Left-handed starting pitcher Steven Matz is accepting bids and could pick his new team as early as Wednesday.
MLB Network reported that the Detroit Tigers are among eight clubs still pursuing the 30-year-old New York native.
Matz is coming off an impressive bounce-back season with the Toronto Blue Jays in which he went 14-7 with a 3.82 ERA (3.79 FIP) in 150 innings, striking out 144 and walking 43.
Tigers fans might best remember him for being on the mound when Miguel Cabrera hit his 500th home run on Aug. 22.
He spent the first six seasons of his career with the Mets, but was traded to Toronto after a miserable 2020 campaign in which he went 0-5 with a 9.68 ERA in the shortened season.
Matz made just $5.2 million in 2021, but most expect he’ll get a deal similar to the one just signed by free-agent pitcher Anthony DeSclafani, which was three years and $36 million.
Matz did not get a qualifying offer from the Blue Jays, so his signing would not require draft pick compensation.
In addition to the Tigers, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported that the Mets, Jays, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox could also be in the mix.
The Red Sox recently lost left-handed starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who signed a five-year, $77 million deal with the Tigers, so Matz would serve as a slightly less expensive replacement.
If the Tigers signed both Rodriguez and Matz, it would represent an impressive financial investment in starting pitching but might also call into question the Tigers’ willingness to splurge on a shortstop.
“I’m not going to make any comments on what other people are (reporting),” Tigers general manager Al Avila said Monday following the press conference to introduce Rodriguez. “At the end of the season we said we were going to take a measured approach to the offseason and we were going to sign players to make this team better.
“It’s not one player that’s going to make us a winner. We have to make sure that we can field a good 26-man roster. It’s going to be a step-by-step, measured process and we’re going to be very careful in how we do it.”