Blue Jays trade pitcher Nick Tepesch to the Detroit Tigers

The 29-year-old righty was drafted by the Rangers in the 2010 draft and will now head to his sixth organization since 2013.

During Wednesday night’s tilt against the Boston Red Sox, the Blue Jays announced that they traded right-handed starting pitcher Nick Tepesch to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for cash considerations. This is the second trade of the week involving a minor leaguer traded for cash, the first being Gio Urshela‘s trade to the New York Yankees.

Tepesch, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, broke into the big leagues as a member of the Texas Rangers in 2013 and was purchased by the Jays in July 2017 from the Minnesota Twins. As a member of the major league club, he’s pitched to a 5.14 ERA in 14 innings, starting three games in 2017.

Jason Beck of MLB.com reports that Tepesch will likely head to Double-A Erie to serve as pitching depth for the floundering Tigers, who currently sit in third place of the enigmatic American League Central. Evan Woodbery of MLive confirmed that he’ll head to Double-A Erie on Twitter.

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This season, playing for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons and the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Tepesch has thrown 89.1 frames overall, with an ERA of 6.45, striking out 50 and walking 29 in an even split between the two minor league levels.

With a WHIP of 1.590 in both levels, Tepesch was far from having a chance to start again for the Blue Jays. Even with the trouble experienced recently by the Jays starting rotation, Tepesch was lower on the depth chart than he’d hoped.

Overall, he’s logged over 600 innings at various minor league levels and has pitched to a combined ERA of 4.14. Having started over 100 games, he’s totaled453 strikeouts and has issued 158 free passes, mostly playing in Triple-A.

He’ll now head to the Tigers, a similarly positioned team to the Jays in that they’re rebuilding while still playing somewhat meaningful baseball games that test out young assets to gauge their talent and ability. While he won’t skyrocket to the top of the starting pitcher pyramid in Detroit, he probably has a better chance making it to the bigs there than he did with the Blue Jays.