Former Guardians reliever resurfaces as depth in Tigers’ bullpen

Nick Sandlin’s back in the American League Central. 

After a 1 1/2 year detour that saw him head to Toronto and have a brief stint out west with the Angels, the former Guardians reliever joined the Tigers on a minor league deal on Tuesday. 

This is the second organization for Sandlin this season, as he started the season with the Angels but was designated for assignment after posting a 11.42 ERA in 8 2/3 innings. He spent about a week on the open market before signing a minor league deal with the Tigers, who sent him to Triple-A Toledo. 

Nick Sandlin is back in the AL Central thanks to a minor league deal with the Tigers

While Sandlin is on a minor league deal, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him promoted soon if he’s able to figure out the command issues that have plagued him recently. Along with having that eye-popping ERA with the Angels, he also posted a walk rate of 12.5% after having a 10% walk rate last season. 

Those numbers are a far cry from when Sandlin was at his peak with the Guardians and posted a 2.25 ERA in 44 innings with the Guardians in 2022. 

He posted a 3.75 ERA in both the 2023 and ‘24 campaigns, but struggled with arm injuries in 2024 that ended up being a harbinger of how things would go with the Blue Jays. 

He only managed to throw 16 1/3 innings with the Blue Jays last year due to an elbow injury, which is part of the reason why he had to settle for a minor league pact with the Angels in the offseason. 

He ended up appearing in eight games with the Angels and had three scoreless outings while allowing multiple runs in the other five. 

Those arm injuries have sapped Sandlin of some of his velocity (91.4 mph), but the big problem is that aforementioned walk rate. He’s never had wipeout stuff and always seemed to pitch better than the advanced statistics indicated, but all of that will become moot if he isn’t able to strike batters out. 

He’s going to join a Tigers’ bullpen that currently boasts a 3.83 ERA and is without setup man Will Vest. But the biggest injury on Detroit’s pitching staff is the loss of Tarik Skubal, who is expected to miss a couple months after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. 

The Tigers are last in the AL Central with a 19-25 record, but it’s only 4 1/2 games between them and the Guardians. At this point, Sandlin shouldn’t play into that equation much since he’s a ‘break glass in case of emergency.’ But him being forced into a bigger role could work in the Guardians’ favor since he looked pretty over the hill in his time with the Angels.

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