It’s not confirmed, but it looks like the Tigers are getting Daniel Norris and Anthony Alford. Norris is a flat out stud.
Here is the Freep story.
We’ll keep this thread open for deadline deal talk.
Category Archives: Trades
Tigers Trade for David Price
The Tigers pulled off a three-team blockbuster trade that sent Austin Jackson to the Seattle Mariners, and Drew Smyly and minor-league shortstop Willy Adames to the Tampa Bay Rays for David Price. Tampa Bay also got Mariners infielder Nick Franklin in the deal.
In many ways the trade was classic Dave Dombrowski, who is not afraid to make the big deals, can work deals with multiple teams (Austin Jackson himself came to Detroit in the three-team Curtis Granderson deal), and can also at times fly under the radar–with all of the Price trade rumors flying around, the Tigers were never mentioned until an hour or two before the trade deadline.
This trade now leaves the Tigers with a bunch of guys named Cy: the last 3 consecutive Cy Young winners are now in the Tiger starting rotation. There is definitely an arms race on, as the Oakland A’s nabbed Jon Lester as their Lefty for the Playoff Run. The Tigers certainly matched them.
The Tigers haven’t been playing of late like a team ready for World Series contention though–they are only 5-9 since the All-Star break, with an inconsistent offense among other problems. And that is where Austin Jackson will be sorely missed in the short term–he has been a bright spot leading off the lineup since the break, hitting .362 with an OPS of .947.
For old times’ sake, here is Austin saving Galarraga’s “perfect” game.
What are your views on the trade?
Tigers trade for Soria
According to multiple outlets – Corey Knebel and Jake Thompson are headed home to Texas in exchange for Rangers’ closer, Joakim Soria.
Knebel has been underwhelming at the big league level, though he is striking out 11.4/9 in the show. The young kid from Texas (Georgetown HS – about 140 miles south of me, and fellow University of Texas alumni) did, however, put up some sick minor league numbers, posting a .855 WHIP and 11.8 K/9 over 2 years and 64 IPs.
Jake Thompson was a 2012 2nd round pick out of Rockwall-Heath HS, only about 20 miles from me. Thompson has been a starter in the minors (stats here), and is the real meat of this trade. He’s been ranked as high as second in the latest Baseball America list, and third in the BP prospect list, and BP projects him as a low 3 starter.
Jamey Newberg, who independently covers the Rangers like a hawk, wrote tonight that Knebel and Thompson are the Tigers’ #2 and #4 prospects, and the he thinks those two are more promising than the four that the Angels gave up for Huston Street.
I can’t imagine that Soria takes over the 9th right now, though Thompson is a high price to pay for a 7th inning guy. Knebel was on the big league roster, so no corresponding move is needed. I’m guessing that Soria is insurance for Nathan, and we’ll either see Nathan on the DL soon, or Soria in the 9th inning role in the near future. I just don’t think that Nathan has it anymore. I understand SL’s bad sample argument (a handful of games are muddying an otherwise average year), but 39 year old pitchers don’t lose it and then find it again. Joe Nathan, feel free to prove me wrong.
Update: DD said that Nathan is still the closer in the Soria presser.
Doug Fister to the Nationals
For P Ian Krol, Inf Steve Lombardozzi, minor league P Robbie Ray.
I hate to see him go, but we can’t afford to keep our top 4 pitchers. Or so they say.
Discuss.
Miguel Cabrera Back to 1B
So many thoughts, more coming tonight.
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Fielder and $30M for Ian Kinsler. Kinsler’s big contract is up in 4 years. Fielder’s bigger contract is up in 7.
I’m going to start with Jim’s question below. There’s been a lot of discontent surrounding Kinsler down here, and it’s been rising for about a year and a half. After six years of a .794 OPS or greater, the last two have been rather average for 2B. People think he should be a perennial All-Star. He’s prone to lapses in attention and he may be the most picked off base runner in the AL, other than Elvis Andrus (and Darrell Evans). He’s basically embodying the classic decline you would expect for a borderline All-Star in his early 30s.
That alone was likely enough to put him on the trading block, but this move is being driven by the need for the Rangers to find a place for Jurickson Profar. Profar is the golden child of one of the best farm systems in the league, and the team is anxious to find out what he can do. Realize that the Rangers also lost Nelson Cruz and it’s uncertain whether they’ll pony up what he’ll get elsewhere. Fielder fills that hole nicely.
We all knew that the Tigers over-reached on the last 2-3 years of his contract in order to have Fielder for the first 4-5. Well, the first two were pretty disappointing, and Fielder’s playoff efforts were, well, non-existent. I haven’t done any direct comparisons, but I’m certain that we would have been better off with just about any other 1B in the league in the playoffs, and that’s simply offensively. If you include the poor fielding and base running blunders, Fielder had to have had a net negative effect.
I can’t help but wonder if there is something else going on with Prince Fielder that we don’t know about. Maybe it was the divorce, maybe he couldn’t handle being the 3rd or 4th biggest name on the team, perhaps it was the pressure oozing out of Leyland’s smoke rings. He’s definitely been off since October of 2012, and I hope that heading home to Texas will allow him to return to his Milwaukee self.
Trading Fielder has a myriad of other effects. Here are a few topics for discussion:
– The Tigers just saved about $76M on paper. How much of that does Scherzer see?
– Does Shin-Soo Choo see any of that? Hunter in left, Dirks as the 4th?
– What do we gain defensively by sliding Cabrera to 1B and putting anyone else at 3rd?
– VMart/Cabrera 1B/DH sounds nice.
– I love Brad Ausmus already. Not sure if he had anything to do with this. But I’m looking for an Ausmus jersey.
1. Jackson, CF
2. Choo, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Kinsler, 2B
7. Avila, C
8. Castellanos, 3B
9. Iglesias, SS
Tigers Acquire Jose Iglesias
Tuesday night the Tigers–presumably as a pre-emptive solution to an imminent Jhonny Peralta suspension–obtained Red Sox infielder Jose Iglesias as part of a three-team trade that sent Avisail Garcia to the Chicago White Sox and Brayan Villarreal to the Boston Red Sox. Jake Peavy went from Chicago to Boston in the major part of the trade’s third leg.
There was some thought that even if Peralta were facing a suspension, he could appeal the suspension and postpone it until next season. That is, if he wanted to: the former might be better for the team, but personally Peralta would put himself in quite a bind this way, since he becomes a free agent after this season. The free agent market for suspended players tends not to be a lucrative one.
(A 50-game suspension for Peralta beginning this week would leave him available for the postseason).
At any rate, this trade shows that the Tigers probably either know something or have a pretty good idea of what MLB’s and Peralta’s actions are likely to be.
Without saying anything specific, Dave Dombrowski admitted that the Peralta situation was behind the trade.
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Of course, just yesterday we read Dombrowski hinting that he might be finished making moves, and certainly was not looking for a shortstop. It is of course possible that something changed in the past 24 hours, but more likely just Dave Dombrowski being Dave Dombrowski, with his trading face on.
There still may be another move to come: the Tigers are rumored to still be talking to the San Francisco Giants about lefty reliever Javier Lopez.
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Your newest Tiger:
Jose Iglesias
5’11” 185. Bats R, Throws R. Born January 5, 1990 (23) La Habana, Cuba
Career stats (Red Sox):
314 PA .280 BA .333 OBP .357 SLG .690 OPS 4 SB 1 CS 9 HBP (!)
And, in the words of Dave Dombrowski, “he is special defensively.”
Perhaps the most relevant number of all: 2019–that is when Iglesias will be eligible for free agency. Peralta, as noted above, is a free agent in 2014.
The Tigers could be looking at a future middle infield of Jose Iglesias and Hernan Perez, which could conceivably give Detroit the best middle infield range in baseball. If you like that sort of thing.
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Avisail Garcia tweets his farewell to Tiger Fans:
Last but not least,
#Tigers fans you guys are amazing! I hope you guys keep supporting me in my career.. Gracias por todo!
Tigers Acquire Jose Veras
Jose Veras has been acquired from the Houston Astros for outfield prospect Danny Vasquez and journeyman PTBNL.
I don’t know much about him, but it seems like a no risk move. I don’t expect him to close, though I do think it’s reasonable to believe that he’ll be the setup guy.
I’m afraid this means that Octavio Dotel is done for the year.
I think the Tigers are done. I think the backup plan at SS is Santiago or maybe Perez. If Peralta is suspended, he’ll have the opportunity to appeal and perhaps play out the rest of the season (or serve it now and back for the playoffs). Remember that Peralta is a FA, which means that if he does appeal, he’ll go into FA with a suspension looming. Maybe time to re-sign him to another year?
Sanchez and Infante for Turner (Updated)
Let’s move the thread here. I’ll get as many stats/details out as I can later tonight.
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I like the deal, a lot.
Losing Turner is not a minor loss. Here’s a guy that threw 99 in high school and has been the organization’s top prospect for each of the last few years (though Castellanos has probably overtaken him by now). Keith Law thinks that it’s a great deal for Miami. Dombrowski cited the major league abilities of Crosby and Smyly as factors in letting Turner go.
Now if you’ll recall, the last time the Tigers gave up a top prospect was in the late 2007 trade for Cabrera where they swapped two former #1 picks – Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin. Quick, where are Miller and Maybin playing now? Here’s Baseball America’s analysis.
Prospects are just that – prospects. Sure, some will pan out, but you have to have numbers for that to happen (see Texas, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, etc.). The Tigers simply haven’t been able to do that, so DDs strategy has been to buy and trade. And it’s worked out pretty well. Even if Turner goes on to a stellar career, this was a calculated risk which had to be taken. Our rotation and 2B spot are immediately better, and likely markedly so.
There’s an argument that Detroit’s lack of organizational depth results in rushed rookies, but we all know that we are in a win-now mode, and this trade screams now. Fangraphs projects that this is a 4 win swing for the Tigers. That’s a lot of wins.
An interesting side note to the player swap, is that for the first time in MLB history, teams have exchanged draft picks. MLB teams can’t trade regular draft picks, but compensatory picks can be swapped once.
By the way, your Tigers are 5th in the latest ESPN Power Rankings.
Talk to everyone tonight.
Game 2011.97: A’s at Tigers
Today’s starter: (see Below)
**Breaking News**
The Tigers have obtained 3B Wilson Betemit from the KC Royals for minor leaguers Antonio Cruz and Julio Rodriguez. The real issue isn’t who they traded; it’s who is going to go to make room for him. What does this mean for Brandon Inge, Ryan Raburn, Don Kelly, Ramon Santiago? On 97.1 Dave Dombrowski said “We’ll make a decision when the player reports.” Stay tuned.
Betemit is currently at .281 / .341 / .409 / .750, which is a huge upgrade over the Detroit combined 3B line: .186 / .251 / .249 / .500.
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The Tigers fell behind early last night, but didn’t quit and pulled out a convincing victory. They did however give up The Ghost: Casper Wells and Adam Wilk were optioned to Toledo to make room for today’s starter Duane Below, and Charlie Furbush, who has been pretty much commuting between Detroit and Toledo.
Casper had been looking forward to playing this series against his good buddy Scott Sizemore, but that went wrong almost immediately when Sizemore had to leave the game after taking a pitch off the jaw. Then his night got worse.
The evening went well for the team overall though: from Victor Martinez’ winning game of tag, to Cabrera’s why-are-you-pitching-to-me-with-first-open towering home run, to Guillen’s first home run of the year, altogether a pleasant night.
The Tigers send lefty Duane Below out to make his debut and try to keep Detroit in first place. Below went 9-4 with a 3.13 ERA at Toledo, with 83 Ks in 115 innings, with opponents batting just .225 against him (which, coincidentally, is the Oakland team road batting avg). He’s known as a strike thrower who gets ahead in the count.
Brandon McCarthy will be pitching for the 4th time in his career at Comerica Park. He gave up 3 runs in each of the other 3 starts. I’m putting him down for 3 tonight.
Today’s Player of the Pre-Game: Duane Below
Below, who makes his MLB debut tonight, is from tiny Britton, MI in Lenawee county. Britton was originally named Balch, until a guy named John Britton paid $500 to rename it after himself. If Below has a successful career, perhaps he could afford to rename the town Below…it is, after all, at the very bottom of the state.
Today’s Lucky Lefty Lineup:
- Austin Jackson CF
- Brennan Boesch LF
- Magglio Ordonez RF
- Miguel Cabrera 1B
- Victor Martinez DH
- Carlos Guillen 2B
- Alex Avila C
- Don Kelly 3B
- Ramon Santiago SS
Robertson traded
Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis have secured the final two spots in the Tigers rotation, and Nate Robertson secured a spot with the Marlins. The Tigers today traded Robertson and $9.6 million of his $10 million contract for Marlins left handed prospect Jay Voss. For my thoughts on the trade, well, just look back a couple days.
Robertson outpitched his two competitors not only this spring, but last year as well. The stats say that Robertson should be in the rotation. It has to be a tough pill for Robertson to swallow.*
Why the Granderson take down?
Lynn Henning was ahead of the curve on the Curtis Granderson trade front. He started beating the drum for a Granderson trade in October. It’s something that I never would have seen coming. So kudos to Henning and his crystal ball. But why in the aftermath of the trade has he become so completely anti-Granderson and such a staunch supporter of all things Tigers? Continue reading Why the Granderson take down?
It doesn’t add up
The Curtis Granderson trade hasn’t set well with me from the outset. I’ve taken some time to mull everything over and look at it a number of ways. I think I’ve moved past the emotional component. I’ve taken a look back at the new Tigers and the return is OK. But therein lies the problem. The return was just OK in my view. An OK return isn’t enough to trade a player that didn’t have to be traded. It just doesn’t add up.
I know I’m not alone in this. Other Tigers bloggers who I respect for their thoughtful and analytic approach are still struggling with it as well. Like them, it is with the chronology of the deal that doesn’t make sense.