Detroit Tigers Trade Rumors: Giants Interested in Rajai Davis
By Matt Snyder
The San Francisco Giants have reportedly reached out to the Detroit Tigers to ask about the availability of center fielder Rajai Davis.
The Detroit Tigers haven’t yet decided whether or not they’re going to act as buyers or sellers ahead of the July 31 (non-waiver) trade deadline, but they have a number of pieces that would interest teams in contention should they decide to deal away players.
The primary names we’ve been hearing about are starting pitcher David Price and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, but there are a few other impending free agents who could be dealt in somewhat lesser moves as well.
One of those players is platoon center fielder Rajai Davis. According to a tweet by Andrew Baggarly (embeded below), the San Francisco Giants have checked in with the Tigers regarding his potential availabilty.
#SFGiants checked in w/#Tigers and found reports they are in sell mode a bit overblown, at least for now. OF Rajai Davis interests them.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) July 23, 2015
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Davis likely wouldn’t fetch a huge return for the Tigers — he’s not that type of impact player — but he’s a very good platoon hitter against left-handed pitching, and he adds value on the bases with his speed as well. He’s exactly the type of complimentary role player a contending team like the Giants might hope to add.
According to current projections, Davis would be expected to add something like a half a win to a team’s rest-of-season win total if he were given something close to full-time playing time down the stretch.
If the Tigers truly find themselves, then it makes sense to deal away any soon-to-be free agent who would fetch any sort of value but, as the Giants apparently found out, the Tigers aren’t ready to make that type of decision quite yet.
Next: David Price Decision Coming Next Week