AL Central Notes: Tigers, Chisenhall, Santana

White Sox Jeff Samardzija hurler  “may be the first starting pitcher moved ahead of the trading deadline” since “scouts are constantly at his games,” Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote yesterday.  Cafardo believes that the Royals, Tigers, Astros, Twins, Blue Jays, Yankees, Cardinals, Orioles, Angels, and Dodgers are among the many clubs with interest in the 30-year-old.  Here’s more from the AL Central..

• Brad Ausmus told reporters, including James Schmehl of MLive.com (on Twitter), that he’d “probably be surprised” if the Tigers were sellers around the trade deadline.  The 41-39 Tigers learned on Saturday that they’ll be without the services of Miguel Cabrera for six weeks thanks to a calf strain.  Detroit will certainly miss his bat as Cabrera currently leads the American League in batting average (.350), on-base percentage (.456) and OPS (1.034).
• Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer wonders what’s next for Lonnie Chisenhall now that he has played 21 games for Triple-A Columbus since his demotion.  At present, it’s hard to say where the 26-year-old could fit on the Indians’ varsity squad.  Hoynes wonders if the third baseman could attract some interest from teams looking for some left-hander power off the bench or simply a reclamation project with upside.  In 89 plate appearances for Triple-A Columbus, Chisenhall has hit .309/.371/.469 with two home runs.
• The Twins figure to get a rotation boost with Ervin Santana returning from an 80-game suspension today, Mike Bauman of MLB.com writes.  Santana inked a four-year, $55MM deal with Minnesota in December but his Twins debut was put on hold after his PED suspension.  Santana threw 196 innings for the Braves in 2014, posting a 3.95 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 and a 42.7% groundball rate.  There were signs that he was even better than those results would indicate, as FIP (3.39), xFIP (3.47), and SIERA (3.63) all liked his work.