Tigers' wasted 2025 free agent signing lands with Rockies in lesson for Scott Harris

Right-hander John Brebbia has agreed to a minor league deal with the Colorado Rockies that includes an invite to Major League spring training.

That sound you hear is Tigers fans collectively sighing and saying, “Yeah … that tracks.”

Brebbia’s one-year, $2.75 million deal with the Tigers in 2025 was supposed to be the kind of low-risk bullpen add that smart front offices make –– veteran arm, decent track record, cheap enough not to sting. Instead, it turned into another example of Detroit paying real money for April optimism and May disappointment.

April fool's gold, if you will.

Scott Harris under pressure to shore up Tigers' bullpen after John Brebbia signs minor league deal in Colorado

For a minute there, it looked like the Brebbia signing might actually work in Detroit. He posted a 1.00 ERA in his first nine innings with Tigers. The strikeouts were there, the ball wasn’t leaving the yard, and hope crept in.

Then came the injury. Then came the comeback. Then came the disaster.

After returning from a triceps strain, Brebbia gave up 16 runs in fewer than 10 innings. His command vanished. His velocity dipped. And his leash got shorter by the outing. By mid-June, he was designated for assignment and erased from the bullpen like a bad memory. Now, he’s a minor-league flyer in Colorado.

No, $2.75 million isn’t the end of the world, but the Tigers don't have the luxury of wasting money on nothing. They aren't the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Mets, and they don’t have billionaire “oops funds.”

When Detroit misses on a free agent, it matters. When they miss on bullpen help, it really matters — because this team has lived through too many seasons where a bad relief corps quietly sabotaged everything else. That’s what made the Brebbia signing so frustrating. It wasn’t aggressive. It wasn’t lofty. It was supposed to be safe –– and somehow, even “safe” went sideways.

The move wasn't catastrophic, but it left Scott Harris with a simple and uncomfortable lesson: You can't afford to miss, even on the margins. If you’re not signing stars, then your depth signings need to hit. If you’re bargain-shopping, your scouting has to be elite. If your strategy is “flexibility,” then your results better justify the patience.

Brebbia was a placeholder. A stopgap. A roll of the dice –– and it came up snake eyes. For the Tigers, this needs to be a turning point in how they handle veteran pitcher signings, medical risk evaluations and bullpen roster construction. Wasting $2.75 million once is annoying, but doing it over and over? That's how you end up treading water.

Harris doesn’t have to be perfect. But if Detroit is serious about climbing out of baseball’s middle class, then the “Brebbia types” need to become reliable contributors — not cautionary tales.