The Tigers are optionally right-handed Matt Manning for Triple-A after the ball game last night, the team announced. The move makes room for Derek Hollandwho will be reinstated from the 10-day casualty list.
Manning has been one of the Tigers’ top prospects since finishing ninth overall in the 2016 draft. Along with Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal, Manning plays an important role in the Tiger’s reconstruction strategy. The Tigers have long been a thriving organization, of course, but it is only now that all three of their highly touted arms have begun arriving in Motor City. With five starts this season, Manning is the last of the three to make his Major League debut.
As with Mize and Skubal, Manning’s initial results were relatively disappointing. The 23-year-old has a 6.95 ERA / 5.36 FIP through 22 innings with a solid walk rate of 7.9 percent but a below-average strikeout rate of 8.9 percent. It’s still early to judge Manning, of course, and arguably he did his best against the Twins on Friday night, throwing five innings and getting two well-deserved runs on two hits and three walks while cutting three. The change makes sense at this point, however, as the Tigers will not need a fifth starter for the foreseeable future with the All-Star break from Monday.
So far, Manning has presented a relatively diverse arsenal, topped by a 93.3 mph four-collector that has thrown 62.0 percent of the time. He especially compliments the heater with a move to left-handed and a slider to right-handed, occasionally in a change of pace, looping curveball, clocking at 78.3 miles per hour.
The slider-forward approach is one that we’ve seen with many Tigers hurlers this season, with Mize and Skubal also relying heavily on the slider, as mentioned earlier Here and Here by Timothy Jackson from Baseball Prospectus. As Spencer TurnbullHe too had increased his slider usage from 20.9 percent to 24.5 percent this year before he was injured.
A flyball-heavy approach has left Manning a little vulnerable to the long ball this season, particularly in Triple-A, where he’s been awarded a home run-to-fly-ball rate of 27.5 percent. While this number is astronomically high and is sure to decrease somewhat to the mean, it has been marked for three more home runs in the majors, which corresponds to a home run rate of 3.0 percent – roughly the league average.
The 34-year-old Hollander will return to the Tiger’s bullpen again. The seasoned southpaw made 14 appearances in the season with a total of 15 innings of work with an unsightly 9.60 ERA. However, the ERA indicators – 4.01 SIERA, 4.04 FIP – complement Holland’s contribution much better. The difference could be due to a .426 GDP, which is both above the league-wide average of .297 and above his own career average of .299.
Holland was a bit wild, with a gait rate of 11.5 percent, despite a career high of 74.4 percent on the first pitch hit. To his credit for moving up in the count, Holland cut 25.6 percent of Batters, a strong mark that is just above the league average for Relievers.
Holland has been on the injured list with a shoulder infection since June 10th. It was his second assignment in the IL this season. The journeyman, who formerly belonged to the Rangers, White Sox, Cubs, Giants and Pirates, joined the Tigers on a minor league deal this off-season and made the team out of spring training.
