The Tigers and right-hander A.J. Achter have agreed to a minor league contract with an invite to Major League Spring Training, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter).
Achter, a longtime Twins farmhand, will return to the American League Central after spending the 2016 season with the Angels organization. The 28-year-old made his big league debut with the Twins back in 2014 and has appeared in parts of each season since, but he received his lengthiest and most successful Major League stint with the Halos last year. In 37 2/3 innings out of the Angels’ bullpen, Achter worked to a 3.11 earned run average. Achter displayed solid control (2.9 BB/9) and posted a roughly league-average ground-ball rate, but he also showed an inability to miss bats at the Major League level. In his 37 2/3 frames, he picked up just 14 strikeouts (3.3 K/9). Achter entered the 2016 campaign with a career 9.1 K/9 rate in the minors and with 19 strikeouts in 24 1/3 Major League innings, but the extreme levels of contact against him led ERA estimators such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA to each peg him well north of 5.00.
With a career 2.79 ERA and solid K/BB numbers in Triple-A, Achter is at the very least a solid depth piece to have on hand. He’ll have a homecoming of sorts in joining the Tigers — Achter is from Ohio and went to college at Michigan State — and hope to force his way to the bullpen of a Tigers team that is attempting to trim its payroll this winter.