The Tigers and right-hander Phil Bickford have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group. The Klutch Sports client will presumably be in big league camp in spring training.
Bickford, 30, is coming off a couple of years in the wilderness but had some decent major league results prior to that. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 179 2/3 innings in the big leagues, allowing 4.26 earned runs per nine. His 9.5% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he struck out 26.6% of batters faced.
He finished the 2023 season on the Mets’ roster and qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player. He and the Mets couldn’t agree on a salary and went to a hearing with a tiny separation. Bickford filed at $900K and the team at $815K.
Bickford’s side won the hearing but it may have cost him his roster spot. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, arbitration salaries are not guaranteed if they are the result of a hearing. A little more than a month after Bickford’s win, he was designated for assignment and released. The Mets had to pay him about $217K in termination pay.
He then signed a minor league deal with the Yankees. He had some brief looks on that club’s roster, which is his only major league action of the past two years. He allowed eight earned runs in 8 1/3 innings. He spent 2025 with the Cubs and Phillies on minor league deals.
Even though he hasn’t seen a lot of major league action over the past couple of campaigns, his work on the farm has been strong. He has thrown 96 1/3 Triple-A innings since the start of 2024 with a 3.46 ERA, 29.3% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate.
For the Tigers, there’s no risk in bringing Bickford aboard via a non-roster pact. They can get a close-up look at him and see if there’s room for him on the roster at some point. Their current bullpen has a decent amount of fluidity. Kenley Jansen and Kyle Finnegan are the only two guys in the mix who can’t be optioned to the minors. If Bickford eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options but can also be retained for future seasons via arbitration.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
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