The Tigers have optioned right-hander Bruce Rondon to Triple-A Toledo and selected the contract of highly touted relief prospect Joe Jimenez, the team announced Monday morning. The Tigers have three open spots on the 40-man roster, there’s no corresponding move necessary to bring Jimenez to the Majors.
It’s been a brutal start to the season for the 26-year-old Rondon, who has made three appearances but recorded just four outs. Rondon has been roughed up for six runs on four hits and three walks with just one strikeout in this season’s brief sample. With Rondon in Toledo to get back on track, left-hander Justin Wilson will become the team’s primary setup option to closer Francisco Rodriguez, manager Brad Ausmus tells reporters (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Jason Beck).
Rondon has been heralded as a potential closer in Detroit, and the fanfare he’s received is understandable. Though he’s never put everything together in the Majors, the right-hander has averaged 98 mph on his fastball and punched out 10.4 hitters per nine innings pitched in his Major League career (97 1/3 innings). That said, Rondon’s brief career has been marred by inconsistency as well as a 2015 incident in which the Tigers sent him home early for the year due to his “effort level.” Last season looked to be a turning point for Rondon, as he logged a 1.80 ERA with a 33-to-9 K/BB ratio across his final 25 innings, but he’ll now again look to rediscover his top form in the minors.
As for Jimenez, the 22-year-old will head to the Majors and make his MLB debut the first time that Ausmus calls him into a game. There’s no doubt that the Puerto Rican righty earned his promotion; in 53 2/3 innings across Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A last season, Jimenez logged a ridiculous 1.51 ERA with 13.1 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 34.3 percent ground-ball rate. He rated between fourth and sixth among Tigers farmhands according to Baseball Prospectus (subscription required), MLB.com, ESPN’s Keith Law (subscription required) and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen.
Jimenez is touted as a potential closer and a definite candidate for a high-leverage relief role, thanks to a 70-grade fastball and an impressive slider. Law notes that both his command and slider took steps forward in 2016, which bodes well for his long-term outlook.
Three appearances seems like a pretty short leash. Sure, maybe relieve him of his setup duties for now, but a demotion after three appearances seems pretty drastic. Plenty of players go through slumps to start the season and power pitchers, like Rondon, take a bit to get back in the groove of finding control over their pitches. Sure, he might get more reps in aaa, but it is a pretty demoralizing thing to do to someone after three appearances.
Too bad…..this slug came into camp out of shape weighing over 300 lbs and looking awful. Fastball down to 95 mph. This is the big leagues and if you can’t pull your weight, no pun intended, then it’s next man up.
The Tigers need pitchers that can get hitters out not guys that need to find themselves. Organization has been more than patient with this guy, it’s time to cut bait.
If he lost 50 lbs he would be much better. He isn’t even overweight….He is obese. No commitment on his part at all to be in shape. It appears he lacks the drive to succeed. He is still young, we can only hope he will grow up soon and act more like a professional.
Because not being able to lose weight makes him unprofessional right?
Yes it is…..he is paid to do a job and can’t because he is over weight. Getting in shape at 26 is not overly difficult….it takes some work but not hard.
When your profession is being an athlete, yeah!
Out of shape and grossly overweight? Yes it does make him unprofessional….in every sense of the word.
absolutely it does.. Why wouldn’t it?
Are you guys really that naive to think he doesn’t put the work in to get in shape? He’s a professional athlete, he doesn’t sit around and eat cheetos on days off. Get educated
You’re equating weight gain with professionalism. That’s laughably ignorant and shortsighted
When you’re job is supposed to be a world class athlete and you look like you sit around and eat Cheetos on days off and everything else in between, that is laughable.
From yesterday’s Detroit Free Press: “In the off-season, he actually got himself in good shape,” Avila said. “Pitched a few games in getting ready for the WBC and over that period of time, gained the weight back and had those struggles.”
Sounds to me that eating Cheetos is exactly what the Tigers think he’s doing.
Dear mightyjar, That’s a lot of bait.
Sincerely, Sig Hansen
More or less demoralizing than watching him pitch?
That last game was a disaster he didn’t even record an out and probably single handedly blew the game
Rodriquez blew game 1 and the Tigers offense came back to win. his 88mph FB, without any real out pitch nowdays isn’t exactly the stuff of anything beyond a middle reliever. He isn’t a koji that can get by with a jaw dropping fork ball to go with throwing 88 tops..
Why not Alex, or Justin Wilson as closer and Rodriquez as 7-8th inning if the Tigers pen is so bad? just because rodriquez made it thru Boston for a save with a lineup missing betts/bogaerts and Ramirez all at the same time doesn’t mean he’s any better than he is.
Rondon blew game 1 too. The pitch Sandoval hit wasn’t even that bad. Rondon wouldn’t throw strikes with a huge lead
Rodriguez is fine as the closer….Rondon sucks right now.
Look at K-Rod’s numbers from last year. They are not too shabby and his fastball was the same. It didn’t seem to prevent him from doing the job. I wish the Tigers had someone better, but many teams hope for a closer that can put up those numbers. If it will make you feel better, compare his numbers to someone who throws 92 MPH.
Yes, three innings is a small sample size, but given his reputation for maturity issues, it seems fairly reasonable.
Their patience was paying dividends with his numbers down the stretch last season. Fastball speed is also another one of those things that take a while to get the feel for when you haven’t pitched in a while. Three appearances to start the season is ridiculous for someone that could play a significant role in the franchise’s future. Plus, why not let players find themselves on this team, especially the younger ones? You’re delusional if you think the Tigers are in a win now scenario.
He’s had 97+ innings to find himself. Guys been a roller coaster all 97 of them too. Let someone else try and fix him.
Given the talent and contracts on their roster, I’d argue that they are in a win now scenario. Sure, they’re unlikely to do so. They have glaring holes and did absolutely nothing to help themselves in the offseason. Avila’s comments early in the offseason suggested they were looking to rebuild, but it seems like they pivoted towards one last run with what they have. If they had a little better luck on injuries last season, they would have been a playoff team. I’m not suggesting they’re a favorite to even win their division, much less the pennant, but they’re certainly closer to the top than the bottom.
The Tigers are in a win now mode……as they should be. He came in out of shape and lazy and does not deserve to “get right” while costing his team games. Figure it out in the minors and bring somebody up that deserves it and respects being in the show.
Considering the contracts that will be ending, and the age of the key players who will be staying, you would have to be delusional to think they AREN’T in a win now scenario. Next year starts the rebuild.
Well, the Indians are a good, but thin team, so if they face suffer the injuries they did last season, the Tigers could take the division. With that said, that is a pretty narrow path for them as I think they’re a long shot to take the wild card. The point of the win now statement too is that we’re not even at game 10 into a 162 season. These aren’t dire times yet.
I see what you’re saying, but a blown hold or save in April counts as much as one in September. The Tigers missed the playoffs by 2.5 games last season. A serviceable bullpen would have put them over the top. Heck, it probably would have given Verlander the Cy Young too.
Indians thin? They make it to extras of the World Series Game 7 without Brantley all season or any production out of a catcher and had lost 3 of the 5 starters. Lindor is a year older, Gomes may be 100% and they added Encarnacion. That’s thin?
That was last year. Most teams don’t get lucky with the depth choices. Ramirez saved the season. If he played to his 2015 production, Cleveland doesn’t have the year they did. Every year teams have injuries, or players that don’t live up to expectations. What they don’t get every year is a backup/depth player who steps up like he did. Don’t count on it two years in a row..
So we should just scratch his 2016 season and count on his 2015 season but not get anything from Brantley, Gomes or even Almonte for 1/2 a season plus the playoffs? He was just 23 years old last year, so he should continue to progress. His WAR last year was 3.9 and 1.4 and 1.8 in reserve the 2 seasons before.
Didn’t he get sent home a few years ago for attitude and temper. This guy needs to get his stuff together. He is one of those guys who thinks that he is above everyone else and can do anything he wants
Rondon had a good run to end last year but still has a career 4.53 ERA. His velocity and command has been down since the start of spring training and not showing any signs of getting better, no point of keeping him up if he can’t get outs. Well-deserved demotion in my opinion.
Agreed. I’d settle for him just throwing strikes.
“Because not being able to lose weight makes him unprofessional right?” That is absolutely correct. I can actually hear him getting fatter. He’s a slob. It’s gross.
@polish hammer The Indians pitching in particular is very thin. If two of the top three of their starters go down again, they won’t get as far this time around. They were lucky they were riding a hot streak and that Francona was able to think outside of the box to get the most out of his relief corp. Tomlin and Bauer were useless in the postseason and aren’t great options in general.
Also, this bullpen goes from super bullpen to very average without Miller and there are a lot of hard miles on that arm.
As for their hitting, they can count on Lindor, Ramirez, Kipnis, and Encarnacion for consistent production. Brantley is still a question mark in regards to if he’ll return to what he was and Santana has been consistently regressing every year. The rest of the guys are below average or need platoon partners to be viable options. All in all, a really good top of the lineup, but if one or two of those guys go down for a lengthy period, they won’t do what they did last year.
ANY team losing two of their top three pitcher will have problems.
@motownjoe True, these games could effect the final outcome of their postseason aspirations, but you got to take a more longitudinal approach to baseball strategy. Think of how far back the Tigers would’ve been if they hadn’t had that production from Rondon down the stretch? Who else would’ve filled that void? Three games is just not a reasonable time frame to get back into the groove of things in baseball.
Three games PLUS spring training PLUS his weight gain since the start of spring training PLUS losing 3-4mph off his fastball PLUS his 2015 season PLUS his 2015 season ending in him being sent home for lack of effort PLUS his first half of last season. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the second half of last season was an aberration.
This was hardly a knee-jerk reaction. The Tigers have given him every opportunity to succeed. We’ve been counting on him since 2013. At some point he needs to get his act together.
You could make the same case that 2015 was a fluke off year. 2013 was a decent season statistically and he didn’t play in 2014. So he is a bust after three games this year and a bad 2015? He has had one and a half seasons of good production (2013 and half of 2016) and one and a half season of bad production (2015 and half of 2016). Also, 3-4mph off your average fastball speed to begin the season is pretty normal. Lots of pitchers start the season that far off their normal velocity and take a while to build up their arm and rediscover their mechanics after a long layoff.
I’ll concede, the weight issues is pretty troubling and perhaps there is a new attitude thing going on we don’t know about. Absent of that information, on the surface it seems like an unreasonably short leash for a guy that has shown potential to put up elite numbers.
He has a career ERA of 4.53 and WAR of around 0.5. He’s an average pitcher at best. He’s somebody we’ve had high hopes on for a long time, but delivers nothing but inconsistency and motivation issues. I’m not sure why you’re so hellbent on insisting he needs a bigger sample, other than maybe hoping he pitches against Tampa this year, but it’s clear he needs to work on his mechanics and weight right now. You can continue to debate it if you want, but the Tigers seem to agree with me, so I’m just going to stick with that for now.
Not only is the Mikie Mahtook over Alex Pressley just plain stupid, pitchers Bruce Rondon, Francisco Rodriguez, Daniel Norris, Alex Wilson and Jordan Zimmerman all had horrible Springs but headed north with the Tigers anyways. Why even have Spring Training?
I can see why Zimmerman is locked into the rotation but, Rondon, Wilson and Rodriguez should’ve been replaced by RH Sandy Baez, Buck Farmer, Joe Jiminez and LH Blaine Hardy. Even Anibal Sanchez out performed Daniel Norris and should still be in the rotation instead of Norris.
Mahtook has tools and is much better defensively than Pressley. Pressley is a journeyman AAA player. Yes, Pressley had a better spring, but we saw him last year and he was unimpressive. Mahtook is just raw. If he doesn’t work out, he still has an option.
Are you drunk? Anibal Sanchez over Daniel Norris? For a tigers Fan to say they would rather see Anibal start a game over Norris must not of watched any baseball in 2016. If cabby would of batted .150 in spring training would he get yanked to?
Whaaaat are you talking about? First off you can’t tell anything from Spring ball, especially for pitchers. A lot of pitchers use spring ball to work on weaker pitches and experiment with hitters. They might go an entire start without throwing their best pitch. With that said spring has a purpose for veterans that isn’t performance related. V Mart hit .150 in spring, Ian Kinsler hit .212 Should Omar Infante (.356 this Spring) made the team over Ian Kinsler?
The K Rod comment is what baffles me the most. You want to designate a proven closer that doesn’t have any options to bring up rookies and start their arbitration clocks earlier?! K Rod would be claimed instantly since he only has one year left. In fact I imagine if the Tigers aren’t in contention at the trade deadline they will ship K Rod with JD and JV.
A good top of the lineup, Verlander, and K-Rod on borrowed time sums up their win now plan. Unless the Indians implode with injuries, this is not any semblance of a good win now plan. This team is a hollow version of a former good team that was a bullpen short from winning it all.
@stymeedone Most teams never role with their original five throughout the season due to injuries, but have adequate depth pieces to step up. The Indians are not one of those teams, otherwise they would not have rolled with Tomlin and Bauer as the answers in the postseason last season.
Meant to say “even good teams”, not “most teams”.