What chips do the Detroit Tigers for the trade market?

Based on what we here at DJC have seen, we are officially taking the position that Jacob Turner should not be traded. He is still a long way away from having a regular rotation spot for the Tigers or any other team, but based on what we saw the other day he needs to stay here. We base that on not only Turner’s talent, but in preparation for the day when the Tigers simply will not be able to afford all of the elite level contracts they have. Hard choices will have to be made one day, and having Turner around them will help make some of those choices easier to live with.

With that being said a decision is looking on current 4th starter Rick Porcello. He is either a frustratingly inconsistent starter, or a 23 year old who has won 14 games in a season, twice. He likely has some trade value, and the Tigers are going to have to look at whether or not they should keep him or deal him in such a way that they get a veteran arm in return to take his place in the rotation. DJS is leaning towards dealing Porcello at this point, but an argument can be made that he will get more consistent with age.

There two players are kind of enter twined. The Tigers could deal Porcello now, get a veteran arm to finish out this season and then give Turner a more defined role in 2013. For now we would like to see Turner continue to make the occasional spot starts and for Drew Smyly to return from the DL and continue to pitch well. It seems very likely that the presence of Smyly and Turner with the big team at some point pushes Porcello off the roster. That may be now, and that may be over the next off season.

However, we have seen this team use spot starts to asses value and then trade away young arms while their value is at their maximum. They used Chane Ruffin like that last year and impressed enough scouts to make him the center piece of the deal that landed the team Doug Fister. Nick Castellanos and to a lesser degree Avisail Garcia remain pretty much untouchables making Porcello the guy with a four year pedigree with the likely highest trade value.

Who else gets dealt may be in the numbers, as this team needs a massive shock to get it back into playoff contention. The 2012 Tigers appear to be a team in need of a massive shake up to right the ship and keep it on course. Far too often the offense goes cold, and we cannot put all the blame on Miguel Cabrera or Prince Fielder. The supporting cast has not kept up its end of the bargain. Those are the kind of players that can be replaced quickly and it may take just that for 202 to have a more positive outcome.