Detroit − Tigers president Scott Harris said on Saturday, the day he announced that he traded lefty reliever Gregory Soto to the Phillies, that he was close to signing another left-handed reliever, albeit it on a minor-league deal.
That lefty reliever, as it turns out, is 32-year-old Chasen Shreve. A one-year deal with an invitation to spring training was agreed to Monday, as first reported by Robert Murray of Fansided Sports. Shreve can earn up to $2 million if he pitches in the big leagues.
Shreve, who has pitched in parts of nine big-league seasons, broke in the with the Braves in 2014 and then spent four seasons with the Yankees. He’s also pitched for the Cardinals, Pirates and had two stints with the Mets, including a rough and abbreviated one last season.
Coming off a strong year with the Pirates in 2021 (holding hitters to a .212 batting average and posting a 3.20 ERA in 56.1 innings), Shreve allowed 19 runs (six homers) in just 26.1 innings with the Mets before being released in July.
He finished the season pitching in Triple-A for the Yankees.
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Shreve features a 90-mph four-seam fastball and a slow (83 mph) split-finger fastball. Even as he struggled last season, the splitter held hitters to a .128 average with a 47.6% swing-and-miss rate. Over his career (311 big-league innings), he’s posted a strikeout rate of 9.9 per nine innings.
He joins a growing group of lefties on minor-league deals vying to join Tyler Alexander as the second lefty in the bullpen. Among them are Jake Higginbotham, Sean Guenther, Miguel Del Pozo and Zach Logue.
The Tigers also signed a right-handed reliever to a minor-league deal on Sunday, Anuerys Zabala, who had been released by the Marlins. The 26-year-old native of the Dominican Republic made his big-league debut last season, throwing 2.2 scoreless innings.
He features a 99-mph four-seam fastball. He’s put up high strikeout and high walk rates through eight minor-league seasons.
cmccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky