DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers traded veteran reliever Trey Wingenter to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Wingenter, 30, had been pitching for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens.
In exchange, the Tigers will receive minor-league reliever CJ Weins, who is in his first full professional season after being drafted in the sixth round last summer.
Wingenter made the Tigers’ Opening Day roster in 2023 after signing as a minor-league free agent before the season. But he was sidelined by injury and then bounced back and forth between Toledo and Detroit after being activated from the injured list last July.
Wingenter had a 5.82 ERA in 17 innings with the Tigers in 2023, striking out 22 and walking seven. He was waived after the season and later re-signed on a minor-league deal.
Wingenter had been one of the Mud Hens’ top relievers, posting a 3.31 ERA in 32 2/3 innings. He had 48 strikeouts and 17 walks.
Weins, who turns 24 next month, had been assigned to Class A Salem, where he’s posted a 4.81 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work with 29 strikeouts and 16 walks.
Weins played college ball in junior college and at the University of South Carolina and then transferred to Western Kentucky as a graduate player. Having exhausted his college eligibility, Weins had little signing leverage and agreed to a reported bonus of only $50,000 last summer. That under-slot signing likely helped the Red Sox spread more money to other draft picks.
According to Sox Prospects, Weins throws from a three-quarters arm slot and has a low-to-mid-90s fastball, slider and curve.
Wingenter was an emerging high-leverage reliever with the San Diego Padres in 2018 and 2019, striking out one of three batters using a mid-to-upper 90s fastball and a nearly impossible-to-hit slider. But he underwent Tommy John surgery just before the start of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He was aiming for a late-season return with the Padres in 2021 but suffered a back injury while on a rehab assignment and was sidelined once again with surgery.
When he made his Tigers’ debut on April 1, it was his first time on a big-league mound in three-and-a-half years.