{"id":534004,"date":"2026-01-23T06:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/534004\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:35:11","slug":"tigers-targeting-nick-martinez-jose-quintana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/534004\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Targeting Nick Martinez, Jose Quintana"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tigers remain interested in adding a starting pitcher this offseason, writes Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>. Detroit was tied to\u00a0Chris Bassitt<\/a> and Lucas Giolito<\/a> a few weeks back. While both pitchers remain available, the Tigers have also expressed interest in\u00a0Nick Martinez<\/a> and\u00a0Jose Quintana<\/a>, reports Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seems they\u2019re casting a wide net but clearly looking to add a mid-tier starter. They\u2019ve made one rotation pickup this offseason, signing KBO returnee Drew Anderson<\/a> to a $7MM deal. They also got\u00a0Jack Flaherty<\/a> back on a $20MM player option. They\u2019re each penciled into the rotation behind Tarik Skubal<\/a>,\u00a0Reese Olson<\/a> and\u00a0Casey Mize<\/a>. Anderson\u2019s hold on a rotation spot seems less secure, as Troy Melton<\/a> or\u00a0Keider Montero<\/a> could push him for that job in camp.\u00a0Jackson Jobe<\/a> could return from Tommy John surgery in the second half.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a relatively thin group after MLB\u2019s best pitcher. Olson missed most of the second half with a shoulder injury. Mize had an All-Star first half but was up-and-down later in the season. While Flaherty\u2019s strikeout and walk profile remained strong, he\u2019s coming off his second upper-4.00s ERA in three seasons. Anderson has started two MLB games and hasn\u2019t pitched in the majors in five years. Melton has mid-rotation upside but worked mostly out of the bullpen as a rookie.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d be in better position if they add a low-variance veteran arm whom they can trust to provide league average innings. Bassitt and Giolito are at the higher end of that tier and would be locked into rotation spots. Martinez and Quintana could pitch at the back of the rotation or work out of the bullpen in a multi-inning role.<\/p>\n

Martinez is especially familiar with the swing role, making him a natural fit for a Detroit team that highly values that kind of flexibility on the pitching staff. The 35-year-old righty has made a career out of seamlessly bouncing between the rotation and bullpen midseason. He worked more frequently in relief with the Padres from 2022-23 but was most often in the Cincinnati rotation over the past two years. Martinez posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each season between 2022-24. That climbed to a more pedestrian 4.45 mark last season, albeit across a career-high 165 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

The veteran righty doesn\u2019t have huge stuff, and his strikeout rate has dropped in three straight seasons. Martinez\u2019s game is built around excellent control and a multi-year track record of avoiding hard contact. He made $21.05MM last season after accepting a qualifying offer from the Reds. He\u2019s certainly not going to match that salary this year but could command an eight-figure deal.<\/p>\n

Quintana would be cheaper, as he played last season on a $4.25MM contract with Milwaukee. The 36-year-old southpaw (37 this weekend) took the ball 24 times and logged 131 2\/3 innings. He struck out a below-average 16% of opponents but managed a 3.96 ERA \u2014 his third straight sub-4.00 showing. Quintana sits around 90 MPH and missed bats on a career-low 6.9% of his offerings last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tigers remain interested in adding a starting pitcher this offseason, writes Jon Heyman of The New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,131,4,761],"class_list":{"0":"post-534004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jose-quintana","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-nick-martinez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115943029283677296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}