Tigers Sign Jordan Balazovic To Minors Contract

The Tigers have signed right-hander Jordan Balazovic to a minor league deal, in accordance with Simply Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton.  Balazovic returns to North American baseball after a quick stint with the Doosan Bears of the KBO League, as Balazovic signed with the Bears after he was launched by the Twins final July.

A fifth-round choose for Minnesota within the 2016 draft, Balazovic earned some appears behind top-100 prospect lists throughout his climb up the ladder of the Twins’ farm system.  Nonetheless, most of his success occurred within the decrease rungs of the ladder, as Balazovic has a 6.35 ERA in 151 2/3 profession innings of Triple-A ball.  Regardless of these struggles, the Twins gave him a have a look at the large league stage in 2023, and Balazovic posted a 4.44 ERA, 15.7% strikeout charge, and 11.1% stroll charge throughout his first 24 1/3 innings within the Present.

The Twins opted to designate Balazovic for task final February after which launched him, although he was rapidly re-signed to a different minor league contract.  Extra struggles at Triple-A led to Balazovic being launched once more so he might pursue his alternative in South Korea, and Balazovic had a 4.26 ERA and a powerful 27.6% strikeout charge in 57 innings with the Bears, beginning 11 of his 12 video games.

Balazovic nonetheless had an 11.2% stroll charge with the Bears, which is a bit increased than his 9.01% profession stroll charge within the minors.  His management worsened as Balazovic confronted increased ranges of competitors within the minors, whereas his strikeout and grounder charges had been typically fairly stable, albeit with some variance throughout the small pattern sizes of bouncing to completely different minor league ranges.

Balazovic is barely 26, so there’s logic within the Tigers taking a flier on a former notable prospect to see if one other change of surroundings helps the right-hander unlock any potential.  Detroit has additionally signed the likes of Matt Gage, Brendan White, and Ryan Miller to minors offers in latest days, because the Tigers are lining up some depth arms to judge in spring camp.  Some of these signings are frequent observe for any workforce, after all, and received’t preclude Detroit from taking a run at bigger-name bullpen choices like reported goal Kirby Yates.