The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve optioned right-hander Matt Manning to Triple-A Toledo. That puts an end to the three-horse race for the final two spots in manager AJ Hinch’s rotation. Right-handers Casey Mize and Reese Olson will open the season on the starting staff behind lefty Tarik Skubal and righties Kenta Maeda and Jack Flaherty. Detroit also reassigned non-roster right-hander Drew Anderson to minor league camp.
Detroit’s talented trio of right-handers didn’t make the decision easy — at least not in terms of spring results. Each of Mize, Olson and Manning pitched between 14 2/3 innings and 16 innings this spring, and none posted an ERA north of Olson’s 3.68. Olson posted the best blend of strikeout and walk rates in camp (22.6% and 6.5%, respectively). Mize notched the lowest ERA but the highest walk rate. Manning was perhaps done in by the six home runs he yielded in 16 innings.
While Manning won’t open the season in the rotation, it’s likely that he, Mize and Olson will all make their share of starts in Detroit this season. Mize is in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery and back surgery. He’ll be on an innings limit of some degree. Injuries in the rotation are also a virtual inevitability. Even with Manning opening the year in Toledo, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him start 15-plus games in the bigs.
Mize, 27 in May, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft. He showed plenty of promise in 2021, tossing 150 1/3 innings of 3.71 ERA ball with a below-average 19.3% strikeout rate but a strong 6.7% walk rate and similarly encouraging 48.1% ground-ball rate. That looked to set the stage for Mize to seize a long-term spot in the Detroit rotation, but he unfortunately suffered a UCL tear early in the 2022 season. He wound up undergoing Tommy John surgery and, while he was rehabbing that procedure, underwent surgery to address a nagging back issue that had been plaguing him for some time. He’s still under club control for three seasons.
Olson, 24, made his big league debut with Detroit last season and quickly impressed. In his first 103 2/3 MLB frames, he turned in a 3.99 ERA with average or better strikeout (24.4%), walk (7.8%) and ground-ball (42.8%) rates. Olson supported those rates with solid marks in swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates as well. The Tigers control him all the way through 2029.
The 26-year-old Manning was Detroit’s first-round pick back in 2016. He’s pitched in parts of three big league seasons, logging a 4.37 ERA with a 16.1% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 41.6% grounder rate. Manning hasn’t missed bats at the levels expected throughout his time as a top-ranked prospect, but he’s shown solid command and kept the ball in the yard nicely to this point in his career. He’s also had frequent bad luck with injuries, including a 2023 season in which he incredibly broke his foot on two separate occasions upon being struck by a comeback line-drive. He’s under club control through 2027 and will remain a notable piece of the Tigers’ rotation puzzle in the foreseeable future, even if he starts this season out in Toledo.
Tigers have a nice looking rotation. All the best in 2024!
I wish the Twins had quality arms like Mize or Flaherty for our number 5 rotation spot. Pretty ridiculous we couldn’t even spend the 4 million it took to get Lorenzen. After losing Desclafini and needing a fifth starter, that move would have made way too much sense for my Twins:(
But your Twins always seem to develop pitchers. Every year or every other there’s a new rookie or young pitcher that’s pretty dominant. I’m sure you guys will be fine.
You have Varland, who’s going to be better than all these other guys. And last year your team stole Pablo from the Marlins.
Boom! Top 5 pitching staffs in MLB with Manning, Sawyer, jobe waiting in the wings. Team is great
Now if they can just score runs they’ll be fine
Pleasantly surprised they’re going with Olson, this pitching staff might not suck.
And Manning will get called up after racking up some innings. Injury or someone moving to the pen will clear a spot for him.
Denny McClain was at Card Show in Naples , FL about 3 weeks ago if Tigers are looking for SP depth pieces.
A particularly unwise investment would be purchasing a “Denny McClain” autograph.
Still, I you want I’ll trade it for my Lou Alcindor.
Starting to wonder what kind of a fit Manning is in the clubhouse. He’s looked great on the mound. Part of a looming “blockbuster” deal?
He’s not fully built up, but I think they’ll go to a 6 man rotation once the season is in full swing. Then they can flex down to 5 in case of injury.
Nope. His secondary stats suck
Surprised Manning is down.
Honestly I expecting him and one of their hitting prospects to be a trade situation for a big time power bat but not this soon
Yeah definitely think it’s time for a change of scenery for him he’s good stuff just needs to stay healthy
Tigers are getting interesting. I’m picking Skubal for CY.
His starts are going to be appointment viewing for me.
Same really like Skubals chances but then again I picked Cristian Javier as my sleeper Cy young pick and that was disaster
Poor Birthday present for Anderson 🙁
I don’t follow the Tigers and really only see them when they play the Yankees so can someone with better understanding of their situation answer this for me? Why sign a pair of reclamation projects like Maeda and Flaherty and block a young homegrown guy with talent like Manning?
Before Spring Training, it wasn’t clear how well Mize could pitch after his TJS at all. And while Olson did have a nice stint after being called up, he doesn’t have much of a track record, not even at AAA. Manning’s peripherals weren’t good last year and he had some injury troubles as well. Therefore I understand why the Tigers signed veteran starters.
However, I am not the biggest fan of Maeda and Flaherty either. At least Maeda ended last year on a high note, and Flaherty flashed his huge potential before.
Gruß,
BSHH
Gotcha, I still don’t quite understand the idea behind signing both though. The Tigers have a solid group of young players on the rise but they’re still probably not a postseason team this year. Seemed like a good year to give all the young guns one more chance to prove themselves before loading up for 2025 and beyond
It was because of injury concern they signed them. No one got injured.
No one injured except you STYMEEDONE. You are brain injured….oh yeah, you need a brain to have a brain injury. My bad, STYMEEDONE!
Scott Harris likes to take flyers on guys who finish strong aka Lorenzen in 22. Flaherty is that type of choice and he laser focused to have a comeback year and get paid. The lure of Kenta is his mix, his experience and potential innings. We have many young arms with a screwball in their arsenal therefore Kenta can be a mentor for our young guys all who have not put up quantity innings thus the need for Vets to do so. Kelly Miller is a other who was lights out for the Dodgers to close 23. Manning has peripherals that need correction. And frankly the 24 year old Olsen has ice water in his and poise beyond his years. He also has great strikezone control and the ability to dot it which is a big mantra of Scott Harris. Harris is building a destination for players to want to come to get better. Chris Fetter and Robert Lund (a former kinesiology professor) are reasons both Lorenzen and Flaherty became Tigers.
At worst, they’ll finish 4th in the division
Lol at 4th. At worst second to those bad teams
This is what talent depth actually looks like.
Maybe things are finally looking up for Detroit
I would love to see these young Tigers win the central. On a side note who ends up signing Clevinger? He looked closer to his old self last year than the year before. He might be a good pickup as a back end guy.
He is coming off a good season. I’d guess that the main reason he hasn’t been signed yet has more to do with his reputation. He’s been a clubhouse distraction for the last two teams he’s played for… the COVID protocol violation incident with the Guardians and then the domestic violence allegations when he was on the Sox last year, even though he ended up not being disciplined by the MLB.
A little surprised. Of the 3, Olson has probably looked the best. His 1st outing was awful but he’s been lights out since. Manning has also looked almost unhittable but he gave up 2 HRs yesterday to the Mets. The long ball has been his problem. Mize has picked up some velocity.
Olson will now probably qualify for Super 2 status. I like the Tigers going for talent over money right here.
I like this rotation.
Manning will be up pretty quick as one of either Maeda or Flaherty will tweak something pretty soon.
Surprised Manning ended up being the odd man out but Tigers must want him to work on something to improve his game. He’ll be back before long as there is no way this 5-man rotation as it is will be intact all season.
Manning has been good when healthy. He should be in the majors if he’s not hurt. Now he’ll waste the healthy time in AAA then be hurt when they need him
I’m a little shocked that Manning didn’t make the opening day roster. But given the recent track record of Tigers’ pitching, I’m sure he’ll be up in Detroit as an injury replacement within two months.
I think it’s mostly a move to get him more innings of low pressure ramp up ball. He’ll be up very soon.
The whole rotation is very injury-prone, so he’ll be back up before long.
Any one of Manning, Mize, or Olson could have been sent down. None of them pitched their way out of the rotation. Tigers have 6 guys who deserve to start in the majors and that is a great problem to have. He’ll be up again this year. There will be DH, and pitchers do get hurt.
Too many home runs for Manning this spring but otherwise he looked good. I still think they should trade him off straight up or in a package for a young SS who can replace Baez. Arroyo in Cincy is hurt but he’s the type of player they should target. Like everyone else said above he’ll be up before long. As good as the rotation looks someone will end up getting hurt before long.
@ Very Obama
How is Chicago’s mayor doing?