Kenta Maeda designated for assignment, Tyler Owens promoted; Andrew Chafin opts out

The bullpen is getting a makeover a month into the season.

We expected some changes for May Day, and the Detroit Tigers delivered. Veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda, whose two-year, $24 million contract has not worked out, was designated for assignment on Thursday. Right-handed relief prospect Tyler Owens has been promoted from Triple-A Toledo and will make his major league debut in their road series against the Angels in Anaheim. In a related move, left-hander Andrew Chafin has exercised his opt-out from the minor league deal he signed with the Tigers, and has signed a major league contract worth a guaranteed one million dollars with the Washington Nationals .

Obviously things just haven’t worked out with Maeda. He struggled badly in a starting role in 2024 and spent the rest of the year in middle relief work. Things have been even worse this season despite the fact that his stuff remains basically intact. To work at low velocity requires precision, and he just hasn’t been able to re-capture his usually good command. Instead he’s been condemned to mop up duty only this spring.

The Tigers appeared to hope that signing Maeda would help make them a little more attractive to the growing pool of major league quality Japanese pitchers as a side benefit, but that’s a fairly minor concern. The 37-year-old from Osaka just hasn’t been able to sort things out, and as the Tigers enter a long six week stretch with minimal days off, working with essentially a seven-man bullpen just wasn’t a viable option any longer.

Tyler Owens was acquired from the Texas Rangers in the trade that sent catcher Carson Kelly there last July. The 24-year-old right-hander impressed in spring training by allowing no runs and no walks in five appearances and drew some compliments from A.J. Hinch. He was already on the 40-man roster, so Maeda’s spot is up for the taking.

Owens hasn’t actually been very effective in Triple-A in April. His command has been shaky and he hasn’t shown the strikeout touch he did after coming over in the trade. Owens has a nice riding fourseam fastball that has averaged 95.1 mph with the Toledo Mud Hens. He’ll mix in a sinker against right-handers to jam them and try to get a ground ball as well. His main secondary pitch is a firm, sharp slider at 87 mph, with a splitter in the same velocity band getting use against either handed hitters, but mainly against lefties.

While he hasn’t put up good numbers so far, most of Owens walks allowed with the Hens came in a stretch from April 6-15. Since then his command and strikeout rate have both been trending strongly in the right direction, so hopefully he can get his feet wet and join fellow former Rangers prospect Chase Lee in the Tigers pen as effective members.

As for Andrew Chafin, he was pitching well for the Toledo Mud Hens with a 2.13 ERA/1.97 FIP and a strikeout rate of 31.5 percent. He had the right to opt-out on May 1, and expectatins were that the Tigers would likely add him to the active roster, but they had other plans and are happy with their left-handed options in the bullpen as things stand. With Tyler Holton, Brant Hurter, and Sean Guenther working as their southpaws, they should be in pretty good shape. As for the Nationals, they’ll look to get some work from Chafin and hope to flip him to a contender for a little prospect package in July.

I’m still a bit surprised about this with Chafin pitching well. They could’ve brought him up and sent down Guenther, keeping a stable of four good left-handed options available. Instead they took a minor hit on their depth chart for no gain. However, with Bailey Horn showing good stuff with the Hens as well, perhaps they just didn’t feel the need to worry about it.

The Tigers added another left-hander on a minor league deal on Thursday, signing 28-year-old veteran Nick Margevicius. The former prospect has 110 ¹⁄₃ major league innings with the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners , but hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2021. He dealt with thoracic outlet syndrome and bounced around the minor leagues a bit, but wasn’t really able to turn his career path around. Instead he’s made stops in Taiwan and in Mexico in recent years. Presumably he’s now healthy and Scott Harris and the Tigers see something in him worth developing.