Detroit Tigers failed investment Nomar Mazara gets a deal with Padres
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Tigers took a chance on outfielder Nomar Mazara during the 2021 season. He was brought in on an inexpensive deal to see if he could be a vital piece of the teams’ outfield this past summer.
While this did not happen and was not the case, Mazara was a cheap investment for the Tigers that failed. It’s no harm and no foul since the Tigers barely shelled out anything to bring him in anyways.
The Tigers opted not to bring Mazara back for the 2022 season after things already did not pan out in 2021. That being said, Mazara was on the free-agent market heading into the Major League Baseball work stoppage.
He was able to secure a minor-league deal with an invitation to big league Spring Training with the San Diego Padres organization. Since the work stoppage only pertains to the big leagues, teams can still reach out and pursue free agents on minor-league contracts, so moves like this are permitted and not as surprising.
Former Detroit Tigers outfielder Nomar Mazara gets a deal with the Padres.
When it comes to Mazara’s time in Detroit, it was short and sweet and was over after 50 games played. Mazara would accumulate 181 at-bats where he slashed .212/.276/.321 while being punched out 45 times during the season.
He was not able to do much of anything with the Tigers in terms of offense, and the team opted to focus on the other options they had, whether it was Robbie Grossman, who had an exceptional year, or breakout Rule 5 stud, Akil Baddoo.
The Padres are going to mirror the Tigers in the opportunity to see what Mazara can do. While the pay will not be overwhelming, and Mazara has his work cut out for him to make the Padres roster, he’s going to try and latch on and provide depth out in San Diego.
Good riddance to Mazara. While he provides some depth, the Tigers have better options or at least options that they should be sending out there. Clogging the roster with outfield depth when Riley Greene might just poke through to the big leagues at some point makes it tougher.
If there’s not enough space on the roster for Greene, it makes it hard to call him up. Having Mazara back on the roster would likely have the Tigers scrambling. Even without making that move this year, there’s not a lot of need for Mazara.
Must Read. Detroit Tigers wanted Carlos Correa but would not meet his price tag. light
Adding in another true big leaguer to be outfield depth could be explored, but no more investment pieces are going to benefit the roster.