Detroit Tigers: 3 free agents to avoid signing

SP Mike Clevinger

Harris is also looking to add pitching, and as we saw last year, you can never have too much pitching. The Tigers will need to add at least one arm to the starting rotation, but it shouldn't be Mike Clevinger.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because he pitched for the Cleveland Guardians from 2016-2020, so the Tigers saw him a lot. He was traded to the San Diego Padres at the 2020 trade deadline. He missed the entire 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Last season, he came back and pitched 114.1 innings, where he had a 4.33 ERA, 4.98 FIP, and struck out 91 batters. Pretty much all his numbers were down, including his velocity. I guess that's expected when you're coming off TJS, but it wasn't a great season for Clevinger nonetheless.

He was very good for Cleveland from 2017-2020, where is ERA always hovered around 3, including a 2.71 ERA in 2019. He even pitched 200 innings in 2018, so he has shown he can be a workhorse in the past, and the Detroit Tigers could definitely use somebody like that.

But he hasn't been healthy the past couple years and it shows. He'll turn 32 in December, so he's not exactly young. Plus, the Tigers already have one starting pitcher coming off TJS in Spencer Turnbull. They don't need another.

The Tigers need healthy arms who can eat some innings for them in 2023. I'm not convinced Clevinger can do that.