Red Sox Trade Pitch Sends All-Star Right-Hander to Tigers For Catching Help

The Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox have each started the season in slower than expected. After Thursday’s games, Detroit stood at 2-4 and Boston at 3-4. But both teams have their own specific concerns.

For the Tigers, the worry is the starting rotation.

As it stands, the Tigers rotation is anchored by last year’s Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. But the 28-year-old Skubal, now in his sixth season, has faltered to open the campaign, taking the loss in both of his starts while surrendering seven runs on 12 hits in 10 2/3 innings, including three home runs.

Free agent Jack Flaherty, inked to a two-year, $35 million deal in the offseason, has fared somewhat better, lasting 5 2/3 innings in his lone start so far, allowing two runs as he picked up a no-decision.

But the Tigers’ other big offseason mound signing, Alex Cobb, remains injured with a hip ailment and rookie Jackson Jobe — the Tigers’ No. 1 overall prospect entering the season — struggled in his lone outing, getting pounded for three runs on a pair of homers in just four innings against the Seattle Mariners on Monday.

On the Red Sox side, for the past two years Boston has been willing to tolerate the defensive inadequacies of catcher Connor Wong in return for the offense he provides. But Wong has shown significant regression at the plate in the early going, with just one base hit and a pair of walks to go with six strikeouts in his first 21 plate appearances.

How to remedy these problems? According to Red Sox writer Devon Platana of Fansided’s Chowder and Champions site, the Red Sox have one frontline starter, a 28-year-old, sixth-year right-hander who made his first All-Star appearance just last year, who they may be willing to trade for the right return.

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That is Tanner Houck, who is struggling to find a groove after two starts, allowing 12 hits and seven runs in 9 2/3 innings, striking out eight while issuing five walks.

“Houck is also expendable after the Red Sox added the likes of Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler over the offseason,” Platana wrote on Monday. “Throw in the fact that starters Lucas Giolito, Bryan Bello, Patrick Sandoval, and Kutter Crawford should return from the injured list sooner rather than later, and it’s clear that Boston can afford to move on from Houck if his performance doesn’t improve.”

In return, the Red Sox could get immediate catching help by targeting the Tigers’ 26-year-old backup backstop Dillon Dingler, Detroit’s 2020 second-round draft pick out of Ohio State.

The Tigers’ SB Nation blog Bless You Boys describes Dingler as “a good fastball hitter who doesn’t struggle much against off-speed. He also packs solid raw power as well as the zone discipline to avoid chasing out of the zone too much. Dingler has always done a solid job drawing walks, and he’s developed a bit more than average raw power along the way.”

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Like Wong, Dingler displays a rare level of athleticism for a catcher, even occasionally doubling as a center fielder in his Buckeyes days. But unlike Wong, his catching defense has never been in question, described by Baseball America as “major league caliber.” The prospect-oriented publication also evaluated Dingler as having a “plus” throwing arm with better than average accuracy.

Chances are, neither the Tigers nor Red Sox are looking to make a swap on the level of Houck-for-Dingler in the first week of the season. But if Houck cannot replicate his All-Star 2024 performance, and Wong fails to turn around his performance at the plate, the possibility of such an exchange would be one to watch as the season progresses.

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