Tigers Trade Rumors

Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press has the trade chatter surrounding the Tigers.

The first issue is the bullpen, which is having all sorts of problems. Joel Zumaya is out for three months after finger surgery, Fernando Rodney has been on the DL with biceps tendinitis, Jose Mesa predictably bombed, and Todd Jones has struggled recently.  Logically, the Tigers are scouring the trade market for relief pitching.  They still might sign Troy Percival.  The main competition there seems to be the Phillies.  Morosi also indicates that a trade could be worked out with the Rangers for Eric Gagne or Akinori Otsuka.  Peter Gammons confirms Gagne's availability, and also mentions Al Reyes as a trade candidate.

Last December, Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski showed interest in Renyel Pinto of the Marlins and C.J. Wilson and Ron Mahay of the Rangers.  That was back when the need was though to be a lefty specialist rather than just relievers in general.

One expendable player for the Tigers might be 29 year-old southpaw Mike Maroth.  The Tigers were offering him up in December but couldn't find a deal.  Maroth had surgery a year ago to remove bone chips from his elbow, and was never right in '06.  While he's made all his starts this year, Maroth isn't pitching like he did from 2003-05.  This year, his K rate is down even further, his control is off, and he's allowed an unacceptable number of home runs (15 in 61 innings).  Morosi confirms Maroth's availability via an NL exec.  The return of Kenny Rogers later this month may push him out of the rotation. 

Maroth makes $2.95MM this year and then will be eligible for arbitration afterwards.  He'll become a free agent after the 2008 season.  He alone probably won't bring a useful reliever, but could be part of a larger deal.   

Comments

[quintjs]

And here is the problem.

Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, Mets, Braves, Cubs, Brewers

Have I named 1 playoff contending team/power team that wouldn't mind a bullpen upgrade?

Gagne and co are not going to come cheap.

[bravesbeast]

While I concur I would not mind having one more decent reliever, I think that the braves and tigers could talk a trade in which one of our minor league arms could go to the tigers for maroth, as i know we could use the starter depth. Maybe chad paronto to the tigers for maroth, but i maybe overvauling paronto a bit.

[Baseballfan79]

fish need a CF prospect for the future and need a catching prospect for the future.

Something for one of the two of them could work for a pinto trade. But the kid has good potentials and has been very good for us as a spot starter and lefty specialist.

Great stuff and gotten alot of work on those control problems.

[gtliles]

Gagne's the only guy I can see happening. Maroth would be an upgrade over some of Texas's current starters, but he still may not be enough for Gagne.

I think it's more likely you'll see some Tigers callups getting an opportunity. Roman Colon's coming off the DL soon, and he's out of options. Also, Andrew Miller and Dallas Trahern are tearing up Double-A, and could probably get big leaguers out tomorrow if necessary. There's also Jair Jurrjens, Virgil Vasquez, maybe Eulogio DelaCruz. The sticking point is that several of Detroit's current bullpen arms are out of options, and Dombrowski may be reluctant to subject them to waivers.

[Zonis]

A's need a bullpen arm or two. The bullpen was supposed to be the team's stregnth going into the 2007 season.

But then again, what did we expect when you take our 4 best relievers out of the bullpen (Gaudin and Kennedy to the rotation, and Street and Duchscherer to the DL).

DiNardo was sent to the rotation as well.

Calero has forgotten how to pitch.

Embree is proving that he's a 7th inning guy.

and we have 5 Lefties in the bullpen!

At least Casilla seems to have put things together.

[rangersorrobbers]

The Rangers should definitely entertain a trade sending Teixeira to Detroit for Maroth, Casey and another pitcher ready to break out (the Tigers have enough, and adding Tex's bat to their lineup would help them win the Central, which is possibly their biggest hurdle besides Boston in returning to the Series):

http://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com

[rangersorrobbers]

And add Gagne to Tex if the Tigers will throw in Andrew Miller. That would give Texas two #2-#3 rotation caliber southpaws (which they lack in their rotation, and are needed as lefties fair better in The Ballpark)and a (albeit declining) Casey to fill in at first until 3 potential replacements mature in their farm system.

For Detroit, if Gagne stays healthy and Tex rounds out the already potent lineup - plus if Rogers returns just 75% as good as last year - they can order their World Champtionship rings now!

http://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com

[ptk420biatch]

If the tigers give up andrew miller in that deal everyone up here in the mitten that actually cares about baseball will be pretty upset. I wouldnt throw anything of value in for gagne.

[jza1218]

Why would Texas trade Teixeira for virtually no return?

[zumaya103mph]

Miller and Maybin are untouchable - any Tiger Trade rumors involving either of these two is a pipe dream.

Otsuka would be my first choice of the Ranger relievers - still don't trust Gagne's durability -

Otsuka/Texeira for Maroth, Casey, and two Plus Prospects ie - Tata, De La Cruz, Connelly, and Jurrjens/Trahern (not both of these two, only one)

The line up gets even better, and the pen gets some stability - When / If the injury bug goes away we have quite the bulley -

Jones - Cl
Zumaya, Otsuka, Rodney - Setup
Grilli, Ledezma(L) - Long
Seay (L) - LH specialist

Here's the lineup with Texiera
Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Sheffield DH
Ordonez RF
Texeira 1B
Guillen SS
Rodriguez C
Monroe LF
Inge 3B

If this happens - lock up the AL title and lock up MVP for Maggs

[boomshwa12]

idk if anyone realizes this, but teixeira is hitting .297, 11 bombs, 36 rbi's r/n. otsuka's era is just unde 3.00. i'm sure maroth is probably a nice hardworking guy, but his stuff is crap and his numbers are worse. he wouldn't last a month in arlington. and sean casey is practically a throw in just to fill a hole at first for the rangers.

zumaya103, none of those guys you mentioned make me say omg, lets do this deal. the rangers don't have to trade teixeira this year, so you'd have to offer something worthwhile to get the rangers to bite on a deal (although jon daniels has proven that he could be had on a deal, i'll give you that)

for otsuka and teixeira i'd casey, a young pitching stud, and a pretty good young outfielder. something along the lines of casey/miller/granderson or casey/maybin/trahern. you probably won't be able to keep miller and maybin in this deal, especially if more than one team is after teixeira

[ptk420biatch]

Boom what you are asking for is a little much. You say tex is hitting .297 with 11 bombs and 36 rbi's, well granderson is hitting .280, with 8 bombs and 28 rbi's out of the lead of spot. You arent getting him in that deal, especially if you are asking for miller too.

[boomshwa12]

point taken. it just seems like either granderson or maybin would be good trade bait and expendable since they play the same position, and the rangers could definitely use some help in the outfield. and you'd be getting otsuka in the deal as well

[boomshwa12]

also, i emphasized his stats earlier b/c it seems like everyones dogging him for not having great numbers. as a comparison, albert pujols is hitting .293 with 11 bombs and 31 rbi's. what about my second proposal? granted the tigers would be giving up a hella good prospect, but they have a pretty good outfield already with mags, monroe, and granderson. i'd think ya'll would want to hold onto miller to fortify the rotation next year after rogers leaves in free agency

[ptk420biatch]

Yeah, your 2nd proposal sounds good. Would be worth it for both teams.