Tigers made their most promising minor-league signing yet with former Dodgers reliever

For most of the winter, the Detroit Tigers’ minor-league signings have blended together into one long list of depth arms — anonymous reinforcements for Triple-A, insurance policies for injuries, names you assume you’ll only see in box scores from Toledo.

Phil Bickford is different.

Not because he’s a lock to make the roster, or because he suddenly transforms Detroit’s bullpen outlook. He’s different because, unlike most non-roster invites, he has already shown what a real major-league version of himself looks like — and that version was legitimately good.

The Tigers signed the 30-year-old right-hander to a minor-league contract last week, continuing a winter-long effort to stockpile pitching depth. Bickford has pitched for four MLB teams across parts of five seasons, most recently with the Yankees in 2024. In 2025, he bounced between the Triple-A affiliates of the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, posting a 3.52 ERA over 46 innings.

The red flag is obvious: 53 walks against just 17 strikeouts. That’s the kind of stat line that usually ends a career. But Bickford isn’t just another arm with a worn-out résumé. He’s a former first-round pick — twice over, in spirit if not on paper.

Toronto selected Bickford 10th overall in 2013, but he chose college instead. Two years later, the Giants made him the 18th overall pick. He debuted during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and bounced around before landing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021. That’s where the Tigers’ interest starts to make sense.

With Los Angeles, Bickford had the best season of his career: a 2.50 ERA in 50 innings, 59 strikeouts, and six shutout frames in the postseason. He wasn’t just surviving — he was trusted. He was part of a bullpen on a team that expected to play in October.

If that version of Phil Bickford is still in there, the Tigers are betting they can find it.

Tigers sign Phil Bickford to minor league contract with invite to spring training

Detroit’s front office has spent this winter building a massive web of pitching depth, signing more than a dozen arms to minor-league deals. Most are pure volume plays. Bickford, though, is a project with a ceiling. He’s the rare non-roster reliever who can point to a season and say, “I was really good in the majors, on a contender, not that long ago.”

There’s no guarantee it works. The control issues are real. The strikeout dip is alarming. But relievers are volatile by nature, and Bickford’s track record suggests that a mechanical tweak, a health reset, or a philosophical shift could flip the script quickly. The Tigers have quietly become one of the league’s more respected pitching-development environments. If there’s a place for a former first-rounder to rediscover himself, Detroit is a credible option.

Best case? Bickford looks like the Dodgers version again and forces his way into the Tigers’ bullpen by May. Worst case? He’s Triple-A depth and nothing more. That asymmetry is what makes this signing compelling.

For a team that still needs to find bullpen answers behind its core, this is the kind of low-risk move that can quietly pay off. Among all the winter’s minor-league additions, Bickford stands out as the one with the clearest path to becoming more than just a name on a spring training roster.