Detroit Tiger fans had a rough go of it in the recently concluded Al Avila era. The club hasn’t made the postseason since 2014, finished over .500 since 2016, and somehow went four full seasons (2017-20) without posting a winning percentage over .400. Hard to do.
Well, I’m here to tell you that for the first time in seemingly eons, there is hope in Detroit. New President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris came over from the San Francisco Giants with a good reputation. But I could care less about a reputation. I wanted to see results, how he put his stamp on the organization with his first few transactions, before I drew any conclusions.
This past weekend, the Tigers made the first meaningful trade of the Harris era, and while it was not a blockbuster, it told me enough about his thought process to make me nod approvingly. The club sent lefty reliever Gregory Soto and utilityman Kody Clemens to the Phillies for outfielder Matt Vierling, infielder Nick Maton and catcher Donny Sands.
While Clemens and Sands aren’t without value, let’s focus on the three primary players in this deal. Soto is the most established of the group, the Tigers’ primary closer over the past two seasons, saving a total of 48 games, including 30 in 2022. Vierling actually was the NL champion Phillies’ primary CF in 2022, when he played six different positions for the club. Maton didn’t get quite as much run, but he started at five different positions while posting a strong .514 SLG in 85 plate appearances. Soto turns 28 in 2023, and has three years of club control remaining. Both Vierling and Maton will be 26, with five years remaining.
An “established closer” is about the last thing a rebuilding club needs. Soto was one of the few valuable but tradeable commodities inherited by Harris when he took the job. It reminds me of the 2008-09 offseason, my first year in the Mariners’ front office. Our 40-man roster was not very strong, but we did possess an established closer (with only one year of control remaining) in J.J. Putz. The Mets wanted him, and we worked out a three-team deal involving the Indians that helped shape our 2009 club. Franklin Gutierrez and Endy Chavez filled out a formidable defensive outfield around Ichiro Suzuki, and we also added some useful, close to the major leagues minor league talent.
These Tigers may have done even better than we did, though they are giving up a younger closer with more years of control than Putz.
Vierling may turn out to be the prize of the deal. His MLB numbers to date don’t look like much (.260-.309-.374 in 434 plate appearances), but if you peel a couple layers back, there’s plenty to like. No NL regular CF had a higher average exit speed than Vierling’s 91.0 mph. And get this one - only the Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton had a higher average ground ball exit speed in ALL OF BASEBALL than Vierling’s 93.1 mph.
Sure, there are some caveats here. It’s a relatively small sample size, and his liner and fly ball average exit speeds aren’t special. But there’s something in there. If the Tigers can tap into Vierling’s strengths, who’s to say that he can’t become a poor man’s Christian Yelich, or something along those lines? Yelich crushed his grounders but struggled to elevate the baseball in his Marlin days, and figured it out. Vierling elevates it often enough, but hasn’t been able to translate the grounder thump into power. Perhaps Lorenzo Cain-level offense would be a reasonable and somewhat more attainable goal.
Maton has less MLB experience (216 plate appearances) but has had more offensive success (.254-.330-.434). I’m a bit less sanguine about his future because of his relative inability to make contact (68 Ks), but hey, a lefthanded bat with a little pop who can play all over the field, including shortstop - I’m in.
Bottom line - the Tigers have been running out a bunch of unprepared position players, playing their home games in the most unforgiving home park for hitters. Sure, Willi Castro and Victor Reyes had fared decently in the minors and on some level earned their opportunities, but simply did not get better at the MLB level. This time around, the Tigers are going to give full shots to a couple of guys who have at the very least proven themselves worthy of MLB jobs on a championship-level club.
Their versatility will be a huge boon as well. In today’s game, 13-man pitching staffs are in, meaning that bench players, and even regulars have to wear many hats. That will not be a stretch for these two guys.
Did the Tigers acquire a potential star in this deal? Probably not, but there is a non-zero chance that they did. What they very well may have done, however, is acquire a pair of average MLB regulars. Even if they only got one, plus a quality utilityman, this is the ideal type of deal for a club in the Tigers’ position. It fills up potentially 1000 plate appearances with competence - a quality that has been sorely lacking in Detroit in recent seasons.
Clearly, the development of CF Riley Greene and 1B Spencer Torkelson (I’m really bullish on the former, not so much on the latter) is much more vital to the ultimate success or lack thereof of the new Tiger management team. But building around the edges is still really important, strengthening the foundation upon which the whole thing stands. If I was a Tiger fan, I’d be more confident than I would have been at any time since the peak of the Dave Dombrowski era. In the AL Central, this club can be relevant by as soon as 2024.
