A handful of teams showed interest in Armando Galarraga before the Tigers sent him to Arizona, Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski said today. Some interested clubs couldn’t afford Galarraga’s $2.3MM salary and one potential suitor signed a player this week, so the D’Backs acquired the right-hander after an “aggressive” pursuit.
Dombrowski didn't disclose which teams pursued the 29-year-old Venezuelan, but the Pirates appeared to have some interest. It's not clear whether the Nationals, Indians and Orioles were among Galarraga's suitors, but those clubs have potential interest in trading for starting pitching.
In exchange for Galarraga, the Tigers get Kevin Eichhorn and Ryan Robowski, two minor league pitching prospects. Dombrowski says he likes Eichhorn’s ability and Robowski’s fastball and breaking ball. But the Tigers are realistic; they know they didn’t get blue-chip prospects in the deal.
"We look at both guys as sort of fringe-type prospects," Dombrowski said on this afternoon's conference call, before noting that both pitchers could eventually contribute at the major league level.
The Tigers don’t anticipate any more moves before Spring Training, Dombrowski said.
They could…just like Billy Buckner did
How was it not clear about the Nationals, you guys put up an article a few days ago saying Nationals are not interested because they didnt see it as an upgrade.
I never once heard the Mets mentioned as a potential suitor for Galarraga, and it doesn’t appear to be that it took too much to get him from the Tigers. His salary is a little high, but not THAT high. He is still only two years removed from a pretty decent campaign. You’d think pitching at CitiField would help a little, too.
The Orioles interest wasn’t even a rumor, just pure speculation on the part of a few people including our author. This means, of course, that O’s fans who read this blog regularly will assume that the O’s were in on the trade talks and be pissed that we didn’t get him despite the fact that the team wasn’t interested and that Galarraga isn’t very good and definitely isn’t an upgrade over Tillman, the current favorite for the 5th starter slot.
I hate opinion disguised as “speculation”.