11:53pm: Knobler indicates that Oswalt has turned the Tigers down even though they were very interested in signing him (Twitter links). They even had Justin Verlander make a recruiting call. He says the Tigers are likely to leave the fifth starter's job up for grabs in Spring Training.
9:01am: The Tigers have some interest in Hideki Matsui and Raul Ibanez, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter. Victor Martinez will likely miss the entire season with a torn ACL, so Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski is in the market for a designated hitter.
The Tigers are considering free agents Johnny Damon and Juan Pierre, but might rely on internal options at DH. Matsui, Ibanez, Pierre and Damon all bat from the left side, but club could consider right-handed bats such as Vladimir Guerrero, Magglio Ordonez and Derrek Lee. Both Matsui and Ibanez have been linked to the Yankees, another club that may add a designated hitter.
The Tigers have also shown interest in Roy Oswalt, according to Knobler. While Jacob Turner and others are candidates to start for Detroit, the team is considering ways of adding starting pitching depth before Opening Day. Knobler says it appears unlikely that the Tigers will sign Oswalt, which matches up with what Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reported yesterday.
Meh.
I’d rather they try to trade for Carlos Lee or Chase Headly and Orlando Hudson.
Headly, I agree. I wouldn’t really care for Hudson or Lee #washedup
I don’t think I’d call Carlos Lee washed up. 18 HRs, 94 RBIs, 3+ WAR last year. Has played less than 153 games just once in the past decade. I wouldn’t be upset if the Tigers made the right deal for him.
If you take on the bad contract of Hudson, then you might be able to save Turner and Castellanos.
Yes, please.
Id rather trade for Carlos Lee or Abreu. Doesnt seem to be in the cards. Seems like Dave wants to play the patient game. Dont blame him. It would be nice to make a splash though.
I would rather get a speedy LF and use DY as DH. Pierre might work.
I honestly can’t think of a worse signing than Pierre. I’d gladly suffer through delmon in LF if it meant no Pierre.
I think he’s going to try to make a splash by signing Cespedes. But this doesn’t solve the V-Mart problem. Keith Law and Kevin Goldstein both think he will need time in the minors.
He will but he won’t need too much time. He could be up by May.
Red Sox should have let Ortiz walk and signed one of these guys for 1/3 of the cost. The Tigers’ DH won’t outproduce VMart, but they’ll get a steal of a deal by waiting for these guys to get desperate to sign.
No they shouldn’t have
Trade for Carlos Lee!
I can’t see the Cepedes thing happening for Detroit … I’d put them 3rd on the list behind Miami’s Cultural edge, and the Cubs’ deep pockets.
Carlos Lee would be a great get – but if we are going to add 18.5 M in payroll- why not go after David Wright?
I don’t see a big payroll spike to solve this problem
It’s looking more and more that the Tigers will be stuck with someone from this over 35 DH crowd …
Of this bunch, Damon has been the most productive over the last year or two. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of his 2 years ago when he first wore the Ole English D – his stat line wasn’t terrible when I look back at it
Damon still gets on base, and can slide in perfectly to the #2 hole in the lineup.
Pierre would be my 2nd choice – a top of the lineup guy that doesn’t strike out.
I a huge Vladdy honk – so if we are going to sign an old slugger – I’d take Vladdy over Matsui … please DD don’t get Ibanez, it’s kind of scary when someone drops off so quickly, and at 39 I don’t see a resurrgence for Raul in 2012
Houston would be eating a big chunk of Lee’s salary to facilitate a deal
Lee wouldn’t be adding 18.5M to the payroll… the Astros would eat a large chunk of that contract just to move him.
and when we say a huge chunk we are talking about over half of that 18.5… and I’m being on the lo side by saying that.
Ok – so Houston eats some $$ – The more $$ Houston pays, the more prospects the Tigers have to part with. Houston won’t take a financial bath just to dump Lee without getting some return. Who are you willing to deal for a mid 30s slugger with only 1 year left on his deal?
If DD is willing to go the trade route – why not Wright (younger and under contract longer) Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
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Wright can opt out of his contract after ’12 if he’s traded.
“Cultural edge” lol… He’s going to go where the $$$ are, give me a break… The Tigers have as good of a chance as anyone of signing him.
Yep like I said – Tigers have the 3rd best chance –
Well behind the two teams I mentioned – both of which have deeper pockets than Detroit.
Detroit can’t hang with Miami and Chicago in a bidding war
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I take it you live in Canada…
I take it you live in Canada…
precisely. Detroit can offer as much money as anybody. The only thing they can’t offer is a market like Chicago or Miami
Money will not play a factor. Detroit will offer as much as anybody. It’s all a matter of whether Cespedes is willing to play in Detroit
Not sure if Ibanez could hold down a DH role with Detroit. I’d love to see him have one last good year with a contender, though.
If the Tigers can play Ibanez during his hot months, they would be getting a major bargain.
People keep forgetting about Carlos Lee’s no-trade clause. No way he leaves his ranch and one of the best food-serving places in America for Detroit. I’m glad because I don’t want him. The guy I want the Tigers to get is Marlon Byrd. Won’t cost any good prospects and in LF his defense should be above average. His plate approach is very similar to VMart’s and its a 6MM one year gamble. Playing on a better offense in Detroit could improve his numbers. They can then shift Delmon Young to DH and finally figure out if he’s a valuable player just offensively, which is what they claim. Obviously, it’s not perfect but there’s no feasible way for them to completely replace VMart.
I’d love to see Cespedes signed, but being a realistic Detroit fan, I know it’s a long-shot. It’s not because of money; Illytch has plenty and is not afraid to spend it. It’s more about the Chicago and Miami markets being more desirable.
Derrek Lee is sitting at home…lol
Derrek Lee is sitting at home…lol
WOW even after JV’s call, Oswalt did not sign up with Tigers? I think Roy would have survived AL Central on one year deal.
It’ll take 4-6 weeks for this all to play out, as with injuries happening, who knows who’ll want more hitting insurance?
“Oswalt has turned the Tigers down even though they were very interested in signing him”
That doesn’t bode well for the Red Sox if that’s true. Tigers probably got off lucky in my opinion. For him to turn down the Tigers and sign with the Sox would make negative 100% sense, so…
Not surprised that Oswalt said this. Maybe they should look at bringing Zjackson back.
Oswalt to SD on a 1yr 7mil deal and Clayton Richard and Chase Headley to Detroit for Turner.
Meh.
The shorter list is hitters the Tiger ARENT interested in right now…
I’m a Cub fan so I likey, but the problem is Detroit doesn’t need a DH for three years, just one.
not sure that I would call having Soriano at DH as solving their DH problem (for three years). Why wouldn’t they just go after someone like Abreu. Also that is probably much too steep of a price to pay for detroit. Turner and Castellanos…yikes. You would think they would be getting an ace.
Seriously. Just no. Nobody wants Soriano for 3 seasons, and the price of trading away your top 3 prospects is awful.
No. Not even remotely interested at that asking price.
No. Not even remotely interested at that asking price.
What’s worse is when the Tigers trade for Garza and then both Oswalt and Garza are not options. Then what? Edwin Jackson? Floyd?
I’m going with your option C. No chance your 2nd point is what he is really thinking. The guy is on his last leg, he has perhaps 2-3 years max left pitching in baseball. Trying to establish that much value for an extra year in the AL East makes no sense. Perhaps the Tigers lowballed him, but even if they put a bid in for $4mm or $5mm, its really the agents job to pit that against the Sox or any other team and get the bidding up. To flat out reject a bid is a weird business.
Irony here is, I think he may actually sign with the Rockies, which would be the ultimate kick to the nuts if so, since Scutaro was traded for this reason.
We’ll see.
I’m going with your option C. No chance your 2nd point is what he is really thinking. The guy is on his last leg, he has perhaps 2-3 years max left pitching in baseball. Trying to establish that much value for an extra year in the AL East makes no sense. Perhaps the Tigers lowballed him, but even if they put a bid in for $4mm or $5mm, its really the agents job to pit that against the Sox or any other team and get the bidding up. To flat out reject a bid is a weird business.
Irony here is, I think he may actually sign with the Rockies, which would be the ultimate kick to the nuts if so, since Scutaro was traded for this reason.
We’ll see.
Yeah I don’t see the sense in heading to the AL East if you’re looking for a pillow contract. Fenway would probably be one of the last places I’d go, too. I feel like if the Cardinals made a play, he’d be there in a second.
He doesn’t like Detroit. When Houston and Detroit started trade talks, Oswalt said he would not accept the trade.
Considering how awesome Soriano is (given your above assessment), I’m not sure why you don’t want him on the Cubs for the next three years.
Ha. Yeah fat chance that’s the truth though. You put it perfectly and Detroit would be a slam dunk match.
Here is a comment I made yesterday:
Here’s one for everybody. While incredibly unlikely you could have a few things happen here:
Astro’s trade Wandy Rodriguez to the Red Sox + $4mm for newly acquired Mortensen,
Astro’s trade Carlos Lee to the Yankees for AJ Burnett + $4mm. Yankees ultimately save $10.5mm over the next two seasons. It would be an increase of $4mm to the 2012 payroll, which is essentially what they have to land a DH.
While the immediate reaction would be this doesn’t make sense, if you look at the numbers it actually does. Astro’s drop the $41.5mm ($23mm + $18.5mm) in salary with Wandy and Lee, add back $33mm for AJ Burnett = net savings $8.5mm + 1 minor league pitcher. The $4mm changing hands is essentially the Yankees sending that to the Sox, passing through the Astro’s. $8.5mm is a large chunk to unload for Houston and at the end of the day, AJ can still pitch and has been healthy.
Not necessarily saying this is the move the Red Sox want, it’s more a question of whether the Astro’s can pull something like this off.
If you were him, you would be making millions so it’s different.
Frankly, I wouldn’t want to work in Detroit either.
At this point in his career, he’s pretty much set and he can project to make millions more so why work somewhere you don’t want to? If he doesn’t like the city, then he shouldn’t play there.
And who knows, maybe they weren’t offering him enough.
It was definitely a bad negotiation tactic.
It’s funny because the Tigers are contenders while the Cubs… Well they’re the Cubs.
We have a strong rotation already. Fister would be a number one on a lot of staffs and Scherezer looks to be due for a big 2012. For his age, Porcello is doing well. We are looking for another pitcher to put us as one of the better rotation.