Tigers to sign RHP Emilio Pagan to a one-year deal, per report
CINCINNATI, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 02: Emilio Pagan #15 of the Cincinnati Reds throws a pitch during the 7-3 win against the San Diego Padres at Great American Ball Park on September 02, 2026 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Key points
- The 35-year-old has been with the Cincinnati Reds for the last three seasons, but declined a $10 million player option to come to Detroit instead for an extra million.
- Obviously the Tigers are banking on getting him out of Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati to drive down the home run rates.
- Here’s hoping the Tigers are right about Comerica suppressing home runs much more than the Reds fairly notorious ballpark.
That’s a sound theory, but after watching the Tigers high leverage relievers perform well in the overall stats columns in 2026, but blow a ton of games by giving up a homer at the worst possible time, it’s hard to love trying another older veteran reliever with home run issues next year.
Additional details
- If he can keep the ball in the park a little more the Tigers outfield will collect a ton of routine outs.
- He has a cutter and a splitter and uses them equally, deploying the splitter mainly to deal with lefties.
- Pagán has plus extension, which helps as the fastball averaged 94.9 mph last year, down a tick from 2025.
- This is a perfectly fine acquisition for the Tigers, but it feels very Kenley Jansen 2.0 to be honest.
- The fly in the ointment is a home run rate of 1.48 per nine innings.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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