{"id":344966,"date":"2025-12-12T19:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344966\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T19:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:28:07","slug":"former-detroit-tigers-arm-heading-back-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344966\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Detroit Tigers arm heading back overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT — Former Detroit Tigers right-hander Elvin Rodriguez is heading back overseas, signing a $1 million deal with the Lotte Giants in Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, 27, will be reunited with former Tigers outfielder Victor Reyes, who has blossomed into a star in Korea. Reyes recently agreed to play a third season for Lotte at $1.4 million<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Tigers originally acquired Rodriguez from the Los Angeles Angels in the 2017 Justin Upton trade<\/a>. He made his MLB debut with Detroit in 2022 as part of the expanded Opening Day roster but spent most of the season providing depth at Triple-A Toledo.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was roughed up in a handful of spot starts, finishing 0-4 with a 10.62 ERA over 29 2\/3 innings for the big-league club.<\/p>\n

He was\u00a0designated for assignment after the season<\/a>\u00a0and signed with the Tampa Bay Rays upon reaching minor-league free agency.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez made one appearance with Tampa before being granted his release midseason to sign with the Yakult Swallows in Japan. The Swallows brought him back in 2024 and he pitched well,\u00a0posting a 1.74 ERA in 88 innings over two levels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After his success in Japan, Rodriguez\u00a0signed a big-league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers in January<\/a>. He was\u00a0claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles in July<\/a> and then again by the Arizona Diamondbacks in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reyes, 31, spent parts of five years with the Tigers since being selected in the Rule 5 Draft before the 2018 season.<\/p>\n

After an overmatched rookie campaign, he grew into a respectable contributor for Detroit, hitting .304 in 2019 and showing increased power in 2020 and 2021. But he did not walk much and did not hit enough home runs to make up for an average strikeout rate, and the Tigers opted to non-tender him after the 2022 season.<\/p>\n

Reyes signed with the Chicago White Sox in hopes of competing for a bench job in spring training, but he ended up spending the entire 2023 season with Triple-A Charlotte.<\/p>\n

He set off for Korea in 2024<\/a> and has become one of the league\u2019s top offensive contributors. In two seasons with Lotte, Reyes is hitting .339 in 1,275 plate appearances<\/a> with more than 100 RBIs each season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT — Former Detroit Tigers right-hander Elvin Rodriguez is heading back overseas, signing a $1 million deal with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[975,363,99,976],"class_list":{"0":"post-344966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-975","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wspix"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}