The Tigers announced that right-hander John Brebbia has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right triceps strain. Left-hander Bailey Horn was called up from Triple-A to take Brebbia’s spot on the active roster.
Brebbia signed a one-year free agent deal with Detroit in February that will pay him $2.75MM in guaranteed money, plus the Tigers hold a $4MM club option on his services for 2026. The first few weeks of Brebbia’s tenure in Motown were smooth sailing in terms of pure results, even if Brebbia’s 1.00 ERA over nine innings and eight appearances was undermined by some glaring peripheral statistics. Brebbia’s BABIP is a measly .143 and he has a 13.2% walk rate, so clearly some good luck was on his side in the early going.
Then again, it could be argued that Brebbia was due a change in fortune following a 2024 season that saw his 3.29 SIERA overshadowed by a 5.86 ERA in 55 1/3 combined innings with the White Sox and Braves. Brebbia struggled to a 6.29 ERA in 48 2/3 innings with Chicago before catching on with Atlanta late in the season, and posting a 2.70 ERA in 6 2/3 frames after the change of scenery.
Brebbia just pitched in yesterday’s game (a 7-3 Tigers win over the Royals), so his injury must’ve arisen in fairly quick fashion. In a microcosm of his season to date, Brebbia allowed two walks and a hit over 31 pitches yesterday but escaped his inning without allowing any runs. The scoreless inning might represent Brebbia’s last bit of action for a while, as even a minor strain likely means more than just a 15-day minimum on the injured list, and a more severe strain could cost Brebbia multiple months. The right-hander is unfortunately no stranger to long injury absences, as a Tommy John surgery cost him all of the 2020 season and most of the 2021 season, plus he had a stint on the Giants’ 60-day IL in 2023 due to a lat strain.
Beau Brieske was just placed on the Tigers’ 15-day IL yesterday due to ankle inflammation, so Detroit is suddenly down two members of its bullpen in as many days. This season’s version of “pitching chaos” has seen the Tigers unexpectedly send presumptive closer Jason Foley (who is now injured) to Triple-A to begin the season, and elevate newly-signed veteran Tommy Kahnle into the closer’s role. The results have still been there since Detroit’s 3.36 bullpen ERA is the tenth-best in the majors, though the relief corps ranks closer to the bottom of league in terms of strikeouts.
The injuries have led to Horn getting his first taste of the Show this season, and he is now lined up to make his official debut in a Tigers uniform. Horn made his overall MLB debut when he posted a 6.50 ERA across 18 innings with the Red Sox last season, and he bounced from the Sox to the Tigers to the Cardinals on waiver claims this offseason, only for Detroit to acquire him back in a trade with St. Louis last month.
They didn’t do enough in the off season and that’s why they’re still mediocre. They’ve already lost series to the Dodgers, Yankees and Brewers. I get that free agents don’t want to play there but they could have made some trades that improved their pen and infield disaster
The Tigers won 2 of 3 vs the Yankees.
That game should not have counted with the umpiring . You know this man. Stop being a homer
boo hoo
Stop being clueless, King of Crap.
They’ve won 5 of 7 series. Their pen is a strength. Yes infield isn’t great on paper but have actually played fairly well as an entire unit. What exactly is your actual complaint?
They are leading the division with Brebbia, Briske, Meadows, Vierling, Perez, Rogers and Cobb currently on IL, and a now finished IL stint for Torres plus Foley on minor league IL. That’s 9 expected contributors for 2025.
How is this not an example of organizational depth? I don’t think any team has 4 major league CF options available.
Detroit’s philosophical emphasis on positional versatility and surplus of pitching has so far weathered a storm of unusual injury luck.
Best era in the AL.
Tork has as many homers as Judge and he doesn’t get those Goldilocks baseballs.
Actually, they won that Yankees series 2-1. Almost rallied in game 3 for the sweep.
Almost…… Like they ALMOST improved their team enough to win. Thanks for proving my point fella
Using that kind of logic, they “barely” lost two of the games to the Dodgers. Do those games still count?
King of Cards. = Bitter White Sox fan. 🤣
Why are you guys responding to King.Of.The.Trolls?
Who is trolling? I’m the one who gets unfairly trolled around here dude. I’m here to talk ball and the haters just wanna hate
If you get trolled, then it seems like you deserve it based on your less than intelligent comment at the start of these comments.
I’ve been away from this site for 5-6 years. Still feeling things out to find out who are the legit fans.
Some of the names are the same, but very few.
If Brebbia, Brieske and Foley didn’t all go down at the same time, Maeda would have probably been DFA’d after last night. That was about as low-leverage as an appearance gets and he wasn’t even close to getting through that inning.
It’s also interesting that they called up Bailey Horn over Chafin.
Chafin isn’t on the 40 man-roster and had a horrible spring. I am interested in seeing what Horn can do.
Gruß,
BSHH
Point taken about Chafin not being on the 40 but I’m still surprised we didn’t put Cobb on the 60-day IL (is he even going to see the mound this year?) or DFA’d Horn again. Chafin has only had one bad outing in AAA so far. He’s looked much better since ST.
Losing Brebbia isn’t good at all. The Tigers’ bullpen is already depleted with Montero taking a spot as 6th starter and Maeda taking another one in spite of being horribly ineffective. Brebbia indeed was a success from Spring Training onwards, so I hope he comes back soon.
Gruß,
BSHH
Thank God the Tigers lost the Bregman sweepstakes ! Tork bombs are almost daily. The bad of course is the owner who sells 5 dollar dinners for the masses, has to pay 5 million a month for Maeda and Cobb, YIKES.
The Ilitch family deserves better. Obozo had eggs up to 8 dollars or more a dozen, but the Ilitch family fed Detroit daily for less, great job Little Caeseas. .
I hope this is the last year with pitchers like those two guys. Baez has looked good this year filling in at third, and the whole team is playing well. Tork should be the team MVP for the work he’s done. Wow, GO TIGERS !
Anyone who watched that game yesterday 100% knows he was pitching hurt. He did not look good out there.
True. I wonder what Maeda’s excuse was!