The Tigers announced this morning that they’ve given lefty Travis Wood his unconditional release. Wood, 31, had been in camp on a minor league contract trying to make the big league pitching staff, but those hopes were dashed when he suffered a torn ACL while executing a rundown in his first start of the spring.
Wood signed a two-year, $12MM deal with the Royals last offseason but struggled mightily in Kansas City and was traded to the Padres alongside Matt Strahm in the summer trade that netted the Royals Trevor Cahill, Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter. His fortunes didn’t turn in San Diego, though, and the Padres wound up releasing him this offseason despite the fact that the Royals are on the hook for the entirety of his 2018 salary. In all, Wood logged a disastrous 6.80 ERA and allowed 19 home runs in just 94 innings between the two teams in 2017.
Grisly as those numbers were, the veteran lefty logged a tidy 2.95 ERA in 61 frames in 2016, and he was a generally useful arm in a five-year stint split between the Cubs’ rotation and bullpen, working to a cumulative 3.94 ERA through 691 1/3 innings from 2012-16 — including a 200-inning campaign for the Cubs in 2013.
The ACL tear means that Wood will require surgical repair and miss the upcoming 2018 campaign, though he can likely find his way into big league camp with a club next spring once he’s recovered from the injury. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweeted recently that if and when Wood was released, Detroit could potentially re-sign him to a new minor league pact.
Hate it for Wood, go into the season fighting for a job and all the sudden you are missing the entire season.
It’s unfortunate, but he’s still getting paid. I wouldn’t feel too sorry for him, he’s better off than most.
agree to a point, but likely he doesn’t care about the money, he cares about playing ball which he will not be able to do in 2018. i still feel bad for him.
Theres 6 million reasons that says he cares.
He doesn’t have to pursue a job when he was released. He gets the $6MM either way.
Awesome the stupid argument that these players only care about money. I feel bad for him because he doesn’t get to do what he loves for a year.
He seems like a guy who wants to play, but yes the money is still nice to have coming in. I hope he returns fully healthy. He’s always been one of my favorite Cubs
Man people don’t consider players as people, you have to know that by now. It’s always what have you done for me lately and loyalty until you’re in the front office and none of that matters anymore. It’s “shut up and dribble” everywhere
I hate this argument – “oh well, he gets paid anyway.” Obviously, if any of us gets hurt doing our job we should get paid; but more importantly, Wood is 31 years old. I think any of us, regardless of how much money we have made in our lives, don’t want to be retired at 31. Theoretically Wood has 50 years of life left to go; not only does that money not roll in forever, but he has almost certainly been groomed since he was a child to do one thing – play baseball. What is he going to do for the next 50 years? The career of an always-healthy pro athlete only lasts until age-40. If you were told you could make a lot of money doing something but only until you were 40, of course you’d take advantage of every bit of it you could.
Steve, isn’t his contract being paid by the Padres or the Royals? If so, what does releasing him do to change that?
Nothing. Maybe the Tigers didn’t want to front his rehab costs? Not sure.
They still have to pay for it. If anything, it’s worker’s compensation.
Well you don’t get workmans comp or unemployment in sports. Your a contractor by definition and self employed. But yeah his contract is guaranteed so it doesn’t matter. He probably doesn’t have another option and if he was on the 60 DL is still take up space. He also have to come off. Easier to release him.
Frees up a spot
I was thinking big same, but wouldn’t he just go to 60 DL ? Or does he still take up a spot on the 40?
Good point bigjonliljon. Even if he is on tje 40 man roster if he goes to the 60 day DL it frees up a spot I believe. That plus his salary is being paid elsewhere makes it interesting.
I do believe the Tigers would be on the hook for the $575k or so league minimum though. I am not positive on that but maybe the did not want to pay that.
He’s not on their 40 man. The only spot he’s taking up was a locker in camp.
They only have to pay the pro-rated portion, meaning he only needs to be paid that when he is in the majors. On a minor league deal if he isn’t called up then it is lower.
What spot ? Minor league pact
Royals
Never the padres
Just like Kemp’s contract is being fully paid for by the doyuers
I was thinking poor guy a year without pay but then I saw that he’s getting 6.5 million from the Royal for this year. Now I’m thinking lucky guy, millions to do nothing but rehab for a year.
While the millions make it better, rehab and recovery from a torn ACL is no easy thing. On top of that, rarely do you come back the same, always in the back of your mind it might happen again.
Agreed about the torn ACL recovery being no easy feat. And I’m not comparing these two guys directly, but Marcus Stroman tore his ACL in 2015 and hasn’t skipped a beat since returning.
Yes recovering from a torn ACL is hard it took me more than a year to recover but I’m quite positive having 1 on 1 rehab with millions in your pocket makes it far easier.
Why? The pain is still there and the work is just as hard.
He is not able to do what he wants to do.
People underestimate what drives pro athletes.
The money is great, of course, but that is usually not “it”.
I mean, yeah, but if an average joe tore his acl, he probably can’t work his labor job on which he depends on for a living, if he didn’t get hurt on the job he’s paying out of pocket unless his employer has a good insurance plan. In Wood’s case, he doesn’t have to work until he’s all rehabbed, he can live his life the way he is used to until he’s healthy again, and he then will be paid millions once he is healed. Athletes are definitely people and this will affect his livelihood no doubt, he won’t be able to do what he loves, but he is in a much better position than your regular non-athlete with a torn ACL. Now he just doesn’t have the Tigers team doctors. All he has to do is hit up Joe Maddon and I’m sure the Cubs doctors will be more than happy to help him out, as well as support from many other athletes who went through the same thing. My cousin tore his achilles and all I could come up with is “dang that sucks!!” he has a support system around him who have been through similar things and millions of dollars to help him throughout.
That’s not Travis Wood in the pic is it?!
Just some fella missing a head
Word has it SD going to sign JA
This is why you never leave the Cubs