There were no real surprises this afternoon as the Tigers reinstated Javier Báez, RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long, RHP Alex Faedo, and RHP Brendan White to the 40-man roster. All four ended the season on the 60-day injured list and had to be activated to the roster today or released. The Tigers also declined their 2025 option on RHP Casey Mize, but for now he’ls still on the team and will be slated for arbitration again if he and the Tigers can’t come to an agreement on his 2025 salary.
The Tigers ended the season with 39 players on the 40-man roster. So they only needed to clear three spots to add the four players back from the 60-day injured list. All three players they placed on waivers to make room cleared waivers, and have been outrighted off the 40-man roster.
First baseman Bligh Madris helped the Tigers out a bit through Spencer Torkelson’s struggles, but ultimately wasn’t any kind of long-term solution at the position. He, along with LHP Bryan Sammons, and OF Ryan Vilade, have all been outrighted. Perhaps one or more will be back on a minor league deal, as there clearly wasn’t going to be much interest in the group on the waiver wire.
As for Mize, the Tigers and Mize’s representatives had a fairly contentious contract negotiation last spring. Eventually the Tigers gave in just a tiny bit from their hardball posture, and in exchange they got a $3.1M option on Mize for 2025. The Tigers have now declined that option, buying it out for $10,000. The result was that Mize essentially made the major league minimum for 2024. Now, they’ll either trade the 27-year-old right-hander, tender him a contract for 2025 by the November 22 deadline and presumably go to arbitration to negotiate the final deal, or simply release him as a non-tender.
The former first overall pick in 2018 didn’t have a bad year in his return from Tommy John surgery, but it certainly wasn’t a standout campaign either. Mize made 20 starts out of 22 appearances, spinning 102 1⁄3 innings of work. He posted a very pedestrian 4.49 ERA, but continued to suppress walks and home runs well enough to put up a 3.95 FIP on the year.
The obvious issue for Mize remains the lack of strikeouts. He returned this year with good velocity and his fastball playing better than ever. However, the split-finger fastball continues to be a pretty mediocre pitch in the major leagues, and Mize’s slider was little more than a change of pace offering that rarely drew the kind of whiffs he needs to become a regular rotation member again.
It’s not uncommon that a first season after TJ isn’t the best one, and there may be brighter days ahead for Mize in 2025. But to get there, he and the Tigers have got to unlock some more swing and miss in his game. After over six years in the organization, it’s getting harder to believe that’s ever going to happen. The Tigers may feel differently.
So for now, the situation overall is as expected. Alex Faedo getting reinstated was a bit of a question mark in my mind, and I’d still be surprised to see him on the active roster next year.
Beyond that, they were always planning to keep Báez in hopes that his hip surgery will finally put an end to a litany of hip and back issues that have piled up and destroyed his ability to be productive at the plate. Some might just call it the natural aging curve of an undisciplined hitter. We’ll have to wait until spring camp to see if anything looks different on that front.
Gipson-Long will rehab looking to work his way back to the Tigers by some point this summer, and Brendan White will try to put an injury plagued 2024 season behind him and seize a role in the Tigers bullpen.
In one final bit of news, the Tigers traded minor league RHP Devin Sweet to the Philadelphia Phillies for cash considerations. Sweet was not on the Tigers 40-man roster.