a 2.36 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate but walked nearly 13% of opposing hitters. He missed two months because of a hamstring strain. Last year’s 91 2/3 innings nevertheless represented the most he’s thrown in a professional season. Even if he breaks camp, he’s unlikely to make 30+ starts and top 150 innings. The Tigers surely don’t want to burn him out early in the year. Jobe still has a full slate of options and could begin the year with Triple-A Toledo.

Casey Mize

The first overall pick in 2018, Mize is now a few seasons removed from being one of the game’s top pitching prospects. The 27-year-old’s body of work has been decent but underwhelming relative to expectations. Mize pitched to a 3.71 ERA over 30 starts in 2021, his first full season. Tommy John surgery essentially cost him the next two years. The Auburn product returned to action with a 4.49 ERA across 102 1/3 frames last year. He showed plus control and got a lot of ground-balls but managed only a 17.3% strikeout rate.

Mize hasn’t missed many bats and gave up a lot of hard contact last season. He’s still sitting in the 95-96 MPH range with his fastball, but none of his top four offerings (four-seam, slider, splitter, sinker) got especially strong results last year. It looks like he’s trending towards a fifth/sixth starter role. Mize still has a full slate of options, but he’s 61 days away from reaching five years of service time. At that point, he cannot be sent to the minors without his approval. He’s making $2.34MM and under arbitration control for another year beyond this one.

Kenta Maeda

The Tigers inked Maeda to a two-year, $24MM free agent deal last winter. It looked like a good value at the time, but the veteran righty had a terrible first season in the Motor City. Maeda allowed more than six earned runs per nine across 112 1/3 innings. He struck out just 19.8% of batters faced, a huge drop from the 27.3% mark he’d posted during his final season with the Twins. His home run rate climbed for the fourth consecutive season.

Maeda lost his rotation spot last July. He worked in long relief until the final weekend of the season, when he picked up a spot start after Detroit had punched its postseason ticket. Detroit left him off their playoff rosters. While Maeda was essentially a non-factor by season’s end, president of baseball operations Scott Harris said early in the offseason that the Tigers would give him another chance to earn a rotation spot out of camp. The Tigers kept him on the roster all offseason, suggesting they’re still holding out some hope that they’ll get something positive from what’ll be a $10MM investment this year. Maeda can’t be sent to the minors, so if he doesn’t win a rotation spot, he’ll either head back to long relief or be a release candidate.

Brant Hurter

A seventh-round pick in 2021, Hurter made his MLB debut last August. The 6’6″ lefty came out of the bullpen for all but one of his 10 appearances. He averaged 4.5 innings per appearance, though, so he was more or less operating as a bulk arm who generally followed an opener. Hurter had a strong debut, pitching to a 2.58 earned run average through 45 1/3 frames. He struck out 21.7% of batters faced against a 3.4% walk rate while getting grounders at an excellent 53.1% clip.

Hurter leans most heavily on a sinker that sits in the 92 MPH range. That pitch gets a lot of grounders but rarely misses bats. He showed more swing-and-miss potential with a low-80s breaking ball. Hurter recorded a lot of strikeouts up through Double-A. Hitters started putting the ball in play much more frequently at the top minor league level. There’s volatility with that approach, which is demonstrated by the 5.80 ERA which Hurter posted across 19 Triple-A appearances (18 starts). The Tigers could have some questions about how his arsenal would play against right-handed hitters, in particular, if he works as a traditional starter.

Keider Montero

Detroit added Montero to their 40-man roster during the 2023-24 offseason. They called him up for the first time late last May. The 24-year-old righty took the ball 19 times (including 16 starts) and worked 98 1/3 innings of 4.76 ERA ball as a rookie. The underlying marks weren’t great. His 18.7% strikeout rate and 9.4% swinging strike percentage were each a few points below average. He surrendered more than 1.7 home runs per nine innings. Montero’s 7.5% walk rate was fine and his fastball sat in the 94-95 MPH range, but his rookie year was mostly a struggle.

Montero has missed more bats in his minor league career, albeit with shakier control than he showed in his MLB action. He struck out 24.1% of opponents across 13 Triple-A starts. A walk rate north of 13% contributed to an unimpressive 5.03 ERA over 48 1/3 frames. Montero still has two option years and can bounce between Detroit and Toledo. While he has been a starter throughout his professional career, perhaps there’d be some intrigue in seeing how his stuff plays in a relief role.

Matt Manning

Manning, 27, is another former top 10 pick and top prospect in this mix. The 6’6″ righty has made 50 career starts over the past four seasons. He carries a 4.43 ERA across 254 innings. As with Mize, he has shown decent control but struggled to miss bats (16.4% strikeout rate). Manning fell fairly far down the depth chart last season. He only made five major league appearances while taking the ball 15 times for Toledo. He posted a 4.28 ERA while striking out a quarter of batters faced over 69 1/3 minor league innings. He battled a lat injury in the second half and was sidelined from around the All-Star Break until the middle of September.

This will be Manning’s final option year if he spends at least 20 days in the minors. He’s on track to qualify for arbitration next winter. It’s approaching make-or-break territory if he’s going to carve out a significant role in Detroit.

Ty Madden

Madden reached the majors for the first time last August. The Texas product had a limited role as a rookie. He pitched to a 4.30 earned run average with a 16.8% strikeout rate across 23 innings. Madden missed a lot more bats in the minors, where he punched out 28.3% of opposing hitters over 22 starts. That was about the only positive from his minor league numbers, though. Madden allowed nearly seven earned runs per nine. He gave up way too many home runs and walked nearly 10% of batters faced.

Baseball America ranked Madden as the #18 prospect in the Detroit system this winter. The outlet writes that his four-pitch mix and command are fringy. The stuff has been good enough to get whiffs against minor league hitters, but he’s probably ticketed for Triple-A to begin the season.

Division Series Roster Notes: Padres, Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, Tigers

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We’ve already covered some notable roster additions for the Guardians and Mets as the Division Series begins, and the Royals are sticking with the same 26 players used in the Wild Card Series against the Orioles.  Now that all eight teams in the LDS rounds have revealed their rosters, here are the details…

  • The Padres made two changes from their NLDS roster, adding left-hander Martin Perez and right-hander Alek Jacob and removing Joe Musgrove and infielder Nick Ahmed.  Musgrove was obviously out due to his impending Tommy John surgery, while replacing Ahmed with a pitcher gives San Diego 13 pitchers to go with 13 position players.  Perez is one of five southpaws on San Diego’s roster, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (X link) was among those who noted that the Padres are guarding themselves as best they can against Shohei Ohtani and other powerful left-handed Dodgers bats.
  • The Dodgers will go with an even mix of 13 batters and 13 pitchers, and rookie Edgardo Henriquez has made the list of available arms.  Henriquez only made his MLB debut on September 24 and he has played in just three games as a big leaguer, but Los Angeles will give the hard-throwing righty a look in October to add some velocity to the bullpen.  It’s probably safe to assume that Henriquez wouldn’t have made the cut if the Dodgers weren’t ravaged by pitching injuries, yet the rookie also got the nod over veteran Joe Kelly, who had an inconsistent year but was pitching well after returning from the IL in mid-September.  On the position player side, L.A. didn’t include either Kevin Kiermaier or James Outman, so Andy Pages will be the only true backup outfielder along with utilitymen Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor in the bench mix.
  • The Phillies will use 14 position players and 12 pitchers in their NLDS matchup with the Mets, with left-hander Kolby Allard joining the relief corps.  Allard has worked as something of a swingman throughout his career, and this ability of covering multiple innings earned Allard the spot, as manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com’s Paul Casella and other reporters.  “He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game….so I just wanted as much length as we could get,” Thomson said.  Utilityman Weston Wilson also got the Phils’ last bench spot, as Casella observes that Wilson brings more positional versatility than outfielder Cal Stevenson.
  • The Yankees went heavier on position players (15) than pitchers (11) for their ALDS roster against the Royals.  Anthony Rizzo is missing the series due to two broken fingers and DJ LeMahieu wasn’t yet activated from the injured list, but New York still has plenty of room on its bench, including pinch-running specialist Duke Ellis.  The Yankees appear to be loading up on bats to take on the Royals’ tough rotation and more porous bullpen, which left right-hander Marcus Stroman off the ALDS roster as the odd man out of the starting staff.
  • The Tigers made just one change from their Wild Card Series roster, as rookie righty Keider Montero has been included in place of Casey Mize.  Montero posted a 4.76 ERA over 98 1/3 innings in his first Major League season, starting 16 of 19 games.  This doesn’t necessarily mean Montero will start against the Guardians in the ALDS, however, as Detroit’s pitching staff (apart from ace Tarik Skubal) is very malleable in terms of specific roles.

Tigers Skipping Jack Flaherty’s Start Due To Back Discomfort

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The Tigers scratched Jack Flaherty from tomorrow’s scheduled start against the Twins. The right-hander remained in Los Angeles after his start against the Angels last Thursday to receive an injection to treat back soreness, writes Chris McCosky of the Detroit News.

For the moment, it doesn’t seem the situation is concerning. Manager A.J. Hinch told the Detroit beat on Tuesday afternoon that the team remains confident he’ll avoid the injured list (relayed on X by Cody Stavenhagen of the Athletic). McCosky reports that the Tigers are targeting next week’s home series against the Guardians for Flaherty to take the ball.

A team skipping a pitcher’s start to treat a minor back issue wouldn’t ordinarily be noteworthy. Yet Flaherty’s health is of utmost importance with less than a month before the trade deadline. Detroit lost on Tuesday to fall nine games below .500. They’re all but assured of going into deadline season as at least soft sellers. It stands to reason they’ll be reluctant to move players whom they have under control for multiple years. They should deal their most appealing impending free agents. Flaherty tops the list.

Detroit’s decision to sign Flaherty to a one-year, $14MM pillow contract was one of the best moves of the 2023-24 offseason. Despite a rocky outing in his most recent appearance, he carries a 3.24 ERA over 15 starts. Flaherty has punched out 33% of batters faced behind an excellent 14.2% swinging strike rate. He has walked a career-low 4% of opposing hitters. He should get his first All-Star nod this summer.

Assuming he’s healthy, Flaherty figures to find himself in plenty of trade rumors coming out of the Midsummer Classic. He’ll almost certainly be the best rental starting pitcher on the market. MLBTR slotted Flaherty as the #3 pitcher on our ranking of the upcoming free agent class last week. The players above him, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, aren’t getting traded.

Beyond Flaherty, the rental rotation market could include the likes of Yusei Kikuchi, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Frankie Montas. As the best impending free agent starter available, Flaherty could net the Tigers a prospect package headlined by a borderline Top 100 caliber talent. If they don’t trade him, Detroit could make him a qualifying offer at the end of the season. Assuming Flaherty signed elsewhere for at least $50MM, the Tigers would get a pick after the first round in the 2025 draft. Detroit should nevertheless find a prospect package within the next few weeks that they consider more valuable than the draft choice.

Keider Montero will get the ball tomorrow in Flaherty’s absence. As first reported by Jason Beck of MLB.com (on X), Detroit is recalling the rookie righty less than a week after optioning him. That’s only permissible if Montero is replacing a player on the roster who is headed to the injured list. That won’t be Flaherty but right-hander Casey Mize, who is ticketed for the 15-day IL after suffering a left hamstring strain in his start on Sunday. The former first overall pick owns a 4.23 ERA despite a modest 16.8% strikeout rate over 16 starts in his return from Tommy John surgery.

Tigers Place Kerry Carpenter On Injured List, Call Up Keider Montero For MLB Debut

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The Tigers have placed outfielder Kerry Carpenter on the 10-day injured list due to a lower back injury and recalled right-hander Keider Montero as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Pirates, per a team announcement. (Montero’s promotion was first reported on X by Tigers Torkmoil.) Outfielder Akil Baddoo was recalled from Triple-A Toledo to take Carpenter’s spot on the roster. Montero will start Game 2 of today’s twin bill.

Carpenter tells the Tigers beat that he began experiencing back discomfort over the weekend and hasn’t seen improvement yet (X link via Jason Beck of MLB.com). The team is terming his injury “lumbar spine inflammation.” He last played in a game on May 26, so the IL placement is backdated to May 27. If it proves to be a minor issue, he’ll be eligible for a return eight days from now, though the Tigers haven’t given any indication as to how long he might miss.

Subtracting the 26-year-old Carpenter from the Detroit lineup is a significant blow. He’s not as well known as more hyped prospects like outfield-mate Riley Greene, but Carpenter has burst onto the big league scene and cemented himself as a middle-of-the-order presence. Dating back to his 2022 debut, Carpenter has turned in a stout .275/.336/.495 batting line — including a huge .283/.345/.572 slash and eight homers in 163 plate appearances this season. He’s generally struggled against left-handed opponents but has tormented righties with a career .288/.345/.535 output.

With Carpenter sidelined, the Tigers will give more playing time to lefty-swinging Zach McKinstry and to Baddoo against right-handed opponents. Neither should be expected to replicate Carpenter’s production, but Baddoo was hitting a strong .260/.368/.486 in Toledo (119 wRC+) and is a career .237/.322/.406 hitter against righties in the big leagues.

As for the 23-year-old Montero, this will be his first major league call. He signed with Detroit out of Venezuela in 2016 and was added to the 40-man roster last offseason to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency. Montero spent a half decade in the low minors before breaking into the upper levels last season, climbing from High-A to Triple-A by year’s end.

Monerto took the ball 27 times and logged 127 1/3 innings. A pedestrian 4.66 ERA belied a more impressive 29.1% strikeout rate. The Tigers were concerned enough about losing him in the Rule 5 draft to put him on the 40-man roster. Baseball America ranked him as the organization’s #13 prospect over the winter, crediting him with good control and an arsenal headlined by a mid-90s fastball.

Montero has spent the season on optional assignment to Triple-A Toledo. Over nine starts, he has a 4.40 ERA. The 6’1″ righty has fanned almost 27% of batters faced while issuing walks at an uncharacteristically high 12.7% clip. Montero last pitched on May 21 and was slated to take the ball for Toledo on Tuesday. The Tigers scratched him from the scheduled appearance after their game was postponed, when they needed to add another arm for the doubleheader.

In all likelihood, they’ll return Montero to Triple-A after his debut. They’re set in the rotation at the moment with Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Kenta Maeda and Casey Mize. Righty Matt Manning has been the team’s sixth starter and still figures to be above Montero on the depth chart. It’s nevertheless a momentous occasion for Montero, whose spot on the 40-man could get him a few looks over the course of the season if injuries or the schedule force Detroit to lean on their depth.

Tigers Exercise Club Options On Carson Kelly, Mark Canha; Designate Tyler Alexander For Assignment

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The Tigers announced a flurry of roster moves this afternoon. Chief among those was the team’s decision to exercise their 2024 club options on catcher Carson Kelly and outfielder Mark Canha. In addition, the club designated left-hander Tyler Alexander for assignment, assigned left-hander Andrew Vasquez and right-hander Trey Wingenter outright to Triple-A, and selected the contract of right-hander Keider Montero. There had been no prior indication that Vasquez or Wingenter had been on waivers, but each of them now figures to have the opportunity to become a minor league free agent.

In addition, the Tigers activated Alexander, outfielders Austin Meadows and Riley Greene, as well as right-handers Casey Mize and Freddy Pacheco from the 60-day IL.

It comes as no surprise that the Tigers exercised their $11.5MM option for Canha after they dealt for the veteran outfielder on Saturday. Given the $2MM buyout on his contract, it wouldn’t have made any sense for Detroit to trade for Canha (and give up 25-year-old righty Blake Holub) only to part ways with him two days later. He figures to play an important role in the team’s offense next season, presumably splitting his time between the corner outfield and DH.

As for Kelly, the Tigers were expected to pick up his $3.5MM option for 2024. At his end-of-season press conference, president of baseball operations Scott Harris said the team was seriously considering keeping the backstop in the fold. The team already has a starting catcher in place, 28-year-old Jake Rogers, so Kelly can serve as a capable defensive backup, with the potential to be a little bit more – the former top prospect is only two years removed from an above-average season at the plate. For $3.5MM, the Tigers weren’t going to find much more than that.

Alexander, 29, made 25 appearances for the Tigers in 2023, his first full season as a reliever. He pitched to a 4.50 ERA and a career-best 3.48 SIERA in 44 innings of work. Unfortunately, his solid season came to an early end when he landed on the IL with a shoulder strain in July.

Vasquez spent the first four months of the season with the Phillies, with whom he posted an impressive 2.27 ERA but less promising underlying numbers. He was designated for assignment shortly after the trade deadline, and the Tigers scooped him up. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the same success in Detroit. Across 12 appearances, he gave up nine runs (eight earned) in just 8 2/3 innings of work. He missed most of September with a calf injury, although he made two scoreless appearances at the end of the month.

After spending most of the first half on the injured list, Wingenter made 17 appearances for the Tigers in 2023, his first big league action since 2019. His 5.82 ERA was troublesome, but his underlying metrics were actually quite encouraging: a 3.43 SIERA, a 3.87 xERA, and a much-improved 3.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Then again, he produced those numbers in mostly low-leverage spots, and apparently, the Tigers weren’t impressed enough with what they saw to keep Wingenter on the 40-man roster.

After seven years in Detroit’s minor league system, Montero would have been eligible to elect minor league free agency had the Tigers not added him to the 40-man roster this afternoon. He is coming off a difficult couple of months at Triple-A, but he is still just 23 years old, and evidently, the Tigers like what they have seen enough to keep him around. According to MLB Pipeline, he is the No. 26 prospect in the Tigers system.

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