The Tigers released Konnor Pilkington earlier this week, as per the left-hander’s MLB.com profile page. Pilkington was signed to a minor league deal just before the start of Spring Training, and he spent the entirety of his tenure in the organization with Triple-A Toledo.
Control has been an increasingly large problem for Pilkington over the last few seasons in the minors and during his brief big league career, and his walk rate spiked up to an ungainly 17.6% over his 33 1/3 innings with Toledo. Pilkington almost had as many walks (28) as strikeouts (30) while posting a 5.40 ERA over his 23 appearances for the Mud Hens. The southpaw now has a 6.02 ERA and a 14.61% walk rate over 284 career innings at the Triple-A level.
Pilkington’s numbers in the majors include a 3.97 ERA, 22.1% strikeout rate, and 12.9% walk rate across 88 1/3 career innings with the Guardians and Nationals. After debuting with 58 innings of 3.88 ERA ball with Cleveland in 2022, Pilkington tossed just two MLB frames the next year before he was dealt to Arizona.
The left-hander’s time with the Diamondbacks didn’t yield any more call-ups, and Pilkington didn’t return to the Show until a minor league deal with Washington resulted in 28 1/3 innings and 32 games working out of the Nationals’ bullpen. The Nats held onto Pilkington until he was designated for assignment in January, and after choosing free agency over an outright assignment, he soon caught on with Detroit.
Pilkington has primarily worked as a reliever over the last two seasons, and the move to relief work has naturally bumped up his velocity (to 94.5mph in 2025). Extra velo doesn’t mean much if the ball isn’t over the plate, however, and a new team will need to take steps to try and fix Pilkington’s command. He has one minor league option remaining, so he would provide some roster flexibility for a club looking for bullpen depth.
