Detroit Tigers Trade Rumors: Marlins Starters Being Scouted
By Matt Snyder
According to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports, the Detroit Tigers have been scouting some of the pitchers on the Miami Marlins starting staff.
#Tigers have scouted and done preliminary work on #Marlins available starters. Miami has rotation depth to trade.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 2, 2015
We can dream that this means the Tigers are going to trade for young ace Jose Fernandez, who just returned from Tommy John surgery today, but this almost certainly doesn’t include him. The Tigers could offer just about their entire system for Fernandez and the Marlins would turn it down.
Unfortunately, it’s much more likely that the Tigers are looking at names like Dan Haren and Matt Latos. None of these three would be particularly snazzy names, but each could probably help out a floundering Tigers rotation.
Morosi again:
#Marlins have received multiple trade inquiries on Mat Latos and Dan Haren, sources say. Can move starter with Jose Fernandez's return.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 29, 2015
I’m guessing the Tigers are one of those teams.
Haren was acquired by the Marlins this past offseason from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the same trade that brought them Dee Gordon. Los Angeles agreed to chip in $10 million in the trade (all of Haren’s 2015 salary), so it would be interesting to see if that savings would be passed along to a team like the Tigers if Haren was traded again.
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It might actually be best if the Tigers didn’t save that money, because the more money they take on (i.e. the more money the Marlins get to keep), the fewer prospects they’d have to trade to complete the deal. Detroit is better off in the long-term if Mike Ilitch agrees to eat money in favor of dealing away players.
Haren has posted a very nice 3.45 ERA this season in Miami, but his peripheral statistics don’t quite back up that level of success. He hasn’t walked many batters (just 4.6%), but his strikeout rate is below average (17.9%) and he’s given up a fair number of home runs (1.36 HR/9). Those metrics combine fielding independent pitching numbers (FIP and xFIP) of around 4.30. Not the worst, but not above average either.
Latos, who is eligible for free agency following the 2015 season, was traded to the Marlins from the Cincinnati Reds this offseason. He has struggled this year in terms of run prevention (5.27 ERA), but, in contrast to Haren, his FIP numbers have been pretty good (right around 3.70).
Latos has right around league average in strikeout rate (20.2%), walk rate (7.4%), and home run rate (0.92 HR/9) this season. He’s due just under $5 million the rest of the year which makes him an affordable rotation upgrade if the asking price is reasonable.
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