Detroit Tigers: 4 Matt Manning trade proposals

After the signing of Jack Flaherty, the Detroit Tigers now have a surplus of starting pitching. It's far from the worst thing in the world, since pitchers often get hurt — just ask Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, or Flaherty himself.

But Tigers still have a massive hole at third base. Matt Vierling is not the answer. They can't go into spring training with no dedicated third baseman two years in a row. That's roster-building malpractice.

Even if they don't find an upgrade at third base, they still need another bat for the lineup. They can't rely on just Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter to provide some thump, especially with Riley Greene not at 100%.

They aren't going to find anything in free agency, as we've discussed at length. So we have to look at the trade market. With said surplus of starting pitching, it would make sense to trade from said surplus to acquired another hitter.

Scott Harris said earlier this week that there are currently no plans to trade one of the Tigers' starters. but things can always change. He did say that they will still listen if teams call. So what pitcher should be traded?

Well, like I've said all offseason, Matt Manning makes the most sense. He's young and has three years of team control left. He has quite the injury history himself, and hasn't been very consistent when healthy, but if there's one thing that always has value, it's young, controllable starting pitching.

So today, we're going to go through some Matt Manning trade proposals to see what a trade involving the former first-round pick could look like. All of these proposals will involve teams that have a need for starting pitching.

This intro has been longer than usual, so we're going to cut it here and hop right into it. Here's four Matt Manning trade proposals

Proposal 1: Manning to Baltimore

The Orioles have a budding young roster that won 101 game in 2023. They did it without a ton of starting pitching depth, and that lack of depth got exposed in the playoffs against the Texas Rangers.

Since they are owned by the Angelos family, you know they aren't going to spend to get a big name starter to come to Baltimore. So GM Mike Elias is going to have to get creative if he wants to upgrade the rotation.

Luckily for him — and for the Tigers — the Orioles have a loaded farm system to trade from. They could acquire virtually anybody they want with the right pieces. With Manning being young and affordable, it seems we have a fit here. Let's a make a deal, shall we?

Shoutout to MCB contributor and Tigers Minor League Report Co-Owner Rogelio Castillo, who's been on the Joey Ortiz train for a while. He's currently blocked by the likes of Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, and even No. 1 overall prospect Jackson Holliday.

Ortiz is a great prospect in his own right. He has a history of limiting the strikeouts, as well as hitting for a ton of contact. He got a cup of coffee in the big leagues in 2023, and it wasn't pretty, but it's hard to make any conclusions off of 34 plate appearances.

Pham is a nice little pitching prospect. He has a high-strikeout, high-walk guy until he was promoted to Double-A in 2023, where the strikouts went down, but so did the walks. He had a 2.57 ERA between High-A and Double-A this past year.

The Tigers get an infielder that can play in the big leagues right away, and the Orioles get a young, controllable starter. This seems like a good fit for both teams.

Proposal 2: Manning to the Reds

The Reds are another team with an emerging young core. The hitters are pretty much all there, but the rotation still needs a lot of work. They've added Nick Martinez, but that's not going to cut it. They need more if they want to compete in 2024.

The Reds also have a very deep farm system. They could also acquire virtually anyone with the prospect riches they have.

We take a bit of a different approach with this one. Instead of getting someone who could help the team right now, the Tigers get their heir apparent to Javier Baez at shortstop in Edwin Arroyo. Arroyo was acquired by Cincy in 2022 as part of the Luis Castillo trade.

At 20 years old and having just reached Double-A, he's still a ways away. However, he could be ready by the time the Tigers either move Baez to second base, or choose to move from him entirely. Credit Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press for this idea on the "Days of Roar" podcast.

We chose to add Tejay Antone as well to give the Tigers another reliever for the bullpen. Antone had Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2022 season, and missed most of last season with a forearm injury. So there's some serious injury history here.

However, when he's been on the mound, he's been quite good. He has a career 2.41 ERA and 11.33 K/9. If he's able to stay healthy, this could be a serious weapon in the Tigers bullpen.

Proposal 3: Manning goes back home

The Giants are looking for starting pitching help, and are rumored to be willing to spend big to get it. They've been liked to guys like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell. However, they have developed a history of just missing out on some of the top players on the market. Just look at last year when they ended up with Arson Judge instead of Aaron Judge, and the Carlos Correa deal fell through at the last minute because of an issue with his physical. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Of course, Scott Harris was with the Giants before coming over to Detroit, so he knows the organization well. He covets and believes a lot of the same things that Farhan Zaidi likes. We could have a match here.

Instead of getting a big-name free agent, the Giants get a young, controllable starter in Manning. The Tigers, however, get a nice stopgap infielder in J.D. Davis, as well as some outfield depth in Austin Slater.

Davis has a history of being a solid hitter. He's had a wRC+ of at least 104 every year since 2019. He had a 2,2 fWAR last year, his highest since 2019. Defensively, he had an outs above average of 6 last year, the best of his career. He could be a really solid player for the Tigers.

Slater has been a platoon outfielder for the Giants since 2017, and has performed very well in that role. He's never had more than 325 plate appearances in a season, so he's best used sparingly. With how much the Tigers like to pinch-hit, Slater could be a nice get as well.

The last piece of the deal is pitching prospect Mason Black, somebody I've personally been a fan of for a while. He's got a wicked fastball/slider combo, something the Tigers like in their pitchers. The walks were slightly elevated in Triple-A last year, but he's someone who could help the Tigers out at some point in 2024 should they actually acquire him.

This deal would also send Manning back home to California. He grew up an hour and a half up I-80 in Sacramento. Not a bad outcome for him.