It seems like long ago, but the Tigers were one of the majors’ most successful teams in the first half of the previous decade. The club won four straight AL Central titles from 2011-14, a span in which it combined for a 366-282 regular-season record and took home a pennant (2012). Success has largely eluded the Tigers since that four-year run, though. Going back to 2015, they’ve posted just one winning season and are now only a couple weeks away from drafting first overall for the second time in three years.
During the summer of 2017, sensing his bottom-feeding team was a long way from contention, general manager Al Avila launched an aggressive rebuild. In a little over a month, he traded three of the Tigers’ veteran stars for a total of eight prospects. Here’s how those deals have gone so far…
July 18: Diamondbacks Acquire J.D. Martinez
Martinez was a failed Astro whom the Tigers scooped up off the scrapheap before 2014 and then saw evolve into one of the most dominant hitters in the game. As a Tiger from 2014-17, Martinez turned a remade swing into a line of .300/.361/.551 (145 wRC+) with 99 home runs in 1,886 plate appearances. However, with Martinez just months away from free agency, the Tigers parted with him in exchange for infield prospects Dawel Lugo, Sergio Alcantara and Jose King.
Martinez finished the season on a rampage in Arizona and has continued to rake in Boston since 2018, but Lugo’s the only player in the package the Tigers received for JDM who has even played for them. It hasn’t been pretty, as the 25-year-old combined to hit .237/.270/.362 (63 wRC+) with minus-1.0 fWAR from 2018-19. FanGraphs likened Alcantara to ex-Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias a year ago, when he batted .247/.346/.296 in 378 trips to the plate in Double-A. Considering his lack of power, his well-regarded defense will have to carry him to the majors. King, 21, hasn’t advanced beyond Single-A ball, where he put up a meek .209/.283/.279 line in 193 attempts last season.
Aug. 31: Angels Acquire Justin Upton
Nearing the end of the August waiver trade deadline, the Tigers swung their first of two massive deals before the clock ran out. Upton inked a six-year, $132.75MM contract with the Tigers under 20 months earlier, and 2017 has been one of his most productive seasons yet. However, with the Tigers launching a rebuild and Upton weeks away from having to decide on an opt-out clause, they decided to let him and the remaining four years, $88.5MM of his pact go in exchange for righties Grayson Long and Elvin Rodriguez. The return hasn’t amounted to much so far – Long retired before he ever threw a pitch in the Detroit organization, though Rodriguez does have some promise. He logged a 3.77 ERA/4.06 FIP in 133 2/3 High-A innings as a 21-year-old last season, and MLB.com ranks him as the Tigers’ 27th overall prospect.
Aug. 31: Astros Acquire Justin Verlander
In one of the most famous buzzer-beating trades in the history of sports, the Tigers shipped off a franchise icon with moments to spare before the deadline passed. Verlander was regularly among the game’s superstar pitchers in Detroit since the first full season of his career in 2006, but as a then-34-year-old, his days as an elite hurler seemed to be in the past. Not the case, though, as Verlander rounded back into form down the stretch in Houston, which he helped lead to a championship in the fall, and hasn’t let up. In fact, he won his second AL Cy Young Award and earned his eighth All-Star nod in his age-36 season in 2019.
Although Verlander cleared waivers, he still could have used his full no-trade rights to reject the deal. In accepting the move, he cleared the way for the Tigers to receive three prospects in catcher Jake Rogers, righty Franklin Perez and outfielder Daz Cameron (Detroit also paid $16MM of Verlander’s remaining $56MM and gave up outfielder Juan Ramirez as a player to be named later).
Has anyone from the trio the Tigers landed contributed in the majors yet? Not really. Rogers debuted as a Tiger last season and hit a disastrous .125/.222/.259 (27 wRC+). Perez hasn’t pitched above High-A, and Cameron has had an awful time at Triple-A since he first arrived there in 2018. In fairness to these three players, they’re all still young – Rogers is 25, Perez is 22 and Cameron is 23 – so it’s far too early to write off their careers. In the cases of Perez and Cameron, it’s worth noting that they aren’t far removed from landing on top 100 prospect lists, so there’s still some intrigue in Detroit’s return for Verlander.
God awful return on those three players. Wow!
To be fair, the tigers were never going to get much for upton given his contract, and the Verlander trade was regarded as a good return at the time. Obviously some of those prospects have fallen off but still. The JD trade however is a disaster
A good return at the time? No it wasn’t. I was upset when it happened, how do you not get back the best hitting and pitching prospect from the Astros for a future hall of famer who had been pitching lights out his last eight starts in Detroit. Whitley and Tucker would have been fine return for an desperate Astros team. What is worse at the trade the Tigers gave them 24 million. JV said he wanted to go to the Dodgers, and they wanted him. Avila does an awful job at the marketing his players for trade. I hated the return then and is way awful looking at it now.
Look at the JD trade, Avila could have waited until the 31st to trade him for something better instead a three marginal prospects. Maybe a contending team gets an injury and becomes desperate. I didn’t buy Avila excuses then and again sure looks worse now. At the time of the trade, JD was one of the hottest hitters in baseball.
I’m not defending the JD trade. That was a horrible deal for Detroit from the get go. I just don’t think they could have got much else for Verlander given his age, money owed, and the fact that he only had a year or two left. Perez was a top prospect at the time and Rogers was and still is regarded as a quality backstop
@la beach guy.
There was no demand for OF when JDM was traded. No one got hurt later, so waiting would not have increased demand. If the Snakes had filled their opening, Avila may not have gotten as much as he did. Letting JDM play out the season would have only netted a 4th round pick as their payroll was so high. JDM returned more than any other OF traded at the deadline. That no other team offered more is what’s surprising.
I remember scouts and executives and baseball insiders being shocked that the Tigers did the JD trade and when it happened. There could have been other teams caving in the pressure to up the ante for JD once the deadline approached. Avila can’t market his players well in trades. Also a 4th rounder would have been better than the three prospects Tigers received. Or how about one decent prospect back from Arizona instead of three. Quality over quantity.
Is Miggy the LVP of MLB?
Chris Davis…. Not even close.
There are players on literally every team who are less valuable than Miggy. He may be toward the top of the LVP per dollar spent list though
That’s what I meant. I think I agree with the poster above that Chris Davis is it, followed by Miggy followed by Albert Puljos.
Sad that a lot of younger fans probably dont realize just how good Miggy and Puljos were. They may be the two best right handed hitters of all-time.
Yeah, being an albatross on a huge contract kind of hampers the legacy of these kinds of players. Ryan Howard on your Phillies was in a similar situation. If they had that same decline but weren’t a big financial roadblock to their team contending for several years then I think many would look more kindly at them. Instead there is a lot of resentment. I understand the resentment a little more in the case of Pujols, who it seems likely lied about his age by several years
when those guys get into the HOF 5 years after they retire I think many of those bad memories will fade. Especially in the case of pujols where his glory years were in St Louis
Yeah, he did lie about his age, I think. Heck, he admitted it backhanded (google it). He’s at least 2 years older than he says. I’d say more like 3 or 4…
So let’s hypothetically say he is 2 years older. Could Anahiem void the last 2 seasons of his contract if it was proved he was 2 years older?
I would not be surprised if they looked into this and found a solid “no way” as a legal recourse. MLB contracts are so iron-clad it’s ridiculous.
Theoretically, they could’ve also had Miggy and Scherzer as trade chips if they really wanted to be proactive. But then had they done that, they likely wouldn’t have had to hand out the Zimmermann contract and, well, that’s too many good management decisions for the Tigers.
I know a lot of it was because the now late Mr. Illitch was desperate for a championship before he passed, but there was still enough chips here to avoid the labyrinth of suffering their fans now find themselves in.
Daz Cameron? Son of Mike Cameron?
Yep, he is
Googled after you said yes. Dude is a striking image of his father..
wow, he really is!
Al Avila is the worst GM in baseball. Reading this – again – breaks my heart…
Wow, so many decent assets to potentially fast track their rebuild and they’re still in awful shape 3 years later.
To be fair, just dumping Upton’s contract was probably a positive move. Sad to see them get so little for Verlander and JD though. Weird how GMs aren’t more proactive in trading guys at their peak value. I think about this stuff all the time, don’t understand how it can sneak up on the guys who are getting paid to build a team.
@ fetters
Trading players while contending is not considered “proactive”. Judge is at his peak, but fans would scream bloody murder if the Yanks were to trade him when expecting to contend. That is how the Tigers were for 10 glorious years while Mr I tried for the trophy.
JD trade was just garbage. Lugo was overrated in the DBacks system and the other two were just throw ins.
How much blame can the GM really take for these trades? Yes he has the final say, but who scouted these players? It seems like they either drew names from a hat or really didn’t care what the return was.
Buck stops at the top. He is in charge of negotiating. It looks like he just shrugs and says ‘that sounds like a good deal to me.’
I’m just not certain that it’s all Avila’s fault of that he is a poor GM. After Mr I passed Avila was told to lower payroll. Getting someone to take Upton off their hands was a positive because he was likely to Opt out. JD was limited by his poor defensive metrics. Verlander trade might provide a 4th OF and the clock is ticking though on all 3 guys recurved. Verlander deal was also to not only save money, but to give him a chance to win a championship. Unfortunately that title will always have the trash can cloud hovering over it.
My hope is after 2021 Verlander leaves Houston in free agency to return to Detroit and finish his career as the cagey veteran that anchors a young rotation of Miss, Manning, Skubal, with either Perez or Fadeo much like Kenny Rogers did when JV was just breaking into the league and Detroit was on their rise.
Pooh, saved money, nice. I’m sure that “saved money” was reinvested in some of the top free agents… like Jody Mercer!
A good return at the time? No it wasn’t. I was upset when it happened, how do you not get back the best hitting and pitching prospect from the Astros for a future hall of famer who had been pitching lights out his last eight starts in Detroit. Whitley and Tucker would have been fine return for an desperate Astros team. What is worse at the trade the Tigers gave them 24 million. JV said he wanted to go to the Dodgers, and they wanted him. Avila does an awful job at the marketing his players for trade. I hated the return then and is way awful looking at it now.
Look at the JD trade, Avila could have waited until the 31st to trade him for something better instead a three marginal prospects. Maybe a contending team gets an injury and becomes desperate. I didn’t buy Avila excuses then and again sure looks worse now. At the time of the trade, JD was one of the hottest hitters in baseball.
Tigers would have been better off getting the extra draft pick for JD. Upton was just a terrible signing in the first place. They couldn’t have gotten anything better from anyone for Upton. They should have gotten more for JV, but if they had gotten Whitley… he’s regressing now. Hindsight… maybe Alvarez?
Avila (like Dombrowski before him) was handcuffed by former Owner Mike Ilitch. who was always putting every young asset into the center of the table to “win now”. Dombrowski was fired by Illitch the senior for starting the rebuild before Ilitch passed… moving Price for Norris, Boyd and Jairo. Moving Cespedes for Fulmer and moving Joaquin Soria for Jacoby Jones.
The biggest mistake Tigers ownership made was not starting the rebuild earlier like in 2014 when Max Scherzer turned down the Tigers extension offer. Tigers should have dealt Scherzer in his “walk year” for 3-4 top young players and top 50 prospects. Moving Scherzer, Verlander and other Tigers veteran players etc in 2014-2015 would have netted the Tigers huge hauls of top young players and prospects and Tigers would be contending now.. At that time, the MLB GM’s were still forking over top 100 and top 50 prospects and young major league players in bushels for top veteran talents. It would have even been possible to move Miguel Cabrera instead of extending him in that period of time. JDMartinez could have even been held onto by the Tigers as a cleanup hitter/DH/OF in a lineup packed with young, rising talent.
And, the Tigers would still have Eugenio Suarez to play 3B and Willy Adames to play SS.and Cory Knebel to close games.
The JD Martinez Trade/fiasco was bad and flowed from Tigers Front Office.Ownership mistakes like not cashing in their best assets earlier. The rise of analytic Front Offices made old fashioned baseball blockbuster deals veterans for top prospects more of a “hard sell” ….
That said, Avila should have waited until the trade deadline to squeeze maximum value out of JDM…..The Verlander return could have been better, but CF Daz Cameron, RHSP Franklin Perez and C Jake Rogers will all be major league contributors in a few years that could change the score on that deal…
I remember scouts and executives and baseball insiders being shocked that the Tigers did the JD trade and when it happened. There could have been other teams caving in the pressure to up the ante for JD once the deadline approached. Avila can’t market his players well in trades. Also a 4th rounder would have been better than the three prospects Tigers received. Or how about one decent prospect back from Arizona instead of three. Quality over quantity.
I was very surprised to see and hear that the Tigers had pulled the trigger so early on JDM when they had something like a few weeks before the trade deadline.?!
Either the Tigers Front Office made errors in their negotiation strategy
OR Tigers Ownership may have set a deadline and compelled Avila to move so much payroll by such and such a date to get the Tigers books in order etc…
I am thinking that there was more to this story that cannot be discussed since it would put the Front Office Publicly at odds with Ownership etc…Not so good for job security…..
Maybe some tax issues with Mike Illitch’s death that year lead to a push to get the books in order?!