Detroit Tigers Acquire OF Cameron Maybin in Trade With Braves
By Matt Snyder
The Detroit Tigers acquired outfielder Cameron Maybin in a trade with the Atlanta Braves on Friday evening.
The Detroit Tigers made a move to address a need in the outfield on Friday evening when they acquired outfielder Cameron Maybin in a trade with the Atlanta Braves in exchange for relief pitchers Ian Krol and Gabe Speier.
The #Tigers announced today that the club has acquired OF Cameron Maybin from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for LHPs Ian Krol & Gabe Speier
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) November 20, 2015
According to Chris Iott of MLive, the Tigers will also receive $2.5 million from the Braves to help offset the cost of Maybin’s contract (he’s set to earn $8 million in 2016 with a $9 million team option for 2017).
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Maybin was originally a draft pick and top prospect for the Detroit Tigers from 2005-2007. He made his major league debut with the Tigers in 2007 (hitting a home run off of Roger Clemens in his second MLB game), but was shipped off to the Marlins the following offseason as one of the centerpieces (along with Andrew Miller) of the trade that brought Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit.
Maybin has spent the entirety of his career in center field — save for 10 games in his debut season where he played left field. The Tigers’ current opening seems to be in left field with Anthony Gose already on the team, but they could certainly work out some sort of semi-platoon with Maybin starting in center field versus lefties and left field versus righties.
2016 will be the tenth season in which Maybin has accrued big league service time, but he’ll be only 29 years old for the entirety of the season. There’s probably not much time left for development in his game — he’ll never be the superstar he was once projected to be — but neither is he necessarily entering his decline phase just yet.
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Maybin hit .267/.327/.370 last year with the Braves last year and has graded out typically as an average to slightly-above average defender in center field in his career.
The Tigers still have room for another right-handed hitting outfielder heading into next season, but the acquisition of Maybin probably means the Tigers won’t be pursuing someone like Yoenis Cespedes to play left field every day.