John Brebbia designated for assignment, RHP Tyler Owens recalled from Triple-A Toledo

The veteran free agent just couldn’t get it going this year.

The Detroit Tigers had a pretty excellent offseason, but the less expensive free agents they brought in to compete for depth roles have not worked out well at all. Alex Cobb is nowhere to be found outside of attempts at rehab starts, and right-handed reliever John Brebbia has been completely ineffective. On Sunday, after back-to-back disastrous outings against the Cincinnati Reds , Brebbia was designated for assignment. RHP Tyler Owens has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo in his place.

Brebbia was always a bit of a peculiar signing. The 35-year-old struck out a good number of batters the past two seasons, and the Tigers were looking for inexpensive swing and miss for the bullpen. On the other hand, he’s always had fairly mediocre overall numbers and became very home run prone the past two years. The Tigers hoped to help him keep the ball in the park more effectively, and that was a reasonable bet to make considering their recent history in helping pitchers solve that particular problem. It just didn’t work out.

Brebbia looked reasonably good in the spring, but suffered a right triceps strain in mid-April that cost him almost a month. He was never able to get it going after returning from that injury. His average fourseam fastball was 92.6 mph, whereas we can look back to 2023 where he averaged 94.5 mph and 93.9 mph in 2024.

The Tigers signed him for a very modest $2.75 million with a club option for 2026 that would’ve paid Brebbia $4 million with incentives had things worked out. Instead, the Tigers are out $2.25 million for 2025 along with a $500,000 buyout of the club option.

Tyler Owens will get a shot at the bullpen now, although the leash is presumably going to be short. The right-hander has a good riding fastball in the 95-96 mph range, but his slider has continued to be too hittable even at the Triple-A level, and he hasn’t consistently commanded his splitter at all.

His overall numbers feature a 5.74 ERA/5.72 FIP with the Mud Hens. However, over the last month he has been much more effective. He’s allowed just three runs over his last 11 innings, covering 10 appearances. Hopefully he can help reinforce a struggling back half of the bullpen and fill the role the Tigers hoped Brebbia could manage by giving them consistent innings of middle relief without giving up many innings with multiple runs scored.

Owens was already on the 40-man roster, so the DFA of Brebbia opens up a 40-man roster spot. The Tigers are likely to experiment with more of their relief arms in the upper minors over the next few weeks to see what they’ve got before trading season picks up after the All-Star break from mid-July to the trade deadline at the end of that month.