The Tigers sent reliever Tanner Rainey outright to Triple-A Toledo, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News reports that the righty will accept the minor league assignment. He’d been DFA on Monday.
Rainey has spent the bulk of the season on a minor league contract with the Mud Hens. Detroit called him up three weeks ago. Rainey got into six games, working seven innings of three-run ball. While that’s decent production on the surface, Rainey remained prone to wildness. He walked eight batters, hit another, and threw four wild pitches.
The control is the ever present question for Rainey. He has the stuff to fit into a leverage role, averaging 96-97 mph on his fastball with a quality slider. Rainey has fanned more than a third of his opponents in Triple-A this season, pitching to a 2.32 ERA across 42 2/3 innings. He’s walking more than 14% of batters faced, so every team passed on a chance to plug him into the big league bullpen.
Rainey will finish out the season with the Tigers and try to pitch his way back to the MLB level in the next few weeks. He’ll be a free agent this winter and likely to sign another minor league contract.
