{"id":609235,"date":"2026-03-06T06:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/609235\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T06:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:17:15","slug":"tigers-josue-briceno-undergoes-wrist-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/609235\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers’ Josue Brice\u00f1o Undergoes Wrist Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tigers catching prospect Josue Brice\u00f1o<\/a> underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right wrist yesterday and will miss a yet-unspecified (but presumably significant) period of time, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brice\u00f1o is considered one of the Tigers\u2019 five best prospects and one of the 100 top prospects in the entire sport. He sits 40th on MLB.com\u2019s top-100 list<\/a>, 44th on the list of ESPN\u2019s Kiley McDaniel<\/a>, 59th on Keith Law\u2019s rankings at The Athletic<\/a> and 76th on Baseball America\u2019s 2026 top 100 list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 6\u20194\u2033 Brice\u00f1o has the makings of an offensive force behind the plate or at first base. He\u2019s hit at basically every stop in the minors since signing as a teenager out of Venezuela back in 2022, including a stout .266\/.383\/.500 slash with 20 homers and a gaudy 14.9% walk rate in 442 plate appearances between High-A and Double-A this past season. Every single one of those plate appearances came before Brice\u00f1o even celebrated his 21st birthday in late September.<\/p>\n

There are substantial questions about Brice\u00f1o\u2019s ability to stay behind the plate. He has a strong throwing arm but draws generally poor reviews for his framing, receiving and ability to block pitches in the dirt. He\u2019s on the tall side to be crouching behind the plate on a regular basis \u2014 though there have been a handful of 6\u20194\u2033 and even 6\u20195\u2033 catchers over the years \u2014 but that height would also serve him well at first base in the event that he switches positions on a more permanent basis down the road. For now, he\u2019s been splitting time between catcher and first base in roughly 60-40 fashion, with more reps behind the dish than at first base.<\/p>\n

Catcher is a clear position of depth for the Tigers, so Brice\u00f1o wasn\u2019t likely to make his big league debut this season anyhow. Former second-round pick Dillon Dingler<\/a> hit .278\/.327\/.425 with 13 home runs and plus defense in 469 plate appearances last year, seizing the team\u2019s starting gig in the process. Veteran Jake Rogers<\/a> is on hand as a backup with plus defensive skills but declining production in the batter\u2019s box. Twenty-two-year-old Thayron Liranzo<\/a>, like Brice\u00f1o, is another well-regarded catching prospect who played at the Double-A level last year. He had a rough showing there in his age-21 season but drew some top-100 fanfare of his own this time last year.<\/p>\n

Dingler is controllable for another five seasons, so barring any major steps backward, he\u2019ll likely hold down the position for the foreseeable future. Brice\u00f1o (or Liranzo) could emerge as a backup candidate and part-time first baseman\/designated hitter as soon as next season, depending on when he recovers from yesterday\u2019s surgery. Rogers is a free agent at season\u2019s end, and Brice\u00f1o will need to be added to Detroit\u2019s 40-man roster by mid-November to shield him from the Rule 5 Draft (if there is one; the 2021 Rule 5 Draft was scrapped due to the offseason lockout, and another lockout is expected this December). Liranzo was added to the 40-man in November of 2025 to keep him out of last year\u2019s Rule 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tigers catching prospect Josue Brice\u00f1o underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right wrist yesterday and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,41846],"class_list":{"0":"post-609235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-josue-briceno"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}