Detroit Tigers: Breaking down the players that must come off the 60-day IL

The Detroit Tigers have nine players that have to come off the 60-day IL once the World Series ends

Editor’s note: This post was updated on Nov. 2 at 1:03 p.m. to correct an oversight. Kyle Funkhouser is technically not on the 40-man roster since he’s on the 60-day IL, so a corresponding move would still have to be made if he’s let go.

Once the World Series is over, the offseason begins. Once the offseason begins, so will the Detroit Tigers roster purge.

A whopping nine players are set to come off the 60-day injured list once the World Series comes to a close. Players who are put on the 60-day IL are technically not apart of the 40-man roster. All of those players must either be put back on the 40-man roster or be designated for assignment. If the Detroit Tigers decide to keep a player coming off the 60-day IL, then they will have to DFA someone else. They have to create nine spots on the 40-man somehow.

Some of these decisions will be easy. Others, not so much. These will be the first of many tough decisions that Scott Harris has to make in his first offseason as Detroit Tigere president of baseball operations.

In this piece, we’ll be going over every player that is set to come off the 60-day IL and predict what will happen to them, and the corresponding move that will be made. We’ll start with the easier ones.

SP Tarik Skubal

Skubal will added back on to the 40-man roster. There’s no question about that, although he’ll probably go right back on it once the 2023 season begins. The question is what the corresponding move will be. For this first one, we’ll say that pitcher Bryan Garcia is DFA’d.

Garcia ended up not being a total disaster as a spot starter this season, putting a 3.54 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 20.1 innings pitched. However, he had 17 strikeouts to 10 walks. That’s not a good ratio. Scott Harris will be looking for pitchers who can throw strikes consistently, and Garcia hasn’t been able to do that throughout his career.

SP Casey Mize

Mize is kind of in the same boat as Skubal. He’ll be added back on the 40-man, but he’ll be added right back on to the 60-day IL once the 2023 season begins, as he is expected to miss all of next year while he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

The question once again is who gets cut? For this one, we’ll go with Daniel Norris. Norris, of course, was brought back to eat some innings after being pretty bad in the bullpen for the Cubs. In 30 innings for the Cubs, he had a 6.90 ERA with 43 strikeouts to 21 walks. The Tigers picked him up in late July, and he came up after a few weeks in the minors. In 28.2 innings with the Tigers, his numbers were much better overall, posting a 3.45 ERA with 23 strikeouts to eight walks.

I could easily see the Tigers bringing him back once again on a minor league deal, but the likelihood of him surviving this round of roster cuts seems quite slim. He’s always had trouble throwing strikes, and that’s once again something that Harris will not tolerate.

SP Spencer Turnbull

Turnbull will also be added back on to the 40-man roster without question. He will hopefully not have to go back on to the IL and will be able to start the 2023 season in the rotation. But again, someone needs to go. This time, it’s a little tougher because we’re running out of starters to cut loose. I thought about going with Elvin Rodriguez here, but he’s still just 24 years old, and will turn 25 when the 2023 season begins. The Tigers pitching dev staff could still do something with him.

So who gets the short end of the stick here? Unfortunately, it might be Tyler Alexander. Alexander, 28, might be out of chances with the Tigers. After some promising outings down the stretch in the rotation in 2021, Alexnader struggled as both a starter and a reliever in 2022. His ERA was a full run higher this year when compared to last year (4.81 in 2022, 3.81 in 2021, respectively). He struck out just 61 batters in 101 innings pitched.

Alexander has shown flashes of being a decent MLB pitcher during his time in Detroit, but the Tigers can do better.

SP Beau Brieske

Brieske was placed on the 60-day IL in September after it was determined that he wasn’t going to be able to pitch again this season with bicep tendonitis. He’ll surely come right off and compete for a spot in the rotation in spring training assuming he’s healthy, which means we need to create a spot for him. Since we’re now extremely low on pitchers to let go, we’re going to DFA our first position player in Brendon Davis.

This should be an easy one. In fact, you could argue he should have been the first guy to cut. Davis is a minor-league journeyman that finally made his big-league debut with the Tigers in October. He had two hits in 10 ABs. He’s not at all a part of future here. If they really wanted to, they could bring him back on a minor league deal if he clears waivers.

SP Matt Manning

Somehow I nearly forgot that Manning was on the 60-day IL. He got put on the shelf for the season with a right forearm strain on Sept. 29. Assuming he’s fully healthy, he should be an easy activation. This will result in our next position player casuality in Zack Short.

Frankly, it’s a miracle he survived the season. He wasn’t good in the minors despite walking a good amount. He still had a decent glove in the infield, which is guess is why the Detroit Tigers kept him around all year. But this will probably be the end of the rope for the 27-year-old.

RP Kyle Funkhouser

Our first reliever on the list, Funkhouser is an interesting case. After a shoulder injury popped up in spring training, he ended missing the entire 2022 season and underwent shoudler surgery in late July. He may be another case where he’s activated, then is put back on the 60-day IL to start the 2023 season.

But Funkhouser really only has one year of proven results, and while it was a good one, it’s hard to count on a guy who has trouble staying healthy. He’s had injury issues ever since the Tigers drafted him in 2015.

He is up for arbitration, and he’s only projected to make $800K according to MLB Trade Rumors. Would be it worth that drop in the bucket to keep him around when he may not pitch? I’m going to go out on a limb and side with my fellow MCB Co-Expert Tyler Kotila and say that the Detroit Tigers might just move on from Funkhouser. It may seem silly to cut him over $800K, but if he’s not healthy, the Tigers may as well give the roster spot to someone who can contribute.

SP/RP Rony Garcia

Garcia did an admirable job in whatever role the Detroit Tigers threw him into this season. He started out as a middle reliever in the bullpen, but they moved him into the rotation after all the injuries to the rotation. Overall, he ended up with a 4.41 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched. Not great, but it could have been so much worsre.

I think Garcia will stick around, especially if they move on from Funkhouser. He’s projected to make $1 million in arbitration, so he won’t cost a lot. He was much more effective out of the bullpen considering he’s basically a two-pitch pitcher.  Even with Funkhouser being let go, we have still have to get rid of someone since he’s technically not on the 40-man roster. We’ll go with Josh Lester here.

He’s been a minor league journeyman is entire career. It was nice to see him a get a cup of coffee with the big league club this year, but he’s not at all a part of the future here. Next!