Monday afternoon, the Tigers announced that infielder Nick Maton has been designed for assignment.
After being acquired from Philly in the deal for flame-throwing reliever Gregory Soto, Maton was expected to be a useful utility piece, if not an everyday infielder. He got out to a hot start in spring camp and quickly endeared himself to Tigers fans with a couple of key hits in April. The future looked bright, but instead, he hit .173/.288/.305 and, over the course of 93 games, was actively harmful to Detroit's winning chances. Pitchers discovered that he couldn't hit the slider down and in and he watched too many pitches inside the zone to make his 13.