Tigers acquire Zack Short from the Nationals

The Tigers have acquired infielder Zack Short from the Nationals. The Nats get cash considerations or a player to be named later. Short was not on Washington’s 40-man roster and doesn’t need to be immediately added to Detroit’s. He has been assigned to Triple-A Toledo. Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group first reported that the Tigers were getting Short for cash. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic mentioned the PTBNL.

Short, 31 this month, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the offseason. It’s not especially common for players on minor league deals to get traded but it has happened to Short twice this year. He was flipped to the Nationals for cash in March and has now been traded again.

For the Nats, Short provided some non-roster depth at shortstop. They have CJ Abrams there but don’t have an amazing fallback plan, which is presumably why they added Short. Since then, they’ve been getting some decent results from Jorbit Vivas. He doesn’t have a ton of shortstop experience but is perhaps at least an emergency option there. Nasim Nuñez doesn’t hit much but is a strong defensive backup. Prospect Seaver King is crushing Double-A pitching at the moment and could be up in Triple-A soon. The odds of Short getting a call-up were perhaps not high.

But Detroit just lost Javier Báez to the injured list with a right ankle sprain. He and Kevin McGonigle had been sharing the shortstop position, with McGonigle also playing third base and Báez also spending some time in the outfield. The Báez injury leaves McGonigle all alone at short, since other shortstop options like Trey Sweeney and Zach McKinstry are also on the IL. This week, manager A.J. Hinch told Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press that the backup shortstop is Hao-Yu Lee, who hasn’t played the position since 2023.

Báez, Sweeney and McKinstry will eventually get healthy again but it’s an imperfect situation for the short term. Adding Short gives them a glove-first non-roster depth option to fall back on. In 594 big league plate appearances, Short has a meager .172/.271/.296 line but he has almost 800 innings of shortstop experience. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average view him as a subpar shortstop for his career, but mostly due to struggles in his 2021 debut. Since then, he’s been roughly par. He also has experience at second base, third base and in the outfield.

Perhaps the Tigers will add Short and option Lee, which would improve their shortstop depth but would be a downgrade offensively. They could also just keep Short in Triple-A in case another injury pops up. If he’s added to the 40-man at any point, Short is out of options.