The Tigers have made a handful of depth additions in the past few days. Relievers Jack Little and Sean Guenther return on minor league contracts after being non-tendered, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. They’re adding left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus on a minor league deal that’d pay him at a $1.3MM rate if he makes the big league roster, reports Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press. Righty reliever Cole Waites will also be in camp as a non-roster invitee after signing a minor league deal last week, as first reported by Ari Alexander of 7 News Boston.
Guenther is the only of the four pitchers who has appeared in a game for the Tigers. The left-hander has pitched 31 1/3 innings of 2.30 ERA ball over the past two seasons. He didn’t miss enough bats to support the excellent run prevention mark and has been an up-and-down middle reliever. Guenther missed the final three months of the ’25 season working back from hip surgery. Detroit used the non-tender deadline to drop him from the 40-man roster with an eye towards bringing him back on a minor league contract.
They did the same thing with Little, whom they’d claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh a couple weeks earlier. The 27-year-old righty (28 in January) debuted with two appearances for the Dodgers this year. He spent the rest of the season in Triple-A, where he turned in a 4.06 ERA with a modest 20.2% strikeout percentage over 62 innings.
De Jesus, 29, returns to affiliated ball after two seasons in Korea. He spent a year apiece with the Kiwoom Heroes and the KT Wiz. De Jesus worked out of the rotation and posted a sub-4.00 ERA while starting 30 games in both seasons. He struck out 24% of opponents with a 3.81 earned run average in 335 combined frames. The Venezuela native pitched in two MLB games for the Marlins in 2023.
Waites also most recently appeared in the big leagues two years ago. He allowed seven runs in eight innings for the Giants between 2022-23. He underwent elbow surgery late in the ’23 season and has missed most of the past two seasons. The 27-year-old Waites owns a 4.46 ERA in 43 career appearances at the Triple-A level.
