Mariners Rumors: Trading with the Tigers for Matthew Boyd

We’ve been going through a lot of potential trades and rumors lately for the Mariners, and that continues as we look at Matthew Boyd from the Detroit Tigers. If the Mariners make a move at the deadline, it’s likely going to be for a starting pitcher.

So, why Matthew Boyd? The Tigers are currently 40-51, sitting 15 games behind the division-leading Chicago White Sox, and 11 games back in the wild card race. Pending some insane 52-19 finish, they are out of the playoff race. If they have older players, over-performing players, or players about to hit free agency, it would benefit them in the long-term to trade them.

This is where Matthew Boyd would enter the Mariners plans

This is his age 30 season, and he will be arb 4 eligible this offseason. He’s unlikely to get the $17.5 million or so that players like Trevor Bauer and Francisco Lindor received. Where he could fall is in the Aaron Judge ($10.175 million) range or just shy of Corey Seager ($13.75 million).

Through 355.2 innings in 2018/19, Boyd registered a 4.52 ERA, a solid 1.195 WHIP, and a good K rate of 10k/9. His struggles are the long ball, giving up 66 home runs in that time frame. Throwing out last year, Boyd has been much better this season. A 3.44/3.75 ERA/FIP, changing how he throws to limit the long ball. His K’s are down to 7.1/9, but he is giving up home runs at a much lower rate. It was 1.7 per 9 innings in 2018/2019, and every 0.8 this year.

Getting a pitcher that has lowered his home run rate and turned up the ground ball rate is exactly what Seattle should be looking for. We will try and use baseballtradevalues.com as a monitoring point for these trades being reasonable. As I’ve done with guys like Adam Frazier and Jon Gray, let’s see what it would take for the Mariners to land Boyd from the Tigers.