ANAHEIM, CA – The Detroit Tigers reinstated left-hander Framber Valdez from the bereavement list before facing the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, July 18.
Right-handed reliever Beau Brieske was optioned to Triple-A Toledo following Friday night’s game.
Valez is exected to start against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday on the second leg of this two-city road trip.
That also means right-hander Brenan Hanifee is staying with the Tigers.
Hanifee was called up to fill Valdez’s roster spot ahead of Friday’s game.
Bereavement leave allows teams to replace a player for 3-7 games due to a death or serious illness in the family.
But as soon as the player returns to the city where his team is playing, he must be taken off the list.
Valdez was traveling to Anaheim on Friday. His return will allow him to get in some work with the Tigers pitching coaches.
“We’ll need to make a move when Framber gets out here,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before Friday’s game. “He’s on his way to rejoin us. So when he gets back and gets to Anaheim, we’ll have to make a pitching move. We have a game where we’re not going to play short.”
Hanifee has pitched in 21 games for Toledo, posting 23 strikeouts, nine walks and a 1.583 WHIP.
The Tigers expected rotation against the Angels in the final two games of the series: left-hander Tarik Skubal on Saturday and right-hander Casey Mize on Sunday.
Right-hander Jack Flaherty is expected to pitch Monday against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The starter for the third game has not been announced.
But Hinch hinted on Friday night that righty Keider Montero, who pitched brilliantly on Friday night (3⅓ innings, no runs, five strikeouts) in relief of right-hander Troy Melton, will pitch five or six innings in a game sometime soon, presumably next week.
“Well, we’re going to ask like five or six from him in a few days,” Hinch said after Friday’s game. “You have to remember when he catches his rhythm and gets going like that, he has the starter package to get through any lineup for a long time. So given how he was pitching and his rhythm, he punches out everybody, and I felt he’d earned it. So I wasn’t a knock on anything going on in the ‘pen or the options that we do have but using his pitches at the right time when he’s feeling the way he’s feeling, I thought it was the right call for us.”
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Framber Valdez update: Detroit Tigers LHP returns, reliever sent down
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
