The Tigers announced that left-hander Anthony Misiewicz has been claimed off waivers from the Diamondbacks, and optioned to Triple-A. In the corresponding move, Detroit designated right-hander Seth Elledge for assignment.
Misiewicz spent a few weeks on the injured list with a calf strain and was also shuttled up and down from Triple-A Reno several times, so it perhaps isn’t surprising that the southpaw struggled to a 5.63 ERA over eight innings and seven appearances with the D’Backs. With the waiver claim, Misiewicz might now get some stability close to home — he was born in Detroit and played his college ball at Michigan State.
Pitching with the Diamondbacks, Royals, and Mariners over his four MLB seasons, Misiewicz has a 4.51 ERA over 111 2/3 career innings. He isn’t a big strikeout pitcher (23.3 K%), and this difficult in missing bats has translated to some issues for the lefty, particularly since Misiewicz has a .332 career BABIP.
Elledge was claimed off waivers from the Mets last month, but his time in the Tigers organization has been spent entirely at Triple-A Toledo. He posted a respectable 3.86 ERA over 14 innings in Toledo but it looks like the Tigers saw him as an expendable 40-man piece. Another team might make a claim on Elledge, but if not, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment off Detroit’s 40-man since he has already been outrighted in his career.