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Tigers make sneaky waiver claim amid flurry of non-tender deadline roster moves

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Motor City Bengals

Boston Red Sox v New York Yankees / Jim McIsaac/GettyImages

Friday was the deadline for teams to decide whether or not they were going to tender contracts to their arbitration eligible players. For the Detroit Tigers, that meant decision time on Casey Mize as well as a number of other arbitration-eligibles.

However, the Tigers did more than that at the non-tender deadline. Not only did they finalize their arbitration situation, but they also went out and claimed reliever Bailey Horn off of waivers from the Red Sox along the way as well.

Tigers scoop Bailey Horn off the waiver wire amid waive of non-tender deadline moves

Starting with the non-tender deadline moves, the Tigers ultimately landed on parting ways with Wilmer Flores, Eddys Leonard, Ricky Vanasco, and Brendan White while keeping Andy Ibanez and Zach McKinstry. Not exactly an earth-shattering list of names, but ones that Detroit will have to be vigilant this offseason to replace. For the moment, it appears as though Mize and Akil Baddoo have survived the latest roster crunch.

At first glance, Horn doesn't exactly scream "worthy of a waiver claim" to say the least. In 18 appearances in 2024 with Boston, he posted a 6.50 ERA and walked 10 batters in 18 innings of work in the big leagues. His numbers with the Red Sox's Triple-A affiliate were significantly better, though, as he put up a 2.15 ERA in 21 appearances and missed a lot more bats there.

The Tigers are taking a bit of a gamble here. Horn's performance in the majors was not great, but throws reasonably hard and generally keeps the ball on the ground. If he can learn to find the strike zone reliably, he is a guy that could profile well as a middle reliever to bring in against tough lefties if needed.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.