The Tigers and Athletics have both announced that Detroit has claimed left-hander Easton Lucas off waivers. Lucas will be optioned to the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate in Toledo. In the corresponding move, the Tigers have also designated right-hander Ty Adcock for assignment.
It was a quick stay on the waiver wire for Lucas, as the Athletics only just designated him for assignment two days ago. The 27-year-old has only nine MLB appearances since debuting last season with Oakland, and the results have been rough even within that small sample size. Lucas has a 10.45 ERA in his 10 1/3 career innings, with an ungainly 12.1% walk rate and only a decent 22.4% strikeout rate. The A’s chose to outright Lucas after last season, and he remained in the organization after clearing waivers.
While the numbers in the Show haven’t been much to look at, Lucas does have a 4.37 ERA in 45 1/3 career frames at the Triple-A level. That ERA is quite solid considering that Lucas has spent most of that Triple-A with the Athletics’ affiliate in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, and he has been particularly impressive with a 2.87 ERA in 15 2/3 Triple-A innings in 2024. His strikeout totals since arriving in Triple-A have been below average, after Lucas recorded many more whiffs in the lower minors.
To make room for Lucas, Detroit has moved on from Adcock just a month after claiming him off waivers from the Mariners. Adcock was an eight-round pick for Seattle in the 2019 draft, and he made his MLB debut in 2023 with 15 2/3 innings of 3.45 ERA ball over 12 appearances out of the Mariners’ bullpen. Adcock has yet to allow a walk at the big league level and he had good base-on-ball numbers in the minors prior to this season, when his walk rate suddenly spiked up to 13.63% in 8 1/3 innings with the Tigers’ and Mariners’ Triple-A affiliates.
The small sample size caveat applies again, and it should be noted that this is Adcock’s first time in Triple-A, as the Mariners promoted him from Double-A Arkansas last season without the benefit of any exposure at the top of the minor league ladder. With an 8.64 ERA in Triple-A thus far, obviously Adcock has some adjustments to make, but those could possibly come in yet another organization if the righty is claimed again.