Matt Manning has taken a step forward in his development this season.
He went to the injured list after two starts for the Detroit Tigers in April and tried to come back in late May only to suffer a health setback in Triple-A Toledo. He traveled to Lakeland, Florida, to restart his throwing program and rehab assignment.
Upon his Aug. 2 return, Manning possessed a slider with more horizontal break and less vertical break. All of his pitches look sharper and if the slider is working, he can dominate, especially against right-handed heavy lineups. Developing the slider — a third pitch to accompany his four-seam fastball and curveball — has been a point of emphasis over the past two years.
“It’s a legitimate swing-and-miss pitch,” Manning said Aug. 20, the day after completing seven innings for the second time that month. “It expands the zone. It looks like my fastball. And it helps my curveball play. My curveball is so over the top, 12-6 (downward break), now there’s something else running away from the barrel. I guess they have to respect all quadrants.”
ON THE FARM:What Tigers prospect Jackson Jobe learned in his first season of pro ball
YUM:A great lunch spot can be hard to find these days: Here are 10 in metro Detroit
But Tuesday’s performance — his sixth start since rejoining the Tigers — showed what can happen when Manning doesn’t have his best slider. The Seattle Mariners were sitting on breaking balls and didn’t miss the mistakes. Manning, who failed to make an adjustment, allowed seven runs on seven hits and one walk with one strikeout. He didn’t escape the third inning.
“It’ll be interesting to see how he combats teams that are watching him pitch in this new style,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before Tuesday’s 9-3 loss at Comerica Park. “Slider over curveball, and how much is he going to utilize his changeup? Those are all parts of being a young pitcher trying to sustain success.”
Here are the numbers in his first five starts since returning from the injured list:
- Five whiffs (four on sliders) and one strikeout Aug. 2 against the Minnesota Twins.
- 13 whiffs (four on sliders) and seven strikeouts Aug. 7 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
- 17 whiffs (two on sliders) and five strikeouts Aug. 13 against the Chicago White Sox.
- 12 whiffs (seven on sliders) and six strikeouts Aug. 19 against Los Angeles Angels.
- 16 whiffs (12 on sliders) and eight strikeouts Aug. 24 against the San Francisco Giants.
Manning got two swings and misses Tuesday: one slider and one fastball. He didn’t have fastball command and definitely didn’t have his good slider. He wasn’t getting enough horizontal movement, so his sliders ended up traveling over the plate. The Mariners averaged a 100 mph exit velocity on the six sliders they put in play, going 4-for-6 with two home runs.
“For me, I’ve just been looking at the horizontals,” Manning said. “I know the good ones I throw have the most horizontal break and the least amount of vertical break, so I know it’s moving straight to the left.”
In the slider, Manning discovered what he has been searching for his entire career. The new slider has a 41.6% swing-and-miss rate, up from 22.9% last season. He is finally putting away hitters for strikeouts at the big-league level.
“Since I’ve been drafted,” Manning said. “I got through Double-A with a fastball and a pretty good curveball. Once you get to Triple-A, you need something that’s moving horizontally to miss a bat and run away from a barrel.”
He threw last year’s slider with a different grip. Most of them were backup sliders on the inside part of the plate against righties. “It was just something I could throw in there that wasn’t my curveball,” Manning said. The old sliders sat around 89-90 mph; the new ones are slower at 81-86 mph.
ANOTHER PROSPECT:Tigers top 2022 pick Jace Jung adjusting to High-A: ‘The guy can hit’
PITCH SELECTION:Tigers rookie Riley Greene has recaptured groove. Here’s who helped him do it
Manning said he “stumbled upon” his slider grip during a bullpen in Detroit, part of his second rehab assignment, but credits three coaches for their roles in the process: director of pitching Gabe Ribas, who worked with him throughout his throwing program; Triple-A Toledo pitching coach Doug Bochtler; and Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter.
“I knew my slider wasn’t a plus pitch yet, but it was something that I needed to throw,” Manning said. “I just kept playing with grips. … We were kind of tinkering with it (in the bullpen). I just gripped it and ripped it. Fett liked it, so we kept rolling with it.”
After the Aug. 24 outing, Manning became the fifth Tigers starter since 2000 with no more than 10 runs allowed in his first seven games, joining Matthew Boyd (2021), Jordan Zimmermann (2016), Max Scherzer (2014) and Justin Verlander (2013).
Yet Manning’s success isn’t all about his slider. While that is the biggest difference, all pitches have looked sharper. Elite extension from his 6-foot-6 stature helps, too. There’s concern that Manning hasn’t used his changeup enough; left-handed hitters have a .288 batting average and .794 OPS against him. Without his changeup, Manning might continue to struggle vs. lefties.
He has thrown 48.6% four-seam fastballs, 23.5% sliders, 12% curveballs, 10.2% sinkers and 5.7% changeups.
Without his good slider Tuesday, Manning leaned on his curveball. That didn’t work, and without his fastball command establishing the inside part of the plate, he couldn’t get outs.
THE SHORTSTOP:What position will Javier Báez play for Tigers in 2023?
A blip in the radar? Possibly. But advance scouting is at an all-time elite level; teams have taken notice of Manning’s slider and its characteristics. The Mariners came into Comerica Park with a plan and executed it.
And Manning never adjusted.
“They’re a good hitting team,” Manning said. “I have to be able to pitch well against teams like that if I want to be the pitcher I want to be.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.