The Dontrelle Willis experiment is over in Detroit.  The Tigers announced Saturday they are designating Willis to make room for Max Scherzer who will start on Sunday.

“It never worked out the way we would’ve liked it to work out,” team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said in announcing the move. “I don’t think I really need to say any more than that. At the time, we thought we were getting a guy who would come in and be a very solid big league pitcher, and it didn’t work out for us. Those things happen at times. You’re never happy when they do. He’s put forward the effort. We know we’ve dealt with a lot of issues with him. It’s unfortunate.”

Willis went 2-8 with a 6.86 ERA over the last three years with the Tigers, covering 24 games — 22 of them starts. He missed stretches over the previous two seasons to the disabled list — a knee injury in 2008, then what was termed as anxiety disorder last year — but at the root, his Tigers tenure came down to a seemingly endless battle with finding the strike zone consistently.

Willis did show glimpses of hope as he had solid stretches in a couple of those May performances, retiring 11 of the first 12 Dodgers he faced May 21 in Los Angeles, but he had similarly rough stretches where he battled walks.

Willis who has an electric delivery is still looking to re-establish his career.  Look for him to attempt a come back with a National League team where he has had success.

You can see Dontrelle’s career numbers here.

Information from MLB.com was used in this article.