The Tigers will consider trading for an outfield or third base bat, tweets SI's Jon Heyman, though the $15MM salary owed to Mets' third baseman David Wright "appears too rich for them to take."
Wright's salary is listed at $14MM at Cot's Baseball Contracts, so acquiring him on July 31st would require adding about $4.5MM. I imagine the cost in players to acquire Wright would be an even bigger concern, but only if he starts hitting in the next two months. Plus, the Tigers are already paying Brandon Inge $5.5MM this year and next to man the hot corner.
The Tigers haven't gotten much from outfielders Ryan Raburn, Austin Jackson, and Magglio Ordonez so far this season. A few speculative trade ideas: Jeff Francoeur, Jason Kubel, Hunter Pence, Ryan Ludwick, and Luke Scott. Problems: acquiring Francoeur or Kubel from division rivals could be tough, and Pence may not be available. Carlos Beltran would be a nice fit, but he earns more than Wright.
The Tigers were seven games out and in third place ten days ago, but since then they've won seven straight. They're now in second place, 3.5 games behind the Indians with Max Scherzer on the hill tonight.
Jose Bautista?
Ron Burgundy?
This article assumes that David Wright is available to trade.
Most everyone assumes David Wright is available to trade.
Well, you know what happens when you assume…
Aside from Cabrera and V-Mart, that is one weak lineup.
You do realize that the Tigers have one of the top 5 best offense in the entire MLB right? If Jackson can continue to produce like he has in the last two weeks, they will be fine. Inge is the clear black-eye in the line-up. Aside from him and Magglio (who is now on the DL) the offense has actually been quite good.
Really good, actually. Avilla has been a nice surprise, boesch seems have worked out his issues in the offseason, and peralta is looking like the hitter that used to kill Detroit while in Cleveland
Nothing like good old fashioned assumptions with no evidence what so ever to make you look bad.
Keep telling yourself that.
Trade for Reyes and move peralta to third. Problems solved…
Mags may not come back into form and raburn will bat like a HOF’er for a 3 week span, but there is some firepower in the minors for the outfield in dirks who we should all see tonight. An outfielder isn’t really too necessary with what they got.
You take Inge out of that lineup and put in Reyes and the tigers would have a lineup as good as anything Detroit has ever had
Seems so simple when you put it that way. Who exactly are you giving up for Reyes?
Pick 1–Oliver, furbush, Crosby
Take two or three more of—belowes, dirks, Ruffin, smyly, ramon Santiago, wells, Thomas, or any other top fringe guys
I would imagine turner is untouchable, but DD has been creative in the past, no reason to think he can’t get a deal done without gutting the farm
Keep in mind that Reyes is a rental at this point. He will command a salary increase come next year. So basically the tigers will have to blow him away with an extension, in order to keep him long term.
I agree. And letting him walk would be a waste, especially if he costs one of the tigers 3 stud lefties.
I went over this with someone else a while back and renting Reyes would be a waste unless he wins you a pennant, but reyes isn’t exactly a guy I’d mind having for the next 6 or so years….
Illitch will spend money, we know that so signing him wouldn’t be an issue for a player of his caliber
Boesch is gonna be just fine, Sizemore will be good, and avilla will be stout too… Add in peralta and there is more to this lineup than just miggy and vmart
***meant to be a reply to triple hawpes brewed
I love the multiple Jose Bautista comments. People, the steroid era is over. Power numbers are down across the board, players age and fall off the map in their mid 30’s instead of their late 30’s, and those two facts mean that there are less big hitters, and almost all of them are younger, locked up, and in a good (or at least reasonable) contract for the team they are on. Unless you can find a Prince Fielder type in the last year and sure to walk rental guy it ain’t happening. And since those guys are fewer and farther between getting them will be costly.
Let’s not forget bautistas contract, which is incredibly team friendly to further drive up what would be an already ridiculous cost to acquire
Me being a huge Jays fan knows that Jose will never get traded, but if AA was to be fielding offers what do you think he would fetch if he was made available?
I still think he needs the full year to prove him self stay healthy walk a bit more, hit for a bit higher of an average and prove his defense. If he does be is a franchise changing player so I would assume 1 top pitching or position player prospect 1 or more top prospects and a mid level guy or two. Heck look at what AA got for o e good year of marcum, a top prospect.
HIT FOR AN HIGHER AVERAGE? PROVE HIS DEFENSE?
sarcasm or your grossly misinformed….
Sarcasm
Never mess with Jose Bautista!
Average and defence? I might kind of understand the average but his OBP more then makes up for it. The defensive part of your statement is what really gets me though. He might be the best defensive RF in the league right now.
“The Tigers haven’t gotten much from outfielders Ryan Raburn, Austin Jackson, and Magglio Ordonez so far this season.”
I’m pretty sure Austin Jackson has gone from hitting about .190 to close to .300 in about a week and a half.
He is only hitting .229 and is striking out in almost a third of his at bats
A player would literally have to get a hit every single at bat to go from.190 to .300 in that short of an amount of time.
While he’s certainly improved, he raised his AVG from .190 (May 4th) to .229 (going into today). Not quite .300 yet and he sports a .320 BABIP. Unless he cuts down on the strikeouts, he’ll always be a batting average risk.
My guess is that unless the Padres turn things around fast Chase Headley will be available in June. I would imagine he would be a good fit for the Tigers since he is an affordable above average everyday third-basemen that gets killed by Petco (check out his road splits). The Padres also have a ton of depth at 3B down on the farm.
That’s an interesting option I’ve never even thought about before
If he gets killed by petco, comerica isn’t going to be better by much for him, if at all.
Over the past three years the park factor for Petco has been .806, Comerica’s has been 1.028. Park factors aren’t a perfect science, but that would suggest that he should be able to hit considerably better in Comerica.
As a Padre fan here I’m expecting Headley to be manning 3b come next opening day. James Darnell is off to a great start at AA, but offensively he’s probably not going to be much of an upgrade (if any) while not being the defender Headley is. If it was going to be hard to fit in Headley’s ’12 salary of around 4m in, that would change things, but that’s not the case.
Hard to tell which way they will go. Gyorko seems like the 3b of the future with a eta either mid-’12 or following the season. They could keep Headley until then and deal Darnell (he’d be a nice pickup for the Tigers as well) with an eye on moving Headley in the next 1-1 1/2 years.
The Pads will already have several unestablished guys like Blanks & Rizzo in next years lineup which I think it is what will make them keep Headley longer rather then having an overabundance amount of rookies (Blanks isn’t technicallly one, but he’s in the same boat) all at once.
Bet Hoyer would listen on him, but I’d put the odds of a Headley deal under 20% during this season. Of course if the offer was interesting enough, things could change. What kind of return would seem like a fit from the Tigers perspective?
So far his power is down in 2011 a little bit, although Petco is extra harsh early on, but his walks are way up (on pace for 93) and his strikeouts are down. Looking forward to what the translated #’s look like for him at years end.
I would agree if the Padres keep this hot streak alive, but if they are 10 or 15 games under .500 at the ASB I think they would be willing to listen to deals on Headley and move him if the right deal came along. The Padres do have Jesus Guzman in AAA to tide them over until Darnell or Gyorko is ready. While Guzman may not be the best with the glove he does have a major league level bat and could hold down the hot corner for a season.
Kind of hard to trade for David wright when he is going to be out for a while with a stress fracture in his back
it’s a 2 week injury as of now, of course we have 30 minute old information no formal diagnosis only tentative. To be fair he’s been playing with this stress fracture for like 3 weeks so it can’t be that bad, but he could’ve aggravated it on the flight home.
Pence? Kubel? I can’t see the Astros or Twins giving up those guys. David Wright or Jose Reyes would be my choice. Like the other guy said above, we could get Reyes and move Peralta to 3rd then sit down Inge.
Agreed on Pence, Kubel not so much. I just don’t think the Twins would trade Kubel within the division, let alone to the Tigers. I do think they will move him though if they see a plus for them somewhere.
Don’t just sit him—take him to a place where we would never have to see him with a bat in his hands again.
Designated fielder?
I’d almost rather see our pitchers bat than him, so that could work.
I was thinking “official glove breaker-inner”
I wonder if they would give up Jacob turner for Wright if it also meant the mets get back Inge and say 2 million bux?
Turner won’t be getting traded
Turner is not going anywhere except for an elite SS….Reyes particularly.
So you will trade him for 2 months of a good SS, but not 2 years and 2 months of a good third baseman? ok……………
Not one with a fractured spine, no.
Turner is not going anywhere, period.
Exactly.
Again everyone the tigers are nit getting wright MLB network reported he is at the hospital in new York with a stress fracture in his lower back. I’m surprised it’s not on the main page yet.
Austin Jackson since April 29th:
.328/.379/.525
He is one the reasons the Tigers have heated up recently. Heaven forbid the guy has a bad month.
Agreed. He catches too much flak for his SO’s too–lest we not forget grandy struck out 174 times in ’06 so it’s not like he’s doing any worse than graderson in his first two years with the club.
I’d take Jackson batting .225 all year—his defense is that good…..I just don’t want h leading off with those numbers….hence my thought on bringing in Reyes. Move jackson to the 9 spot and he looks infinitely better than Inge.
Lets not forget Inge is on pace to make 30+ errors this year….I like the Reyes idea the best! The Tigers havent seen a stud shortstop since Tram in my opinion. Peralta will hit .275 this year with a little power and that is a good fit for a 3rd baseman.
Can we please stop calling Inge an elite defender? Since 2008, Inge ranks 11th out of 17 qualified 3B with a UZR/150 of 4.3. He was very good in ’06 (offensively and defensively). Stop giving him a free pass and make an upgrade.
They need to put it in the correct tense–WAS an elite defender
He’s hardly average today and his bat would be better served as a swizzle stick for Cabreras scotch&soda.
I want him off my team now
I always pictured Cabrera as a tequila guy, not scotch.
Knowing his history, he’s probably not too picky.
And yet, he still plays better than anyone on the Twins. Who wouldda thunk it?
Just because I’m a Twins fan does not mean I can’t appreciate greatness. I always look forward to Tigers games, because I love to watch him at bp. I am a baseball fan first and a Twins fan second. I love him as a ballplayer, but he has gotta lay off the sauce.
We could easily afford Wright’s contract… we actually have a lower payroll than we did last year, plus illitch is willing to spend… and we’ll have another 20+mil on top of that after Maggs and carlos hit free agency.
The shedding of Carlos and maggs makes me think they are gonna go big in a trade near the deadline. DD gets clever in trades(not always for the best but I applaud the effort) and he just can’t help himself as the allstar break rolls around…
As far as Inge goes I hope he just goes! There are too many lower tier players out there that can play an average 3rd base and hit 260 0r 270. I would bench Inge and put Kelly in as my 3rd baseman for now. He bats lefty and makes contact and does have power. Not to worried about Jackson just yet. Rayburn bothers me more. He is too good to be a minor league player and not good enough to be a major league player.
We don’t need an average 3B defensively, we need a really good one like we have in Inge. Peralta is not very good out in the field (3B or SS) and needs as much help as he can get.
As for RABURN, he’s a second half player. Look at the splits over the last few years and you will see he really turns it on around All Star break. With that said, I have no issues trading him for a player such as Pence — one we will have control over for at least a couple years that we could also potentially sign to a longer contract, one similar to the Martinez contract.
Peralta is looking much better than Inge defensively….what the hell have you been watching?
Maybe so lately, but look at their career. There is a reason why the Indians moved him to 3rd. In any season that Peralta has played more than half the year at SS, he has never posted a UZR/150 greater than -1.5 at SS and it stands to reason that we will be seeing a decline in his defense soon.
Peralta is a poor defender, so I don’t know who you’ve been watching over the last 5 years.
You called Inge a “Really good defender”—he’s not. To call him such is blind, dumb hope.
Leading the team in errors, on a very steady downhill slope, and won’t be getting any better. Peraltas defense has been unexpectedly good this year, while inge is not suprising anyone with some subpar defending after the trends we’ve seen from him.
I agree that peralta should be moved to third and the tigers should go after a SS like Reyes, but if you are saying the tigers “need a really good 3b like Inge” I would really like to know where your definition of average and awful start.
I would love to see Wright play in Detroit. If they can get Kubel, more power to them. But I don’t see that happening unless the Twins decide to gut the team and start over. There are a few corpses in the league that you can pick at. The Mets are one and if you want to throw the M’s in there, that works too.
I have to agree with the others — is it really worth what we’d give up to get Wright for a couple months? There is not way we can invest into Wright when we already have the bigger contracts for Cabrera, Verlander and Martinez. I don’t see it happening.
The whole Kubel business is going to be just like Greinke, no way do the Twins consider trading him within the division.
Agreed. Can’t really understand why people believe the Tigers need 3 third basemen, and I’m tossing peralta in there because I don’t think he is a solution at shortstop…He’s doing well now but I don’t expect him to keep it up
If you’re planning on Kubel playing left with Ordonez in right Jackson is going to have to cover 90% of the outfield to make that work. Pence would be a much better fit for Comerica but would come at a much higher price in prospects.
Fielder for Rymes and so on?
Figgins for so on?
Ajax is already batting and his defensive is superlative.
Wright would be a nice addition.
I’ve said since the 2nd week of Spring training: Detroit Tiger OF should be RF Andy Dirks, CF Austin Jackson, LF Brennan Boesch. Bat Dirks #2. Don’t trade anyone. Besides, Tiger pitching not only could use the defensive upgrade Dirks brings, they need his ability to score runs when it counts as he did all Spring. If the Tigers make a trade, go get Tyler Colvin from the Cubs while his value is low. The Cubs need pen help dearly and the Tigers seem to have some to spare… as long as they don’t trade any player mentioned above.
I said the exact same outfield should be starting when it was completely obvious Maglio wasn’t exactly healthy. However, I don’t think trading a reliever is the best bet. The bullpen is a) not the good and b) isn’t deep at all. toss Coke back in the pen seems to be the obvious choice with two lefties ready for a shot at starting in the minors but there really isn’t anything to spare in the bullpen.
Of the players listed, I’d really like to see Pence come over. I’m not big on the other players because they will be too expensive (either price or in terms of prospects), not to mention he will still have 2 years of arbitration left I believe. That reason alone will, I think, make the Astros start looking around to see what sort of offers they can get. I would have no issues giving up some lower top tier pitching prospects (I’d go no higher than maybe Crosby) along with some cheaper big league hitters (Raburn, Santiago just to name a couple).