The Orioles have acquired infielder Nick Maton from the Tigers for cash considerations, both teams announced. Detroit had designated him for assignment on Monday when they claimed reliever Kolton Ingram from the Angels. The O’s now have 39 players on the 40-man roster.
It’s the second time in recent weeks that the O’s swung a trade for an infielder squeezed off the roster in Detroit. Baltimore brought back Tyler Nevin in a January cash transaction after his DFA as well. They’ll again send some money to the Tigers to jump the waiver order and add to their infield depth.
Maton, who turns 27 later this month, had a disappointing year in Detroit. The Tigers acquired him from the Phillies among a three-player return for hard-throwing reliever Gregory Soto last offseason. Maton got a decent amount of early-season run but struggled on both sides of the ball. He hit .173/.288/.305 with eight home runs through a career-high 293 plate appearances. He also had a handful of costly defensive miscues and rated as a below-average defender at both second and third base.
Despite the sub-replacement level production, it’s unsurprising that someone was willing to take a flier on Maton. He responded well to a midseason optional assignment to Triple-A, hitting .293/.414/.457 over 38 minor league contests. Maton has demonstrated a very patient offensive approach throughout his career. He took free passes at a 15.4% rate in Triple-A and walked in 13% of his MLB plate appearances with Detroit.
Baltimore already has a strong collection of infield talent. Nevin and Maton join Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn, Jordan Westburg, Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías on the 40-man roster. Baltimore shipped out Joey Ortiz in the Corbin Burnes trade but is expected to add Jackson Holliday to the MLB team early in the year, perhaps on Opening Day.
GM Mike Elias nevertheless told 105.7 The Fan yesterday (X link) that the front office felt there was room for a left-handed hitter who could factor in at second base. Westburg, a righty bat, is the projected starter. Adam Frazier, who worked as a lefty-swinging second baseman a year ago, departed in free agency.
Maton hits from the left side, so he could battle for that job in Spring Training. Like Nevin, he is out of minor league option years. Baltimore can’t send him to Triple-A without first trying to run him through waivers. There’s no guarantee he makes the team — it’s hard to envision both Nevin and Maton cracking the Opening Day roster — but there’s also little harm for the O’s in leveraging their vacancies at the back of the 40-man to add competition in Spring Training.
Veteran locker room presence in Norfolk.
… because they don’t have any infielders…?
Yeah I was really surprised to hear about this signing to, they have a surplus of infielders
Placeholder until Holliday comes up if he doesn’t make the OD roster
Placeholder for what? There’s no room or need on roster. Mateo, Urius, Westburg (my pick for 2024 big-time offensive player of the year), Gunnar. Never mind Norby and Mayo. Why send money for a guy who will never see the light of day? No sense
It might’ve been $50K. He doesn’t have enough service time to reject the outright assignment if we try to sneak him through. I don’t particularly get the Nevin/Maton moved but then again I didn’t really see the point of O’hearn last year.
Must see something to work w/
It’s only money. Jackson Holliday will wear an O’s uniform before all-star break
The Birds might have a trade in the works that they need acquire an infielder. I believe the new ownership is not just happy with a playoff game…but a WS appearance.
This is my thought, adding depth cuz they’re about to move another infielder
If that is the case they should be trading for Dylan Cease and also unloading some of that talent that’s being wasted in the minor leagues. All these blocked young players that they have deserve a chance to be playing in the bigs now for other teams.
What middle infielder would make this make sense ?
Maton has no options so it’d have to be a major league infielder that was moved. Sooo Mateo, Urias, or Westburg? I doubt it. Think this a pure depth move.
My guess for a move would be trading 2B Connor Norby for a rental reliever. Norby seems to be blocked in the system like Ortiz was and they may need someone to replace the bullpen innings that they were counting on Hall to cover
Maton can’t be optioned to AAA freely though. If Norby was dealt—not sure Maton would be the guy they’d target to replace. I think it’s probably a just a depth move that doesn’t signal anything.
But, I do agree that Norby is probably available for a more useful piece.
New ownership is not a factor. The sale has not been approved, new ownership is not “ownership” yet.
They could really use a strong arm for the pen. Kimbrel will drive fans crazy when he blows 10 saves during the season, and not reliable in post-season. Losing DL Hall will hurt them unless they get someone.
Hall was not the closer. Wells can close as well as Kimbrel. Cano can close. Coulombe can close. Perez can close. Tate can close. Hell, Baumann can close too. All of them have done it.
That’s a stretch Ublado. I don’t feel particularly good about anyone not named Kimbrel. Wells possibly. Cano wasn’t very good as a closer.
Wells was fine as a closer in ‘21… Cano is a setup man, but point being, all of them have closing experience. Closer by committee makes sense if Kimbrel falters.
He needs to spend more time with his brother. Would be better off as a moundsman.
Idk how his glove is, but last year,Frazier, and the year before, Odor, both had big roles on the team. Don’t assume he’s a minor leaguer. I could see them trading Urias for a bullpen arm
As a lefty bat, that is. Thought maybe they’d get Brandon Crawford
He’s a bat first utility guy. Came up with the Phillies and did well in 2022. He became expendable when they signed Turner because they had a better version of him in Bryson Stott.
He has wicked fast bat speed and decent pitch recognition but not a ton of power. More of a line drive swing, think of a dollar store version of Chase Utley’s swing. Issues are he’s streaky, doesn’t walk a ton, and isn’t really a plus fielder at any one position. He’s okay at 2nd & 3rd, can play the corner OF spots fine but nothing surplus. He’s still young and has above average speed.
The O’s acquiring him is weird given all the IF depth they have but if given consistent PT, I wonder how many doubles and homers he’d have with the short RF wall. Fun fact though, during Sandy Alcantara’s unanimous cy young season in 22, Maton was the only hitter in baseball to homer of Sandy more than once. He ended up hitting 4 homers of him that season, including 2 in one game. So he does have the bat speed to catch up to big velocity fastballs.
He’s probably gonna be a placeholder until another one of the prospects gets promoted and he’ll probably languish in DFA purgatory.
Thanks! Good stuff
Can’t hit the curve and other off speed pitches. With this being the book on him he’s not going to see any fastballs coming his way
Defense wasn’t very good this is from a tigers fan that watched most games
Yeah I get that. I would just say that he was likely overwhelmed and couldn’t get his head above water. He was a key piece in the Soto deal, given a chance to be a full-time player. He played on a subpar team, in a ballpark that doesn’t benefit his bat and not a lot around him to protect him.
Maton isn’t a full-time starter, he’s a decent utility guy who got exposed on a weak roster. I think Maton can be a starter for a team if he’s the #9 hitter and has an elite level SS playing with him. And defense can slump when the player isn’t particularity strong in the field and their bat goes cold.
What happened to Vavra? In addition to Adley and Gunnar, IMO, Terin was the only other rook over the past 2 years that looked comfortable facing big league pitching.
Oh, and I’m not quite sold on Westburg as a MLB hitter yet. Looking forward to following him this year.
…and Jake Cave wipes his brow. Sad day for those of us in the Philly Nickey Bats Daycare Club…..
Good Luck, Wolf!
“The left side of the Orioles infield is the most densely populated place in America.”
@sorengo99
If only we could play them all there at the same time. talk about a lock down pull side defense. who needs a shift if you have 10 guys in the dirt on the left side. lol
Why? They have a bunch of infielders that they don’t want to trade.
This one is hard to understand
Rumor is the Tigers had Yamamoto lined up but this blockbuster had to take priority. Don’t worry Tiger fans. They’re still working hard to land Snell, Montgomery and Bellinger.
They should have hired someone with priorities….like winning the World Series. Someone like….
Fans are glad he found a landing spot.
…”talent.”
I would like to see the O’s try and get Luzardo from the Marlins. Maybe a Mayo/ Westberg combo for Luzardo? Maybe throw in Urias if the Marlins add another arm like Puk.
I like Lizardo as well, but not for those guys. I think JW is untouchable
Yeah I wouldn’t give those 2 up.
Now, if it’s Colton Cowser & Connor Norby—I’m pulling the trigger personally.
Marlins want a SS… Gunnar and Jackson are untouchable… I think Westberg is touchable. Urias just adds some veteran defense late in a game. Mayo could be 2B soon with Arraez moving to DH/1B
The Tiger should be willing to trade a number of infield players and cf, p but they appear to have no gumtion.
Harris thought Maton was a starting 3B… I don’t trust his judgement. Especially after taking Clark instead of Langford. Langford could be their LFer next year. Could have saved that money they spent on Canha.
Greene, Tork, Carpenter and Langford in the heart of a lineup would be pretty good.
There’s nothing about Coby Mayo that suggests he’d be a 2B.
He’s a corner infielder or outfielder
A .178 BA why didn’t the Yankees grab that guy!?!? They love sub .200 average hitters.
He’s a decent player despite his average last season. Played well for the Phillies in 2022 and would have helped them out in the playoffs in 2023 much better than Rojas did. Maton is a good bench guy, versatile in the field and guy who can be in a lineup 2-3 days a week.
Yanks missed their opportunity to bring back Joey Gallo. That went so well the 1st time.
Depth that’s all. As a bench player Maton is serviceable but he definitely should not be an everyday player
Only an idiot would have Wolfy as an everyday player… Sorry Scottie Harris, you’re an idiot.
When did Ryan O’Hearn become a strong infield talent.
Since the Os changed his swing last year. O’Hearn was a great contributor last year.
I think what the guy means is that you don’t want to lump O’Hearn with those who play the other IF positions. Last ST, the Orioles generated way too much local press about a 3 or 4-way battle for the LH 4A 1B/DH invite who could fill the last roster spot, and O’Hearn rose above all that. So maybe now it’s the LH UT spot that will create all the buzz and redeem acquisitions like this.
You’re in the minority on that dude. Hinch is a great coach.
Go watch another team then and annoy their fans.
Maton needs to go to Korea or Japan and try to break out. He’s never going to get the chance to do that in MLB, he’s first man out on any depth chart.
Dude was straight garbage last year
Both ways
Maton was one of the worst position players in baseball last year….the dude flat out looked lost at the plate in Detroit, and for a utility player, he wasn’t that good of a fielder.
He might turn it around and have a decent year, but from what I saw, he couldn’t hit off speed, and that would get him chasing fastballs out of the zone….that is not a recipe for success for a hitter.
A “fraction”? He bet on games in which he was managing. Little more influential to determining the outcome of a game than knowing what pitch is coming. As Greg Maddox said: “No need to steal the sign. I’ll tell you what I throw. It’s a 89 MPH sinker and you won’t even swing at it”
If you ever batted against Rivera (you didn’t) you would know a cutter was coming. You still wouldn’t be able to hit it
Well we should all listen to you since you played T-ball. Great argument. Are you one of the grumpy old guys in the Muppets up in the balcony? This sounds like one of those “when I was a boy…” type speeches.
Alcohol poisoning??? I’m a Seagram’s VO, man, muhself.??
Wait… Harris brought in all these nerds to fix the players they have… ?
MLB is weird… they won’t let their home run champion and hits leaders into the Hall of Fame. One because he supposedly took steroids at a time when it was frowned upon. Others took them prior and since but were either not caught or it was covered up. The other was guilty of betting which had been done by many players previously and is legal now.
MLB has banned a player because he doesn’t have sex the missionary style.
MLB is weird.