Another day, another minor-league addition.
The Detroit Tigers signed right-handed reliever Phil Bickford on Jan. 13 to a minor-league contract. The deal includes a non-roster invitation to MLB spring training and pays $1.3 million if he makes the MLB roster, according to multiple people with knowledge of the agreement.
The 30-year-old owns a 4.62 ERA across 189 innings in 187 games during his five-year MLB career, but he hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since appearing in eight games in 2024.
Bickford – a two-time first-round draft pick – spent the entire 2025 season at the Triple-A level in the Chicago Cubs’ and Philadelphia Phillies’ organizations, posting a 3.52 ERA with 17 walks (9.1% walk rate) and 53 strikeouts (28.5% strikeout rate) across 46 innings in 39 games.
He signed with the Cubs in November 2024 but was released in July 2025. He then signed with the Phillies later that month and became a free agent in November 2025.
If Bickford doesn’t earn a spot on the Tigers’ Opening Day roster, he will report to Triple-A Toledo in 2026.
From 2020-24, Bickford pitched in MLB for the Milwaukee Brewers (2020-21), Los Angeles Dodgers (2021-23), New York Mets (2023) and New York Yankees (2024). He even took the mound for the Dodgers in the 2021 postseason, both in the NLDS and NLCS.
Of his 189 innings, he had 179â…” innings from 2021-23.
During that three-year stretch, Bickford logged a 2.81 ERA over 51â…“ innings in 2021, followed by a 4.72 ERA in 61 innings in 2022 and a 4.95 ERA in 67â…“ innings in 2023, while combining for a 9.5% wake rate and a 26.6% strikeout rate.
Celebrate 125 epic seasons of the Tigers with a new book!
In 2025, Bickford threw three pitch types for Triple-A Iowa with the Cubs and Triple-A Lehigh with the Phillies, but he relied almost exclusively on a fastball-slider mix: 67.3% four-seam fastballs and 32.2% sliders.
It has always been a fastball-slider approach.
His fastball averaged 92 mph, down 1.7 mph from his last full season in the majors in 2023. The encouraging sign: His fastball limited opponents to a .162 batting average and generated a 23.8% whiff rate, slightly above the Triple-A average.
His slider held opponents to a .215 batting average, though it produced a below-average 27% whiff rate.
[ MUST LISTEN: Make