{"id":617366,"date":"2026-03-10T19:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/617366\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:50:14","slug":"tigers-select-enmanuel-de-jesus-place-troy-melton-on-60-day-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/617366\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Select Enmanuel De Jesus, Place Troy Melton On 60-Day IL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tigers announced Tuesday that they\u2019ve selected the contract of left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus<\/a>. Righty Troy Melton<\/a>, who\u2019s been slowed in camp<\/a> due to elbow inflammation, was placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Efra\u00edn Zavarce of IVC and 107.3 La Mega first reported<\/a> De Jesus would be added to the 40-man roster. Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base reports<\/a> that De Jesus had been in talks with a team in Asia, so it seems the Tigers had to choose between adding him to the 40-man roster and cutting him loose to sign in NPB, the KBO or the CPBL. Jason Beck of MLB.com adds<\/a> that there\u2019s been no setback with Melton, but his expected debut had been pushed into May already by this point.<\/p>\n

Adding De Jesus to the 40-man roster doesn\u2019t guarantee that he\u2019ll make the major league club on Opening Day. The 29-year-old has only limited major league experience and thus has a full slate of three minor league option years remaining. Now that he\u2019s on the 40-man, however, he\u2019s a clear candidate to break camp with the team or be among the first arms summoned to the majors in the event of an injury.<\/p>\n

De Jesus, who pitched briefly with the 2023 Marlins, tossed 6 1\/3 shutout innings this spring and held opponents to four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts before joining Venezuela\u2019s team in the World Baseball Classic. He\u2019s started one game in the Classic so far, holding Israel to one run on a pair of hits and no walks with eight punchouts through five terrific innings.<\/p>\n

A stint in Asia wouldn\u2019t have been surprising for De Jesus. He\u2019s spent the past two seasons in the Kiwoom Heroes\u2019 rotation in the Korea Baseball Organization, working to a combined 3.81 ERA in 343 innings. He\u2019s fanned 23.8% of his opponents there against a 6.1% walk rate. Detroit scooped him up on a minor league deal and non-roster invite this winter, but it\u2019s common for such deals to have foreign interest clauses that permit the player to ask for his release if an Asian club comes calling with a guaranteed offer. De Jesus seems to have had such a clause this time around, but his strong spring performance both with the Tigers and in the WBC has prompted his current MLB organization to keep him around.<\/p>\n

De Jesus could open the season as a swing option on the big league roster, although righty Drew Anderson<\/a> may have first dibs on that role. Like De Jesus, he\u2019s returning to the majors after a strong run in the KBO \u2014 although Anderson\u2019s dominance with the SSG Landers was enough to land him a $7MM guarantee on a major league contract. There\u2019s no room for either Anderson or De Jesus in a Detroit rotation that will feature Tarik Skubal<\/a>, Framber Valdez<\/a>, Jack Flaherty<\/a>, Casey Mize<\/a> and a returning Justin Verlander<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starters Jackson Jobe<\/a> (Tommy John surgery last June), Reese Olson<\/a> (shoulder surgery last month) and Melton are all opening the season on the 60-day IL. In addition to a potential Melton return in late May, Jobe could be back in the season\u2019s second half. Recently optioned Keider Montero<\/a> had been the top depth option still on the 40-man roster, joining Sawyer Gipson-Long<\/a> and Ty Madden<\/a> in that regard. De Jesus provides some more cover and a possible southpaw arm for the bullpen, where Tyler Holton<\/a>, Brant Hurter<\/a> and Drew Sommers<\/a> are the club\u2019s other options on the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tigers announced Tuesday that they\u2019ve selected the contract of left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus. Righty Troy Melton, who\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,64821,33608],"class_list":["post-617366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-enmanuel-de-jesus","tag-troy-melton"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116206622149780226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617366","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=617366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}