Detroit Tigers: Dawel Lugo designated for assignment in latest roster move
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Tigers announced a flurry of roster moves, one that left Dawel Lugo designated for assignment amid the hype of three big call-ups.
While the Detroit Tigers fanbase is still in shock from the monumental announcement from General Manager Al Avila, bringing three of the Tigers prospects up to the big leagues, one move went quietly. Though everything seems good, this does show signs of a failed trade from Avila.
The Tigers have reason to be excited with three new call-ups in the form of Casey Mize, Isaac Paredes, and Tarik Skubal, but what about a corresponding move? The Tigers were forced to designate Dawel Lugo for assignment or DFA him in layman’s terms.
Back in July of 2017, the Tigers acquired Sergio Alcantara, Jose King, and Dawel Lugo in a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The return in that trade was none other than J.D. Martinez, who has become one of the league’s best power-hitters, now stationed in the Boston Red Sox lineup.
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While Lugo has not been able to put things into motion in the batters’ box, his time with the Tigers could be up.
Now that the Tigers have DFA’d Lugo, he will be removed from the 40-man roster and be placed onto irrevocable waivers.
Any other team can claim him and send him to the minors or put him directly on the active roster.
If he passes through waivers, he would be optioned to the alternate site but no longer be a part of the 40-man roster.
Not that Lugo has much of a trade value given his stats, as long as he remains in the 60-man player pool, he could still be dealt up until the 2020 trade deadline.
So far, in 2020, Lugo has not proven to be much of an asset given he is hitting .200/.273/.200 with all of two hits over nine games. Not a great start for Lugo who was in a battle for the third base role with Jeimer Candelario, which he ultimately lost.
In 2019, Lugo found his way into 77 total games where he hit .245/.271/.381 with six home runs and 26 RBI on the season. Looking back on the Martinez deal, Lugo was the prized piece, and he has just not been able to get things going to put it lightly.
Alcantara is healthy and finds himself in Toledo at the club’s alternate training site, so he has a chance to prove he is worth something, but the Martinez deal looks as if we gave him away for nearly nothing, as of right now.
Even though there is tons of excitement around the prospects making their debuts, the move to DFA Lugo has to bring about the reality that the Martinez trade does not look too good. Everyone knows that Avila has not made the brightest and best trades during his tenure, but this does not look great.
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The Detroit Tigers DFA’d Dawel Lugo, which brings a grim reality that the organization appears to have lost the J.D. Martinez trade from 2017.