DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers have signed right-handed pitcher and former San Francisco Giants prospect Cole Waites to a minor-league deal.
The news was reported on Thursday by Ari Alexander of WHDH in Boston.
Waites, 27, missed the entire 2024 season and much of 2025 after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery.
An 18th-round draft pick out of West Alabama in 2019, Waites struck out 76 batters in 41 2/3 innings across three levels in 2022, earning a late-season call-up and making his MLB debut on Sept. 13, 2022.
He struggled with control in 2023 before undergoing another elbow surgery in September.
Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris was the Giants’ general manager from 2019 to 2022, overlapping with Waites’ development in the organization.
TIGERS’ NOTABLE MINOR-LEAGUE SIGNINGS
RHP Tanner Rainey (re-signed)C Tomas Nido (re-signed)RHP Matt Seelinger (re-signed)RHP Coles Waites