Tigers’ folk hero, World Series champion signs minor-league deal with Giants

If you blinked during the summer of 2024, you might have missed it. But if you were paying close attention — or if you simply love the joyfully weird corners of Detroit Tigers lore — then you absolutely remember the Buddy Kennedy Era.

Yes. That Buddy Kennedy. Utility infielder. Brief Tiger. Surprise slugger. And now — improbably, yet undeniably — a World Series champion.

Kennedy, who somehow managed to wear both a Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers uniform during their runs to the 2025 Fall Classic, has signed a minor-league deal with the San Francisco Giants. And even though his Tigers tenure lasted exactly six games, he’s cemented forever in Detroit baseball mythology — the cult-favorite bench bat who showed up, hit a homer, drove in four runs, and disappeared into the baseball ether like a legend whispered around a campfire.

Former Tigers fan favorite Buddy Kennedy signs minor-league deal with Giants

Kennedy's Tigers stat line will forever read: six games, 2-for-10, one home run, four RBI, two walks and four strikeouts. Tell your grandchildren.

Kennedy came to Detroit out of necessity, recalled from Triple-A Toledo when Gio Urshela got hurt. He didn’t complain. He didn’t try to be anything he wasn’t. He just showed up and took some hacks — and for a brief moment, he felt like lightning in a bottle for a fanbase desperate for offensive sparks.

Then baseball did what baseball always does with guys like Kennedy: it moved him along. He was designated for assignment, traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for cash considerations, and left drifting once again.

Fast-forward to 2025, and suddenly Kennedy is bouncing between Toronto and Los Angeles like some kind of October good-luck charm — and both teams wind up winning their respective pennants. By the end, Kennedy was the Forrest Gump of role players: somehow always near something huge happening.

Now he heads to San Francisco, joining his seventh organization since being drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017. Seven organizations. Multiple cups of coffee. One unforgettable Tigers cameo. One World Series ring. And a place reserved forever in Detroit’s archive of obscure baseball heroes.

No one is pretending Kennedy changes season or hanging banners for him at Comerica Park. But if you were there? If you watched those random midsummer games and said, “Huh — this Buddy Kennedy kid is kinda fun?”

Then yeah. He’s yours forever. Folk hero status: confirmed.