The Tigers have placed right-handed reliever José Cisnero on waivers, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). All 29 other clubs will have 48 hours to claim him and take on his remaining salary. If he goes unclaimed, he can reject an outright assignment to the minors in favor of free agency while retaining the remainder of his $2.3MM salary, as is his right as a player with more than five years of Major League service time. The Tigers, however, don’t have to assign him to a minor league affiliate if he goes unclaimed and can opt to keep him on the Major League roster.
Cisnero, 34, drew at least some level of deadline interest, but no deal was ever reached to send him to another club. He’s slated for free agency at season’s end and is thus a pure rental for any club that places a claim. Like the other slew of veteran players placed on outright waivers today, his waiver window will claim before the Aug. 31, 11:59pm ET deadline for postseason eligibility, making him a potentially “free” (beyond the financial cost) bullpen addition for a postseason contender.
In 48 2/3 innings this season, Cisnero is sitting on an ugly 5.36 ERA, though some of the under-the-hood numbers offer a bit more promise. He’s averaged 96 mph on his heater and fanned a quarter of his opponents against a respectable (albeit higher-than-average) 9% walk rate. Cisnero has been plagued by a lofty .343 average on balls in play despite yielding hard contact at a roughly league-average rate. Most of his struggles have been fairly recent, too. The righty touted a 2.18 ERA through the early portion of July but has been hammered for 21 earned runs in his past 15 1/3 frames.
Miserable as these past six or so weeks have been, Cisnero has a track record that a contending club might feel is worth taking a chance on. From Opening Day 2020 through early July of this year, he racked up 149 1/3 innings of 2.77 ERA ball with a 24.5% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate. He totaled 38 holds and five saves along the way, yielding just 0.60 homers per nine frames and keeping the ball on the ground at a 42.5% clip.
Waiver priority for Cisnero (and others on outright waivers) will be determined based on reverse standings. As MLBTR has reported at multiple points in the past, outright waiver priority is not league-specific (as was the case under the now-defunct revocable August trade waivers). If Cisnero is not claimed and ultimately does become a free agent, the Tigers will remain on the hook for the bulk of his salary, though he’d technically have a few hours to latch on with a new team on a free-agent deal between the point at which he clears and the end of the day Thursday. That would allow him to retain postseason eligibility for a new team.
