The Tigers have added veteran reliever Trevor Rosenthal on a minor league deal, the team announced. The deal includes an invite to big league spring training. It’s the second stint in Detroit for Rosenthal, who made ten appearances for the team in 2019.
Injuries have kept Rosenthal out of the past two MLB seasons, with the former All Star last appearing in 2020 for the Royals and Padres. That year, Rosenthal worked to a 1.90 ERA across 23 2/3 innings for both teams. Thoracic outlet syndrome kept him out of the 2021 season when he was on the books of the Athletics taking home an $11MM salary. The Giants signed him in 2022, but he was flipped to the Brewers for Tristan Peters while he was still rehabbing. He tossed two innings of relief on a rehab assignment for the Brewers before sustaining a lat injury that ended his 2022 season.
Originally drafted in the 21st round of the 2009 draft by the Cardinals, Rosenthal worked as a starter coming up through the minors. Yet he never made a start for St Louis, and instead quickly established himself as one of the most dominant relievers in the game after making his debut in 2012. Between 2012-15, Rosenthal amassed 96 saves and worked to a 2.66 ERA over 237 innings.
While he was still punching out batters at an elite rate in 2016, a jump in his walk rate ultimately led to a decline in numbers, and between 2016-17 Rosenthal worked to a 3.89 ERA and ultimately lost the closer role. Tommy John surgery ruled him out of the entire 2018 season, and he struggled mightily in his return pitching to a 13.50 ERA over 15 1/3 innings for the Nationals and Tigers.
That was followed by a quality sample of work in 2020, before the aforementioned injuries saw him miss the next two seasons. With that in mind, it makes it quite hard to work out exactly what the Tigers are getting in Rosenthal this year. The key thing is there does seem to be a fair bit of upside here, and if Rosenthal can work his way back into anything resembling his 2020 form, the Tigers could have a nice trade chip on their hands by the summer deadline.
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