The July 2024 deadline feels like a very long time ago now with two postseason appearances separating the Tigers from their last sell cycle at a trade deadline. Other than Trey Sweeney, the young players the Tigers acquired haven’t reached the major leagues yet. One of the minor deals Scott Harris made at that point was trading first baseman and part-time outfielder Mark Canha to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for a right-handed relief prospect in Eric Silva.
Silva was originally the Giants
fourth round pick back in 2021 out of JSerra Catholic HS in California. His $1.5 million signing bonus was basically early second round money, so the Giants liked him quite a bit. Since the Tigers have employed that strategy extensively over the last three years, Silva makes for an instructive example of the twists and turns a prep pitcher’s pro career can take before he even reaches the age of college pitchers selected in the draft.
Silva’s 3000 rpm curveball and fairly advanced control for his age were his main selling points on draft day. At 6’1”, 180 pounds on draft day he didn’t really project for big time velocity, but his fourseam fastball had some quality life and size doesn’t always equal velo. His numbers were nothing special as he worked his way through the Single-A and High-A levels in 2022 and 2023. The breaking ball was effective at freezing hitters, but in the high 70’s it wasn’t really generating that much swing and miss, while the control and velocity bump eluded him early on. That’s not unusual for a 19 to 20-year-old pitcher and on the plus side Silva steadily built up his innings totals in those first two full seasons.
In 2024, with little new progress in the spring, the Giants converted Silva into a reliever and sent him off to Double-A Richmond to play with the Flying Squirrels. Whether the Giants intended that as a full-time move, or were simply trying to let him work in shorter, high intensity bursts to try and build up his peak fastball velocity is unknown, but it didn’t do too much to help in that regard. On the other hand, he did start striking out more hitters while cutting the walks down a little, though he did up a few more home runs than you’d like from a relief prospect in particular. Playing in the Eastern League, the Tigers got some looks at Silva’s development first hand. Presumably that made the decision easier when shopping a player without a whole lot of interest at the deadline like Canha.
Silva was fine in a relief role for the Erie SeaWolves after the trade, but he didn’t stand out the rest of the 2024 season either. Work on his changeup and slider showed some flashes of potential, but both offerings were inconsistent, and Silva was still throwing a lot of 93-94 mph fastballs, though the heater had enough life to play as an average pitch by this point. Still, with nothing really popping for a pitcher who was tracking like a long relief candidate without the one plus pitch to base a setup man projection on, the Tigers made a decision to convert him back to starting in 2025. They backed him up to High-A West Michigan to begin the season. He made one start on April 8, got injured, and didn’t return until July.
When he did get back on the mound, the Tigers basically hit the factory reset button, sending him to the Complex League briefly, and then back to Single-A Lakeland on a lengthy rehab assignment as he tried to settle into a starter’s workload again. Rather than having him just start games, he was often used for 4-5 innings of long relief, but the outings were definitely stretching him out toward starting again. There were some positive developments, as Silva’s 83 mph slider started to become more and more of a weapon for him and generated a lot of whiffs, albeit against Single-A hitters. On the other hand, while he was starting to mix in some sinkers to jam right-handers and his fourseam fastball continues to have good life up in the zone, his average fastball velocity was down to 91.8 mph in Lakeland.
On September 9, the Tigers finally moved Silva back to Double-A Eri, and that first outing was a bit of an end of the season revelation. Taking over from lefty Andrew Sears in the fifth inning, Silva took the SeaWolves the rest of the way, striking out seven with no walks and just two hits allowed against a decent Altoona Curve lineup. Five days later he faced them again, and that three inning appearance didn’t go nearly as well. He made two appearances in the Eastern League championship series against Binghamton, getting knocked around in a relief appearance in Game 1 and struck out the only hitter he faced in the deciding Game 3, finishing his year on a positive note though the SeaWolves reign over the Eastern League ended with a loss.
So, there are good flashes of potential from Eric Silva as he heads into his age 23 season, but 2025 was a bit of a lost year. There’s little clarity about his future role, and with a mix of positive and negative developments behind him in 2025. His slider improved enough to be intriguing and that would give him the bat missing breaking ball he’s lacked. He has average extension and spins the fourseamer pretty well, giving it better than average induced vertical break up in the zone at its best. If he can finally get up to sitting 94-95 mph he’ll have an above average major league fastball. The curveball is still just a strike stealer and the changeup is inconsistent, but he’s improved his control enough to see why the Tigers may think it better to use him as a starter. This all still adds up to a current long relief profile, putting him in the bottom tier of our list.
So it goes with pitching prospects, particularly prep arms. They might drive you crazy for 3-4 seasons and then finally put it all together and make a big leap. Or the different pieces of the puzzle may never come together. Silva’s slider perked my interest late in the year and maybe that’s the key that will carry him forward. There are pitchers in our 40 tier who could be bucketed with Silva down in the project arm category, but until he’s past the injury and gets back up to sitting 93-94 mph consistently, even his potential role next season is still up in the air.
