Detroit Free Press

A well-respected backup catcher in Triple-A Sacramento was paying close attention when Scott Harris left the San Francisco Giants and joined the Detroit Tigers in September as president of baseball operations. “I thought Detroit would be a good fit for me,” the catcher said. Two months earlier, Harris signed switch-hitting catcher Andrew Knapp to a minor-league

The Detroit Tigers will be represented by eight players in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The official rosters for the fifth-ever international baseball tournament were released Thursday night. The WBC should have taken place in 2021, but it was canceled and rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This time around, the tournament has been expanded

The Detroit Tigers can’t wait to evaluate Andy Ibáñez. After all, the 29-year-old served as the Opening Day third baseman for the Texas Rangers last season. He isn’t a member of the Tigers’ 40-man roster but received a non-roster invitation to spring training. He might be the most underrated position player in camp. Ibáñez, who

Former Los Angeles Dodgers prospect DJ Peters, a right-handed hitting outfielder, is staying in the United States after playing the majority of last season in the Korean Baseball Organization. The 27-year-old recently signed a minor-league contract with the Detroit Tigers. He did not receive a non-roster invitation to MLB spring training, according to a source

The Detroit Tigers were strategically late to the party. Left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve, a nine-year MLB veteran, had a few teams on his radar when the Tigers finally expressed interest in early January. He put the Tigers at the top of his wish list when the offseason began, so they were the frontrunners all along.

Four years ago, right-handed reliever Trey Wingenter had his two pitches working. He looked nasty in the 2019 season. His fastball sat in the upper-90s, and his slider generated misses on nearly 50% of swings. He primarily pitched the seventh and eighth innings for the San Diego Padres and put himself on the map as

Sometimes, a change of scenery is necessary. Mario Feliciano, a former offense-first catching prospect with the Milwaukee Brewers, would agree. Selected No. 75 overall in the 2016 draft, he won the High-A Carolina League MVP in 2019 and reached his peak as the Brewers’ No. 3 prospect in 2020. He still had a long way

It’s a lesson learned from his father. Colt Keith tries to simplify everything about his game. Troy wrestled in college and summed up the family sport for his son in one sentence: “If you want to take somebody down, just pick them up and put them on the ground.” The mentality — don’t think, just do

It’s been a long five years for Franklin Perez. Perez, the centerpiece of the Detroit Tigers‘ three-player return from the Houston Astros in the 2017 Justin Verlander trade, spent almost all of the five past seasons, from 2018-22, away from the mound. The injuries and setbacks seemed endless, and his right shoulder was the main

Today is Feb. 3, 2023. It’s a perfectly innocuous date, at least until you shorten it to just the digits: 2/3/23. That’s 23-23, or as ESPN (and its ACC Network) has dubbed it: “Michael Jordan Day.” It’s all fine and good, we guess — there are worse ideas than a day devoted to Jordan’s greatest moments

New faces are coming to Bally Sports Detroit. The network, owned by Diamond Sports Group, has hired former MLB players Cameron Maybin and Todd Jones to work Detroit Tigers games on the TV broadcast throughout the 2023 season. Craig Monroe has been elevated as the primary in-game analyst, alongside returning play-by-play announcer Matt Shepard. The

Roberto Campos is maturing. He knows his goals and understands the path to achieve them. He shows up at the ballpark earlier than his teammates, finds ways to get better every day, follows a strict pregame routine and prioritizes his physique. Campos, who signed with the Detroit Tigers for $2.85 million in July 2019, turned

Cristian Santana stepped into the batter’s box for his first-ever tryout. Scouts were evaluating a group of players in the Dominican Republic. He was only 13 years old, but in that moment, he promised himself he would control the strike zone for the rest of his career. Santana, who turned 19 in late November, became

Detroit Tigers infielder César Hernández, who blasted a career-high 21 home runs across 637 plate appearances with the Cleveland Guardians in 2021, ran into a travel issue amid MLB’s lockout last offseason. He went to native Venezuela to celebrate Christmas with his family and realized his passport had expired. The 32-year-old held a green card,

Outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy, infielder Colt Keith and a few more prospects headline the Detroit Tigers‘ non-roster invitees for MLB spring training. Camp officially opens Feb. 13 in Lakeland, Florida. The Tigers are bringing 22 minor-league players to big-league spring training, part of the team’s 62-player roster. The other players are members of the 40-man roster.

When the offseason began, the Detroit Tigers targeted a right-handed hitting outfielder in free agency. But they didn’t stop at the major-league level. In the majors, the Tigers acquired Matt Vierling in a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies. In the minors, president of baseball operations Scott Harris went with a player he knew from his

Three Detroit Tigers players were named to prospect lists this offseason. Right-handed pitcher Jackson Jobe ranked No. 83 as the only representative of the Tigers on Baseball America’s top 100. On MLB Pipeline, Jobe came in No. 63 on MLB Pipeline, with second baseman Jace Jung at No. 83 and right-hander Wilmer Flores at No.

Donny Sands relaxed on his couch, enjoying a typical morning in Arizona, when Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Mark Appel, a former No. 1 overall pick, sent him a text message he wasn’t expecting. The Phillies were finalizing a trade with the Detroit Tigers. “He said I was going to Detroit,” Sands said. “I went to Twitter,

The Detroit Tigers have added to their infield pool. The Tigers signed second baseman César Hernández to a minor-league contract with an invitation to MLB spring training, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. The 32-year-old will earn $1.5 million if he makes the big-league roster and could receive an additional $1.85 million

Right-hander Edwin Uceta thinks the best is yet to come. He appeared on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ top-30 prospect list from 2019-21. Since then, he has pitched 24 games in the major leagues and has been designated for assignment twice in his young career. The Detroit Tigers claimed Uceta off waivers Jan. 11 — two days