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Tigers Acquire Charlie Morton

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The Tigers have acquired right-hander Charlie Morton from the Orioles in exchange for minor league left-hander Micah Ashman. Baltimore will also send cash considerations. To free up space on their 40-man roster, the Tigers designated left-hander PJ Poulin for assignment. Jeff Passan of ESPN was the first to report that Morton was heading to Detroit.

Morton, 41, joins Chris Paddack as the Tigers’ second veteran rotation addition near the trade deadline.  Morton signed a $15MM free agent deal with the Orioles in January, but lost his rotation job after five disastrous starts.  After the Orioles designated Kyle Gibson for assignment on May 18th, Morton returned to the rotation.  He’s been a new pitcher in those 11 starts, posting a 3.88 ERA, 22.7 K%, and 8.9 BB%.

Now Morton joins the first-place Tigers, who are tied for the best record in the American League.  The club’s rotation consists of ace Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, Paddack, and Morton.  Reese Olson is out for the season with a shoulder strain, while free agent signing Alex Cobb was able to resume his rehab assignment on Tuesday as he recovers from a hip injury.  Rookie Troy Melton, who drew two starts this month, has been moved to the bullpen to accommodate Morton.

It’s unclear how the Tigers would make it work if all six veteran pitchers are healthy, but that’s a good problem to have.  Morton could perhaps serve as the Tigers’ fourth starter in the playoffs.  He has extensive postseason experience, including for manager A.J. Hinch’s 2017-18 Astros.

Perhaps because of the success of his team or a desire to hang on to his best prospects, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris didn’t shoot for the top of the market at the trade deadline.  Aside from adding Morton and Paddack to the rotation, Harris picked up Kyle Finnegan, Rafael Montero, the injured Paul Sewald, and Codi Heuer as bullpen reinforcements.  It was not unlike the club’s offseason, which consisted of modest free agent deals for Flaherty, Cobb, Gleyber Torres, Tommy Kahnle, John Brebbia, Manuel Margot, and Jose Urquidy.

At one point it seemed like the Orioles might move three starting pitchers, but Zach Eflin and Tomoyuki Sugano ended up staying put.  Eflin was placed on the IL today with back discomfort, while Sugano likely didn’t move the needle for teams given his 15.2 K%.  The Orioles still traded Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Ramon Urias, Cedric Mullins, Andrew Kittredge, Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto, and Bryan Baker this month, so it was an incredibly active trade deadline for Mike Elias and company.

Ashman, 22, was drafted in the 11th round by the Tigers last year out of the University of Utah.  The reliever has a 1.49 ERA and 25.5 K-BB% in the minors this year and moved to Double-A earlier this month.  It appears the Tigers are taking on all $4.76MM owed to Morton for the rest of the year, which likely dampened Baltimore’s return.

Tigers Trade Dietrich Enns To Orioles

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The Orioles and Tigers apparently made a last minute trade before the deadline. Detroit dealt left-hander Dietrich Enns to Baltimore for cash. He’d been designated for assignment just this afternoon when the Tigers acquired Codi Heuer from Texas.

Enns, 34, could get a look in the Baltimore rotation. The O’s traded Charlie Morton and placed Zach Eflin on the injured list. They’re more or less playing out the string and need pitchers who can take innings behind Trevor Rogers and Tomoyuki Sugano. Enns has struggled in a limited big league look, giving up 12 runs in 17 2/3 frames spanning seven appearances. He has posted excellent numbers over 14 Triple-A starts, working to a 2.89 ERA with a near-27% strikeout rate against a tidy 5.6% walk percentage.

Prior to this season, Enns’ major league experience consisted of brief stints with the 2017 Twins and ’21 Rays. He has also pitched in Japan and Korea, turning in a 4.19 ERA over 30 starts in the KBO last season. The O’s will give him an opportunity to see if they can get similar mid-30s production from Enns as they did with Albert Suarez a year ago.

Phillies Acquire Matt Manning

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The Tigers announced that right-hander Matt Manning has been dealt to the Phillies in exchange for minor league outfielder Josueth Quinonez.  Manning was designated for assignment by Detroit earlier today, and this trade was completed just under the wire before the 5pm CT trade deadline.  Philadelphia designated right-hander Devin Sweet for assignment in a corresponding roster move.

Selected ninth overall by the Tigers in the 2016 draft, Manning’s time in the organization will officially end without the righty living up to his lofty potential as one of baseball’s top pitching prospects.  Manning has a 4.43 ERA over 254 career big league innings from 2021-24, along with an uninspiring 16.4% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate.  Some injuries surely played a role along the way, and yet with Manning now in his last minor league option year, Detroit chose to just walk away from a pitcher that was once seen as a future cornerstone.

Despite Manning’s struggles in the majors, he is still only 27 years old, and it isn’t surprising that the Phillies quickly arranged a trade soon after Manning was DFA’ed.  There’s little risk for the Phils in seeing if Manning can still be a post-hype breakout after a change of scenery, or at least turn himself into a decent contributor if not a star.  In the immediate short term, Manning replenishes the rotation depth chart after the Phillies traded Mick Abel to the Twins as part of the Jhoan Duran swap.

Sweet is also a former Tiger, acquired by Philadelphia in a trade last November.  Sweet’s lone bit of MLB experience came in the 2023 season when he tossed 8 2/3 innings over seven games with the Mariners and Athletics, and he has since been pitching at the Triple-A level.  The results weren’t great this year in Lehigh Valley, as Sweet has a 5.50 ERA and six homers allowed over 37 2/3 innings, with a modest 20.3% strikeout rate.

Sweet has battled control issues for each of the last two seasons, and he’ll find himself back in DFA limbo.  He has been outrighted before, so if the 28-year-old clears waivers, he can reject an outright assignment off the Phillies’ 40-man roster and instead opt for free agency.

Quinonez signed by the Phils during the 2024 international signing period, and the outfielder has played a lot of center and right field in the early stages of his pro career.  Quinonez has hit .301/.397/.383 in 310 plate appearances with the Phillies’ Dominican Summer League teams, and he’ll now head to Detroit’s system as a long-term prospect.

Guardians Claim Carlos Hernandez

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The Guardians claimed right-hander Carlos Hernandez off waivers from the Tigers, according to MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins.  Detroit designed Hernandez for assignment last week.

The veteran reliever has now changed teams via waiver claim for the third time in a little over four months.  Hernandez had spent his entire career in the Royals organization before the Phillies claimed him away in March, then the Tigers plucked him off the waiver wire in mid-June.  Both of those teams gave Hernandez some action at the MLB level, and the righty has a 6.69 ERA over 36 1/3 combined innings with Philadelphia (25 games) and Detroit (11 games).

Hernandez’s 20.5% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate this year are pretty close to his career marks over six Major League seasons, and Hernandez has a career 5.17 ERA in 292 2/3 innings.  Now out of minor league options, Hernandez can’t be assigned to the minors without first being exposed to waivers, hence his increasingly frequent trips to DFA limbo.

He does have two years of arbitration control remaining, and teams have been interested enough in his stuff to add him on multiple claims now, with the Guardians being the latest to see if Hernandez can offer more with a change of scenery.  Cleveland’s pitching development system could perhaps unlock something in the right-hander, who is still only 28 years old.  Owed just the remainder of a $1.16MM salary for 2025, Hernandez is a pretty inexpensive depth arm to the Guardians’ bullpen.

Tigers Acquire Codi Heuer From Rangers

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The Rangers announced they’ve traded reliever Codi Heuer to Detroit for cash. This opens a 40-man roster for Texas, who will likely acquire some kind of relief help in the coming hours. Detroit designated lefty Dietrich Enns for assignment and optioned Heuer to Triple-A Toledo.

Heuer signed an offseason minor league deal with Texas. The Rangers called him up on June 1 but optioned him back to Triple-A a couple days later. He made one appearance, working an inning and a third while giving up a home run. That was the 6’5″ righty’s first major league action in four years. Heuer has had a nice season in the upper minors, working to a 3.43 ERA with a 31% strikeout rate over 35 appearances.

Texas probably viewed the 29-year-old Heuer as a DFA candidate if they’re able to make a more notable bullpen move today. Rather than wait until finalizing an acquisition, they preemptively cleared a spot while picking up a bit of cash. Detroit jumps the waiver order to get a pitcher with options who is having a good Triple-A season. Heuer sits around 96 MPH with his fastball and has a mid-80s slider. He has a history of elbow injuries, including 2022 Tommy John surgery and a ’23 fracture that required another operation.

Enns was called up last month. The 34-year-old southpaw has logged 17 2/3 innings with a 5.60 ERA across seven outings. He has posted excellent numbers with Toledo, turning in a 2.89 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate over 14 starts. He’ll likely end up on waivers in the next few days.

Tigers Acquire Kyle Finnegan

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The Tigers announced the acquisition of right-hander Kyle Finnegan from the Nationals. Detroit sent righty pitching prospects Josh Randall and R.J. Sales back to Washington. The Tigers transferred newly-acquired reliever Paul Sewald to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding roster move. Sewald has been out since mid-July with a shoulder strain and is not expected back until the middle of September.

Finnegan, 33, has been the Nationals’ primary closer in each of the past three seasons after sharing the role with Brad Hand and Tanner Rainey in 2021 and ’22. A 2024 All-Star, the righty has racked up 108 saves over the past five seasons but does not have the elite run prevention numbers typically associated with the closer role. For his career, he’s posted a 3.66 ERA and 4.16 FIP across 329 1/3 innings of work. Those numbers have been trending downward as well, with a 3.87 ERA and 4.24 FIP since the start of the 2023 season. He’s struck out just 21.5% of batters in that time while walking 8.6%, and while his walk rate has stayed steady this year his strikeouts have dipped further to a clip of just 19.6%.

Overall, it’s closer to a middle relief profile than that of a top-of-the-line closer, but Finnegan’s experience in the ninth inning could still be valuable for a club like the Tigers without an established ninth-inning guy. Will Vest is currently getting the majority of the opportunities in the ninth, but perhaps Finnegan could help ease the load on Vest’s shoulders. There are some things to like in Finnegan’s numbers this season, as well; he’s generating grounders at a strong 48.2% clip, his 64.1% strand rate suggests poor sequencing luck that could lend to strong results going forward, and his 38.8% hard-hit rate is his best figure since 2021.

Finnegan joins what increasingly appears to be a bulk approach to overhauling the bullpen in Detroit. In addition to the veteran closer, the Tigers have traded for Randy Dobnak, Rafael Montero, and Paul Sewald to bolster their bullpen in recent days. Dobnak and Montero are both generally regarded as fringe relievers at this stage of their careers, while Sewald has impressive strikeout rates and closing experience but is expected to be on the injured list with a shoulder strain until September.

Finnegan figures to be the most impactful piece of the group, but he’s a clear step down from some of the more well-regarded arms that have been bandied about as available this summer like David Bednar and Pete Fairbanks, to say nothing of elite closers like Jhoan Duran and Mason Miller who have already been moved. That’s not to say a bigger splash couldn’t be coming down the pipeline at some point before the deadline this afternoon, but with the price tag on top relievers soaring it’s at least possible that Scott Harris’s front office isn’t interested in giving up top talent to acquire bullpen help.

They managed to avoid paying a premium for Finnegan’s services in this deal. In exchange for Finnegan, the Nationals will receive a pair of pitching prospects. Randall is the headliner of the pair, ranked as Detroit’s 15th best prospect by MLB Pipeline. A 22-year-old who was recently promoted to High-A, Detroit’s third-round pick from the 2024 draft has posted a 3.92 ERA in 17 starts across the Single- and High-A levels this year. While Randall is currently starting, there’s some relief risk in his profile due to questions on whether or not his changeup will develop. Sales, meanwhile, was the club’s tenth-round pick in last season’s draft and is unranked within the Tigers’ top 30 prospects at Pipeline.

After posting solid numbers for UNC Wilmington as an amateur, Sales has 2.71 ERA in 66 1/3 innings of work so far this year while striking out 24.1% of his opponents. Both Sales and Randall figure to be in the mix to help out the Nationals’ pitching staff as soon as late next year, though it would hardly be a shock if either hurler didn’t debut until 2027. They join infield prospect Ronny Cruz and outfield prospect Christian Franklin as deadline additions for the Nats after that duo was acquired from the Cubs in exchange for right-hander Michael Soroka last night. Right-hander Clayton Beeter and outfield prospect Browm Martinez have also joined the organization in recent days after the Yankees swung a deal with D.C. to acquire Amed Rosario.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the Tigers were acquiring Finnegan. Andrew Golden of The Washington Post had the return. Image courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images.

Tigers Designate Matt Manning For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated right-hander Matt Manning for assignment, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The former top prospect’s spot on the roster will go to newly acquired reliever Paul Sewald.

Manning, 27, was the ninth overall pick in the 2016 draft and for years ranked among the game’s top pitching prospects. At one point, he was part of an untouchable trio of pitching prospects in Detroit, alongside former No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize and 2024 AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. Things for Manning haven’t panned out. That’s in part due to injuries, but the right-hander has had several opportunities in the majors and has yet to deliver on his former prospect status.

Manning logged big league time each season from 2021-24, starting a total of 50 games for Detroit over those four years. He posted sub-4.00 ERAs in 2022-23 but did so with bottom-of-the-scale strikeout numbers and plenty of hard contact allowed. On the whole, Manning has a 4.43 ERA, 16.4% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 40.4% ground-ball rate in 254 MLB frames.

That collective output is decent, but Manning struggled to a 4.88 ERA in 27 2/3 big league innings last year and has been shelled in Triple-A thus far in 2025. He’s spent the entire year in Toledo but turned in a 6.04 ERA with a gruesome 15.9% walk rate in 50 2/3 innings. Detroit dropped him from the Mud Hens’ rotation back in April and has been using Manning in short relief since May 1, but the results have still been uninspiring: 5.12 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate, 15.1% walk rate.

This is Manning’s final minor league option year. He can spend as much time in Triple-A for the remainder of the season as a new team would like, but he’ll have to stick on the major league roster with any club that claims/acquires him beginning next season. Manning has four seasons of club control remaining. He can be traded at any point up until this afternoon’s deadline, but after that he’ll need to be placed on waivers. Even with his struggles of late, it seems likely another club would at least take a no-risk flier on him just given his former pedigree — particularly a rebuilding or selling club that frees up several 40-man roster spots with trades of veteran players today.

Tigers Acquire Paul Sewald

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The Tigers are acquiring right-hander Paul Sewald from the Guardians, according to a report from Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Cleveland will receive a player to be named later or cash from Detroit to complete the deal. Buster Olney of ESPN reports that the Tigers are taking on the remainder of Sewald’s contract in its entirety, which Olney estimates is about a $2MM commitment.

Sewald, 35, was one of the better closers in the league with the Mariners just a few short years ago. After debuting with the Mets all the way back in 2017 and spending some time in New York as an up-and-down middle reliever with mediocre results, Sewald came to Seattle in 2021 and pitched to a 2.88 ERA with a 3.34 FIP across 171 2/3 innings of work with the club while racking up 52 saves across parts of three seasons. He was swapped to the Diamondbacks at the 2023 trade deadline and began to struggle after leaving the Pacific Northwest. While he remained a closer for the majority of his time in Arizona and managed to pick up an additional 29 saves during that time, his results were pedestrian as he pitched to a 4.08 ERA with a 4.29 FIP. After striking out 35.0% of his opponents with the Mariners, that figure dropped to just 25.7% during his time with Arizona.

That middling performance in the desert left Sewald to enter free agency last winter in a less than ideal spot. He ended up signing with the Guardians on a one-year, $7MM guarantee back in January but has not lived up to that contract so far. The right-hander has been placed on the injured list due to a right shoulder strain two separate times this year; once back in April and once just two weeks ago. He’s only managed to make 18 appearances around those injury woes, and hasn’t exactly impressed during those outings with a 4.70 ERA and 4.07 FIP across 15 1/3 innings of work. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press writes that Sewald is currently expected to return in early September, meaning he’ll be a late-season addition to the club’s bullpen at best.

All of that explains why the Tigers were able to take Sewald off Cleveland’s hands for little more than salary relief, but it’s still not hard to see why Detroit would be intrigued. The veteran righty is still punching out batters at a high level, with a 29.0% strikeout rate this year. He was managing to keep his walks under control as well, allowing free passes at a 6.5% clip that leaves him with his best K-BB% since 2022. A .297 BABIP that’s slightly elevated by his standards and an extremely low 65.2% strand rate suggest there could be some poor fortune when it comes to batted balls and sequencing baked into Sewald’s lackluster results, offering optimism for better days ahead. Perhaps most importantly, the elevated home run rates that have dogged Sewald throughout his career could be mitigated in Detroit given the cavernous outfield of Comerica Park.

Sewald is the fourth pitcher Detroit has added in recent days, joining relievers Rafael Montero and Randy Dobnak as well as starter Chris Paddack. All four of those additions are relatively low-impact veterans, with Paddack slotting firmly into the back of Detroit’s rotation while Montero and Dobnak are both little more than middle relievers. Sewald has the upside of a quality set-up man, but won’t be able to pitch at all for another month at least. Overall, it’s a volume approach to the deadline for a club that entered the summer with a clear need in the bullpen. Sewald won’t unilaterally solve the Tigers’ need for a late-inning reliever to pair with Will Vest, but he could represent a viable fallback option in case a larger deal for a more impactful piece doesn’t ultimately come together in the final hours before this afternoon’s deadline.

Tigers Designate Tyler Owens For Assignment

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The Tigers announced that right-hander Tyler Owens has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up roster space for Rafael Montero, acquired earlier tonight in a trade with the Braves.

The 24-year-old Owens made his Major League debut this season, appearing in three games with Detroit and allowing one earned run over three total innings.  He also walked three batters during his cups of coffee in the Show, which continues the severe control problems that have arisen for Owens this year at Triple-A Toledo.  A 14.8% walk rate over 30 innings with the Mud Hens has been a big reason behind Owens’ 5.40 ERA in his first taste of Triple-A ball, and his 19% strikeout rate is also pretty modest.

Owens has been on Toledo’s injured list due to a hip injury for the last two weeks, and he’ll now head into DFA limbo for the first time in his career.  A 13th-round pick for the Braves in the 2019 draft, Owens was dealt to the Rangers prior to the 2024 season, and was then traded to Detroit along with Liam Hicks almost exactly a year ago in the deal that sent Carson Kelly to Texas.

Tigers Acquire Rafael Montero From Braves

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The Tigers announced the acquisition of right-handed reliever Rafael Montero from the Braves, in exchange for minor league infielder Jim Jarvis.  Detroit designated Tyler Owens for assignment in a corresponding 40-man roster move, and the Tigers will also need to clear 26-man roster space at some point before their next game.

Montero is on the move for the second time in less than four months, as Atlanta picked up the reliever in an early-April trade with Houston.  That deal was mostly a matter of salary relief for the Astros, who are covering roughly $8.5MM of Montero’s $11.5MM salary for the 2025 season.  Montero is still owed roughly $3.83MM for the remainder of the campaign, so while it depends on how exactly the money is being split up, he’ll still be a relatively inexpensive rental add for the Tigers during the pennant race.

Detroit has thus far added Chris Paddack to the rotation, free agent Luke Jackson to the bullpen, and now Montero its relief corps, as the Tigers have yet to full the trigger on any headline moves.  Merrill Kelly is known to be on the team’s radar and third base targets Eugenio Suarez and Ke’Bryan Hayes have both been dealt already, but since the Tigers’ focus is reportedly on bullpen upgrades, they could be looking to add some arms first before turning to other matters.

How much help Montero can provide is up for debate, as he has a 5.40 ERA over 38 1/3 combined innings for the Braves and Astros, with an untenable 13.9% walk rate that stands out as one of the worst in baseball.  This lack of control has overshadowed some other decent metrics (and an excellent chase rate), and it should be noted that Montero’s numbers were looking a lot better even 10 days ago.  However, he has allowed eight earned runs over his last four games and 3 1/3 innings of work, sending his ERA through the roof.

It could be that the Tigers view these recent struggles as just a blip, and that Montero can right the ship and at least slightly cut back on the walks.  The Tigers surely view Montero more as a middle relief option than a candidate for higher-leverage innings, and even his okay-ish strikeout numbers are a boost to a Detroit bullpen that doesn’t miss many bats.

Montero was an obvious trade chip for a Braves team looking ahead to 2026.  The trade brings back Jarvis, a multi-positional infielder who was an 11th-round pick for Detroit in the 2023 draft.  The University of Alabama product has spent the whole season with Double-A Erie, hitting .242/.316/.336 over 310 plate appearances while playing mostly shortstop, with a good chunk of time at second and third base.

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