Miguel Diaz is heading back to Motown as the Tigers announced that the right-hander has been signed to a minor league contract. Diaz pitched for the Tigers in 2022-23 before being claimed off waivers from the Astros in early April.
That stint in Houston resulted in just a single Major League appearance, as Diaz threw a perfect inning of mop-up relief work in an 10-2 Astros loss to the Rangers on April 5. He otherwise pitched at Triple-A Sugar Land and didn’t have much success, struggling to a 9.64 ERA across 14 innings (13 appearances). While Diaz didn’t help himself with a 15.2% strikeout rate, he also had the misfortune of a .392 BABIP and a 40% strand rate, explaining the big gap between his ERA and his much more favorable 3.63 FIP.
The Astros designated Diaz soon after his lone big league appearance, and he elected free agency but re-signed quickly on a new minor league deal. The lack of results in the minors led Houston to release Diaz last week, and now the circle has been completed with his return to the Tigers organization. Since Diaz is out of minor league options, the Tigers would have to designate him for assignment him again in the event that he is called up to the MLB roster and then the team wished to send him back down again to Triple-A Toledo.
The 29-year-old Diaz is a veteran of seven Major League seasons, with a 4.81 ERA over 127 1/3 career innings with San Diego, Detroit, and Houston. His 41 2/3 innings in his 2017 rookie season with the Padres and his 42 innings with the 2022 Tigers represent the bulk of that resume, and Diaz has a respectable 24% career strikeout rate, albeit with some large year-to-year variance. Diaz will give the Tigers some extra bullpen depth in the minors in the event of an injury in the big league relief corps, or if Detroit simply needs to cycle in a fresh arm.