The Tigers announced Thursday that they’ve claimed right-hander Devin Sweet off waivers from the Giants and opened a spot on their 40-man roster by designating infielder Tyler Nevin for assignment.
Detroit will be Sweet’s fourth organization in as many months. The right-hander went from the Mariners to the A’s in early September, from the A’s to the Giants in December and now to the Tigers — all via waiver claims. San Francisco hadn’t previously indicated that Sweet had been designated for assignment, but last week’s agreement with Jordan Hicks and acquisition of catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel pushed the team’s roster up to 41 players.
Sweet, 27, yielded 10 runs in 8 2/3 innings for the Mariners during this past season’s MLB debut. His minor league track record is far more impressive, however. In 44 innings between the Double-A and Triple-A levels this past season, the formerly undrafted free agent notched a pristine 2.25 ERA with a 32.6% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate. Sweet isn’t a flamethrower — he averaged 93 mph on his heater with Seattle — but has consistently missed bats and avoided walks as a professional. In five minor league seasons, he’s whiffed 29% of his opponents against a 7% walk rate. He has a pair of minor league options remaining, too, which could make him a valuable and flexible relief option for the Tigers if he can stick on their 40-man roster.
As for Nevin, he’ll lose his hold on a 40-man roster spot after a season that saw him bat just .200/.306/.316 through 111 trips to the plate. The son of former MLB All-Star and Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Tyler has appeared in three MLB seasons and thus far managed only a .203/.310/.301 batting line. The Rockies originally selected Nevin 38th overall in 2015, and he’s posted a solid .276/.355/.464 slash in 242 games at the Triple-A level. That includes a huge .326/.400/.543 slash (136 wRC+) in 385 Triple-A plate appearances this past season.
Nevin has experience at all four corner positions, with the bulk of his big league time coming at the hot corner. He’s out of minor league options, so any team that wants to bet on his pedigree and solid Triple-A performance will have to carry him on the 40-man roster or expose him to waivers before he can be sent down to the minors. The Tigers will have a week to trade Nevin or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.
This really moves the needle…..
Yeah, more table scraps.
Let’s get a hitter, need one more in the middle of the lineup.
Primed for a World Series title by 2026 at the latest.
“Forever Giant” Devin Sweet
Devin Sweet sounds like a character from “Gidget”.
Devin for Nevin,he must be in heaven
Wearing number seven.
Another Zaidi dumpster dive removed from 40-man roster. Guess Zaidi called Harris & asked him to take Sweet.
Is Nevin gone for good this time?
Watch if he doesn’t make it through waivers and end up coming up from AAA to torture us through the year.
Happens all the time.
Harris is a master of manipulating the bottom of a roster. Too bad he has done nothing to the top of it.
If it were me… I would sign Matt Chapman for 3B. Tigers have no one in the organization that can play defense at 3B like him. They can have Keith and Jung battlefor 2B or LF or whatever.
Sign Urias as a number 4 starter.
Sign Matt Moore as a lefty setup guy.
This makes the bottom of the roster stronger because it gets rid of guys like Sweet, Diaz and Brendan White
Great idea. Between Chapman and Javy Baez they can have two strong defenders hitting .210-.225, striking out 25-30% of the time, and collecting $18 mill. each. Hard pass.
That would be an improvement over what they’ve had since Candelario left. Solid defense goes a long ways. 20+ homers… Chapman could be the first or third best hitter in the lineup.
Harris though Maton was the answer… Lol. What a clown.
Some Tiger fans felt Nevin was the answer.
Remember when the Tigers had major league players and played in the playoffs? Those were the days
There is a reason the Tigers moved Keith off 3b. Jung was a guy who had no position… They tried him at 2b… Now they think he can play third?
Keith got hurt. Jung supposedly was not bad at 3rd. Chapman is a disaster waiting to happen on offense.
Jung was supposedly a guy with no position and now he’s a 3b? Doesn’t make sense. Sounds like Harris is looking to build value and then deal him.
Chapman is a disaster waiting to happen? Maybe in 5 years from now. Solid defense like that doesn’t disappear. Longoria… Schmidt… Robinson… Brett… All played 3b into their upper mid 30’s.
.240/.330/ .460 and gold glove defense? Played 140 games a year for 5 years. 20+ homers a year.
Melchez…if they can find someone to play 3b I’d be good with them trading Jung to fill a need. I’d prefer they wait and grab Bergman next year, than sign Chapman. No question on Chapman’s defense but his offense puts me in kind of Baez like another poster mentioned.
Bergman would be a better option… even though we all know that won’t happen. I wouldn’t mind a Nolan Gorman trade or maybe one of the many young Reds 3B’s… but we know that won’t happen. Chapman would be good… we know that won’t happen.
With Harris in charge… expect rehashed old veterans and aging AAAA players to fill out this roster.
Kieth is a 3B and Jung a 2B. However, Kieth hurt his arm but is hitting well and the two will swap positrons. I prefer Jung remain at 2B. The Tigers have too many poor fielders.
I’d take a shot at Chapman only if he wants a make good, one year with an option contract. Wouldn’t touch a 5 year contract.
I’m hoping Keith’s arm heals and gets better, and he takes 3B and runs with it. The long shot is Vierling hits and fields well enough to fill the spot. The reality says its a platoon of McKinstry/Vierling at 3B, and a platoon of Keith/Ibanez at 2B. This team needs a power RH bat desperately, but instead they got Canha. Not a bad player, but not what they needed.
Hard no on Urias and they will never sign him anyway. Having the record for most domestic violence investigations is not a record a club wants to contend with. Hope the kid sorts his issues out, just not in Detroit.
Urias would be an inexpensive deal for a very solid starter. Give the guy a chance. He’s very young… 27. He made a mistake… Move on. No charges were filed… Who knows what happened?
He is currently ineligible to be signed by any team. Once his legal issues are fully resolved (and they have not been yet) he will doubtless be subject to a lengthy suspension. Some team might take a chance on him after he’s served it, but only if they are convinced that he’s committed to not becoming a three time loser.
He can’t serve a suspension until some team takes a chance on him.
Sure he can. A suspension can be imposed retroactively covering the last month of his contract with the Dodgers (though I don’t know if they could claw back the money) and he’d remain ineligible to sign a new contract until the balance of the suspension is served. If nobody wants to take a chance on him after that then the second part of the suspension is kind of theoretical, but he’d be considered ineligible during that time just the same.
I here what your saying..but Harris and Chris Illitch are cheap…They are planning on Jung at 3rd next year..and Keith at 2nd around June this year…Urius and Moore are low end guys now…Tigers are probably done looking at pitching for other then a cheap bullpen piece in mid February…
But Tigers need a veteran bat somewhere in this lineup big-time someone on a 1or2 year deal
I know they won’t do anything like this. Jung and Keith aren’t going to be stars right out of the gate. It took Tork and Greene a couple years to get into the swing of things and they were pretty much set into their defensive positions early.
I’m a huge Tiger fan… I lived through ’75 and 2003… I will make it through Harris’s mess.
The Tigers are supposedly building their MiLB system but I don’t see any type of player they are targeting or position player stability. I think we’re waiting a lot longer.
Devin Sweet’s MiLB numbers are not very good.
Garry…They are targeting players on offence who can hit and get on base for their Milb squads. Harris has been saying that from the start and doing it. He traded for Malloy, drafted players who fit this profile (Clark, McGonigle) and even grabbed players like Nevin who have great Milb numbers. Likewise there is a type of arm they are looking for it seems. They need to improve their catching and shortstop depth for sure but I really like what he has done on this end. I don’t love every move he’s made on the MLB team and some moves have outright sucked, but get building depth in their milb teams.
Oh, OK.
Jung hasn’t performed at the minor league level. He needs another year, at least. Keith should make opening day with a good spring.
At first glance, I like that swap for the Tigers. Nevin has had quite some MLB ABs, wasn’t able to hit well, doesn’t bring to much value with his defense and was out of options. Sweet only had a short – albeit bad – MLB stint, looked good in AAA action and does have two options remaining. Unless he gets stretched out, he will face very tough competition for bullpen spots this year though.
Gruß,
BSHH
Harris learned about manipulating the bottom of the roster from the best of them (Zaidi). Maybe someday both will learn to manage the top of the roster.
That would require an owner that cares about winning.
See, I told you they could make room on the 40 man roster.
It’s amazing how right the Superfife always was. Wow.
Cool. Can he hit or play 3B ?
I’d like to see Nevin go to the Rockies as a bench option simply because I was looking forward to seeing him play after he was drafted.
Tyler Nevin and Kody Clemens battle it out every year for the dope-faced nepo baby of roid heads award. And they both always seem to win.
LOL. Giants need 3b help. Zaidi will pick Niven up this week.
Very doubtful. The Giants don’t need 3B help, at least not that badly. An upgrade is always welcome, but between Davis, Villar, Wisely, Fitzgerald, and Schmitt, all of them probably a better option than Nevin, why would he?
Interesting move. Could be great, but don’t really think it moves the needle. I probably would’ve given Nevin 50 more ABs in April/May and see if he performed. It looked like maybe he had it figured out finally the last couple months of the season last year. His sept/oct he hit .280 with a 141 WRC+….pretty salty. I’m sure most were off lefty’s but that def plays.
Regarding Jung, Keith, and Malloy debate. I havent seen them but my guys i trust that have say none can play defense at all. They say Keith is a legit player but just below avg defender and athlete. Malloy can’t hit the first baseman regularly with throws, but they say Keith is better than him defensively.
Regarding Jung, did anyone see the clip of him playing 3rd at the AFL…..he literally threw the ball like a girl to 1st base. It looked bad bad.
Wished i could find it again…..If you haven’t seen it try to go find it. Think i had seen it on twitter. I’d flip him and Malloy for a legit SS prospect right now before they debut.
Steve Adams is still clueless about commas. “Too” never needs a comma after it. That is an archaic rule.
But it is a rule.
Not anymore. Did you know that some rules are no longer in effect?
I don’t understand criticizing this move. Harris is simply upgrading the #40 spot on the roster. Nevin is useless.
I can’t wait to see Chapman’s numbers at the end of the season. To add him or Justin Turner would just be throwing away money for the sake of trying to fix 3B for one season. Then you’re stuck with him beyond next year.
I am hoping the plan is go for Alex Bregman next offseason. Now THAT would be a legitimate investment.. I can live with Vierling & Ibanez & McInstry handling 3B for one year.
I am optimistic about Colt Keith. His injury takes him off 3B, but he should be able to handle 2B adequately. I think the measured moves by Harris is wise. People need to also remember: THIS IS ONLY HIS 2ND YEAR!
I’m with you. Unless they are getting a young guy like Gorman, Miguel Vargas or one of Cincy or Baltimore’s young bats shoot for Bregman next year. Vierling, McKinistry and Ibanez are not starters but maybe collectively they can fill in for one year. I was quite happy with Ibabez’s production but ges more of a 2B. It will he the weakest spot in the lineup…oh, wait they still have Baez 😉 Jung can be used in a trade to fill other needs (young SS or C) or if they get Bregman or a young player, transition Keith to OF like they have talked about previously and put Jung at 2B next year if he’s ready. McGonigle may be the long term answer there.
SS especially is a big issue with the incumbent Baez not inspiring much confidence and no obvious replacement in the system (Cincinnati has a nice grab bag of SS to choose from). It’s a “show me” year for Rogers and Dingler. I would love it if they went out and grabbed a catching prospect like Parada as insurance and depth.
I like the depth they are building in the minors to add to what was already there. People will argue about taking Clark vs Langford in the draft last year forever, but the later picks were gold, especially McGonigle. Now they just need to show they can add more missing pieces on offense to the major league roster to compliment that and limit the screwups (Rodriguez trade). Overall things are definitely trending upwards.
Turner is no longer an option for anything but rare 3B duty. But I would happily plug him into the Tigers DH spot.