Detroit City Wire

DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers announced that they have acquired catcher Liam Hicks and right-handed pitcher Tyler Owens from the Texas Rangers in exchange for catcher Carson Kelly.

Hicks, 25, has spent the entire 2024 season with Double-A Frisco, appearing in 80 games and batting .260/.364/.353 with 15 doubles, four home runs, and 33 RBI. Hicks has walked nearly as much as he’s struck out this season, drawing 41 bases on balls while striking out 44 times.

Originally drafted by Texas in the ninth round of the 2021 MLB Draft, Hicks has played in 209 games over three professional seasons, batting .267/.395/.365 with 36 doubles, one triple, ten home runs, and 99 RBI. He was named a Rangers Organization All-Star by MiLB.com in 2022 and 2023. Hicks put up impressive numbers in the Arizona Fall League in 2023, slashing .449/.553/.522 with five doubles and twelve RBI. He earned AFL Player of the Week honors for the week ending October 14 and was selected to play in the AFL Rising Stars Game.

Owens, 23, has made 26 relief appearances with Frisco this season, going 2-0 with eight saves, a 2.80 ERA (35.1IP/11ER), and 35 strikeouts. He currently ranks tied for fourth in the Texas League with eight saves while ranking fifth among Texas League relievers (min. 35.0 innings) with 2.29 walks per nine innings and a 3.89 strikeout-to-walk ratio, seventh with a 2.86 FIP and eighth with a 2.80 ERA.

Owens was drafted by Atlanta in the thirteenth round of the 2019 MLB Draft and has made 103 appearances, including thirty-two starts as a professional, compiling a record of seven wins and fifteen losses with seventeen saves, a career ERA of 4.10 (204.1IP/93ER), and recording two hundred eighteen strikeouts. He was acquired by Texas from Atlanta in exchange for outfielder J.P. Martinez on January 26, 2024.

Kelly, aged thirty years old, has played sixty games with the Tigers this season batting .240/.325/.391 with four doubles one triple seven home runs and twenty-nine RBI.