SUNDAY: Detroit has recalled righty Eduardo Jimenez from Toledo to replace VerHagen on its 25-man roster.
SATURDAY: The Tigers have designated right-hander Drew VerHagen for assignment, Jason Beck of MLB.com was among those to report. Detroit has since announced the move, adding that it will make a corresponding transaction Sunday.
The 28-year-old VerHagen has spent his entire pro career with the Tigers, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2012 draft. But VerHagen’s Tigers tenure may have ended Saturday in a 15-3 humiliation against Kansas City, which throttled him for six earned runs on five hits and three walks in just an inning of work. Even before that disastrous outing, VerHagen began the season in rough fashion. He has now allowed 10 ER on 10 hits and 10 walks, with seven strikeouts, in six frames.
Although VerHagen throws fairly hard and has induced groundballs at a 54.2 percent clip in 146 major league innings, he entered Saturday with an unimpressive 4.87 ERA/4.80 FIP and 6.9 K/9 against 3.64 BB/9 as a Tiger. While VerHagen has almost exclusively pitched as a reliever in Detroit, he has worked mostly as a starter with its Triple-A affiliate in Toledo. VerHagen has been solid in 64 appearances and 44 starts there, having pitched to a 3.89 ERA with familiar strikeout and walk rates (6.9 K/9, 3.0 BB/9) across 268 2/3 frames.
I didn’t see this coming.
Van Halen was a good group, They kind went down hill with Sammy Hager,he was better solo.
THANK GOD!!!!!
The Tigers have at least 5 guys they could DFA and they’d pass right through the league. No one would want them. It’s hard to believe guys like Gattis and Span are unemployed when Brandon Dixon and Dustin Peterson are major leaguers. Mahtook earlier. The Tigers are in a weak division and they have years to go before they are competitive. Imagine if they had tried to get a couple free agents this year… Keuchel and Grandall and then DJ at second and Moose at third. Keep Iggy and they’d have had a solid infield defense and some decent hitters. Brantley in left and they would be a first place team.
Nope… gotta get that high draft pick. Hope that works… so many times draft picks fail. It’s the international picks that makes winners.
Good thing you are a plumber & not a GM
No, just a fan who would like to see his team win. I know it sounds crazy. More koolaid?
Yes and do you want to pay for that out of your pocket. Do to the tigers trying to buy a championship under mike illicih the team had a operational loss of 20 million for a few years. They are now trying to get spending under control now.
Meadow muffins! Yes the Tigers are in a weak division. But picking up a handful of mediocre free agents is not going to make them contenders, and they are not going to sign any free agents that would cause them to forfeit a draft pick.
There will come a point where the Tigers will try to pick up a key free agent or two. That time has not yet come. Until then, they will go with a mix of mediocre players in the system and stop gap free agents.
What would you say about how the Astros built their squad? Sounds like the exact opposite as you suggest. Signing a bunch of free agents to pierce together a team is not sustainable maybe you win one year but building from the draft and taking your time while filling in with free agents once your prospects arrive
About the Astros, I wou;d say for every Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman there are at least one Brady Aiken and Mark Appel. And that’s with the Astros team leaders making the choices. The Tigers have a very suspect leadership. Also, signing those free agents would have cost the a 3rd and 4th round pick… who cares about third and fourth rounders? We would have lost Clemens and Liniak… They are barely top 20 prospects in a crappy system.
“Who cares about 3rd and 4th round picks”
Terrible mindset. You’re really telling me you’re ok with just throwing them away to come third in the division. Sure, they aren’t as a sure thing as first rounders, but you could be throwing away guys like Cody Bellinger, Edwin Diaz, Eddie Rosario, James Paxton etc. And the bigger issue is slot money. Teams have shown that they do not want to limit their pool. Gives them so much more flexibility to sign guys who likely wouldn’t have and get higher caliber talent in the later rounds.
I would gladly throw away a third and fourth round pick in order to gain two major league players right now. Players that would be your ace starter and a catcher/DH that can hit in the middle of your lineup. The division is weak right now. They have a chance to win it and anything can happen in the playoffs.
This tanking is killing the league. No one wants to see a major league team play against a bunch of AAAA players. You have the Yankees bench players beating these so called major league teams. I bet we set another record for 100 win teams this year. There are like 10 teams trying and the other teams are just hoping to get top draft picks.
Tigers 3rd and 4th round picks since 2010…
’10 Rob Brantly
’10 Cole Green
’11 Aaron Westlake
’11 Jason King
’12 Austin Schotts
’12 Verhagen
’13 Jeff Thompson
’13 Austin Kubitza
’14 Greyson Griener
’14 Adam Ravenelle
’15 Drew Smith
’15 Kade Scivique
’16 Kyle Funkhouser
’17 Joey Morgan
’17 Gio Arrieta
’18 Cody Clemens
’18 Kingston Liniak
I would trade every one of these guys for Kuechel and Grandall in a heart beat. You wouldn’t trade two of them?
Again, the more important issue is the slot money. Losing that money could be the difference between having enough cash to sign one of their top picks in recent years. Especially for a rebuilding club. If you’re a contender, it makes way more sense to give that up. Not for a team like the Tigers.
Dixon’s been fairly good in limited opportunities, and Peterson was a top-30 prospect just last year. if anyone can be easiest DFA’d, its not them.
Be patient. The Tigers have a plan. They will soon start to bring up their target IFs Willi Castro, Sergio Alcantara and Isaac Paredes; OFs Christian Stewart, Daz Cameron, Victor Reyes and Brady Pilicello; C Jake Rogers; Ps Beau Burrows, Matt Manning, Casey Mize and Alex Faedo just to name a few this season and beyond. In the mean time, we hope for other unexpected surprise players such as Jeimer Candelario, Niko Goodrum and Spencer Turnbull. Matthew Boyd has arrived, Daniel Norris has turned the corner and Michael Fullmer will return around the same time the prospects arrive.
Nicholas Catellanos and Shane Greene should fetch players to add to the mix mid season.
Its unfortunate that JaCoby Jones, Miki Mahtook and Dustin Peterson are “Great Field – No Hit” (at MLB level) OFs. They drag the whole offense down.
There are other free agent busts around MLB: Jed Lowrie, Ian Kinsler, Brian Dozier…
Only problem is that Daz is currently below Mendoza, Reyes and Rogers around .230, Paredes around .270. Even their best position prospects project as maybe average pro players. I’m a lifelong Tigers fan and a realist. Their pitching prospects are strong. Position players still weak. Hoping for a huge draft.
Plus regarding said pitching prospects, that’s all they are, including Mize. Not all will pan out, probably one or two, so thinking the Tigers have a 90s Braves type rotation coming up in 2020 or 2021 is fool’s gold.
Look at Perez. He was a top prospect when we got him from the Astros. He has been hurt ever since coming over.
My point exactly. Fulmer too. Burrows is on the IL now. He and Funkhowser weren’t doing so hot thus far in Toledo. On the other hand, I’m quite pleased with Turnbull in his small MLB sample size. (I hope I didn’t Jinx tomorrow’s start!)
There’s a quality prospect targeted for every position. This has been unseen by the organization since the 1970s. Not every prospect will be a MLBer much less an All Star but by next year, we’ll start to see the team coming together. The organization should continue to improve.
You can also take the route that there’s no hope. Its your choice.
I wouldn’t trade Brandon Dixon and Dustin Peterson for Gattis and Span. I would rather have the younger players who may surprise, than the older players whose likely have seen much better days. I seem to recall the Tigers got JDM after he was dfa’d. There were no expectations at the time. He surprised. Dixon had a nice day today, both in the field and at bat.
Brandon Dixon is good
Please get out of my VerHagen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up.
VerHagen looked like a good swingman type of guy last year.
Will be interesting to see what VerHagen does. He was DFA’d last April, so he does not have to accept the assignment. If it were me (and it is not) I would elect free agency. He has a good arm and good stuff but has never really put it together. A fresh look with a fresh team might help. Worth a shot for him.
He may do better going to another organization. He showed signs of being a good reliever last year. Some other team might make him into a solid pitcher.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but realistically, no there isn’t a quality prospect for each position……and so what if there were? Nine positions, nine prospects, probably one or two of those nine pan out. That’s not pessimistic. I do hope you’re closer to right than I am. I want to see them contend again and with their own draftees, mixed in with free agents, but Tiger fans need to take a look at the future with caution. If Avila and the Ilitch family fail at this rebuild, it could be a very long time before this team competes again.
There wasnt a quality player at every position the last time the Tiger’s did a rebuild. Yet it took them 3 three years to go from last to first. They wont have the pocket book they had last time, but the system should provide more. The Tiger’s goal isn’t to have the top rated system. It’s s to win in the Majors, sooner than later.
Now he can close for the Nats.