Detroit Tigers: Waiving Jario Labourt was the right move

When the Detroit Tigers signed Francisco Liriano, the designated Jairo Labourt for assignment.

Shortly after the Detroit Tigers designated Labourt for assignment,  the Cincinnati Reds claimed him off of waivers. At the time, Labourt was #13 on the Tigers top 30 prospects list according to MLB Pipeline.

The Tigers needed to make room for Liriano and waiving Labourt seemed to be the best option. That’s what it seems at least, otherwise, the team wouldn’t have made the move.  SB Nation’s Bless You Boys wasn’t too thrilled with the move though.

He was the number thirteen prospect at the time of being waived (as we stated before), so the reaction is understandable. BYB went on to admit that Labourt was far from a star though.

There is some merit to the Tigers making the move though. Labourt had some struggles throwing strikes. Here’s the following point that I raised on Twitter.

Player one is former Detroit Tigers prospect Bruce Rondon. He spent nine seasons in the Tigers farm system, posting a 5.0 BB/9 rate over that span. When the Tigers finally released him, many people agreed that the patience for Rondon to improve his command had worn thin.

Player two is obviously Jairo Labourt. In seven seasons with the Tigers farm system, his BB/9 is roughly the same as Rondon’s was during his tenure with the team. Yet, Rob Rogacki, over at Bless You Boys, thinks the Tigers released Labourt for no good reason at all.

It’s important to note that Rogacki stresses:

This isn’t about losing Jairo Labourt. It’s about their poor decision-making, hesitance to fully commit to their rebuild, and perhaps even a subpar ability to evaluate talent.

However, it seems that the ability to evaluate talent might not be subpar on the Tigers part. Over the course of his time with the Tigers Rondon posted a better S0/9 and SO/BB rate than Labourt. In three more seasons, Rondon posted a SO/9 of10.4 overall levels in the minor leagues. Labourt, on the other hand, posted a SO/9 rate of 8.7 across all levels. Looking at SO/W Rondon posted a 2.05 rate overall across all levels. Labourt posted a 1.68 rate across all levels.

On Twitter and other sites, people have thrown out names like Chad Bell and Drew VerHagen as players that the Tigers should have put on waivers rather than Labourt. However, both pitchers have much lower BB/9 rates that Labourt. Bell has a 3.1 rate over six seasons across all levels in the Tigers farm system. VerHagen has a 3.2 rate across all levels in six seasons.

Next: Prospects entering make-or-break seasons

Now, Labourt is a 23-year old lefty who throws 97+  on his fastball. There is still time for him to make himself a viable bullpen option. Liriano is a 35-year old pitcher that in all likelihood won’t return a better prospect for Labourt. That’s even if the Tigers are able to trade away Liriano.

On its face, it seems like a head-scratching move. However, at best Labourt would only have ever faced one or two left-handed batters at best as HookSlide points out. Hookslide also notes that the Reds, who have 71 wins, picked up a DFA from a team that had 68 wins last season. The move really wasn’t as bad as people are making it out to be.