Tigers Move Will Vest to 60-Day Injured List for Important Reason

The Detroit Tigers made a move on Sunday that ensured Will Vest gets more time to recover and that they don’t lose an important player.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Will Vest. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

On the surface, Sunday’s move by the Detroit Tigers was one made to give an injured pitcher more time to recover.

Before Sunday’s game with the Los Angeles Angels, the Tigers moved injured reliever Will Vest from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. The move creates space on the 40-man roster and indicates that the Tigers don’t expect Vest to return soon.

The Tigers placed him on the 15-day IL on July 1 (retroactive to June 28) with right posterior elbow inflammation. The move means that Detroit can’t activate him until late August, since the move remains backdated to the original IL move.

But there was another reason the Tigers did it, and it had nothing to do with him.

Why Tigers Really Moved Will Vest to 60-Day IL

Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Per Jeff Seidel at the Detroit Free Press (subscription required), the Tigers had another reason to move Vest.

Detroit had a pitcher at Triple-A named Troy Watson. The 15th round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2018, he is playing at Toledo and his have a fine season. He is 3-3 with a 2.88 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 56.1 innings. The 29-year-old has never pitched in the Majors. But he’s been a starter and a reliever in the minors and that sort of ability appeals to Detroit. Think about how the Tigers have used Keider Montero in past seasons.

There was a problem. Watson was getting considerable interest from foreign clubs, enough interest to worry the Tigers that the right-hander might bolt.

There was only one way for Detroit to keep a player like that — purchase his contract. To do that, the Tigers needed a roster spot. There are two ways to do that. The first is to designate a player for assignment. The second is to move an injured player to the 60-day IL. Detroit chose the latter.

Seidel reported that the Tigers signed Watson to an MLB deal and put him on the 40-man roster after it moved Vest to the 60-day IL. That keeps Watson with Detroit and makes promoting him to make his MLB debut a little easier. That only requires a 26-man roster move now.

Meanwhile, Vest will have to wait longer to try and turn things around this season. The right-hander, who played his college baseball at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas, is 3-5 with a 6.08 ERA in 27 games, with 27 strikeouts and 10 walks in 26.2 innings. He had seven holds and two saves in seven changes.

He was coming off one of his best seasons as he went 6-5 with a 3.01 ERA in 2025, with three holds and 23 saves in 30 chances as he helped the Tigers reach the AL Division Series for the second straight year.