Detroit Tigers Wise to Stand Pat on Deadline Day
The Detroit Tigers were wise to stand pat on Monday’s trade deadline considering the market’s high cost of acquisition.
It may not have been “sexy” as Al Avila noted, or even what I had seemingly thought was the most sensible move, but the Detroit Tigers made the right decision by passing on any trades when 4:00 rolled around on August 1.
The Tigers were definitely pursuing starting pitching, mainly Hector Santiago from the Los Angeles Angels and Jeremy Hellickson from the Philadelphia Phillies. Ultimately, the asking price for any trade was too much for Avila and Co. to pull the trigger after most teams wanted a package that would cause the Tigers to part with Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris, or Matt Boyd.
There are several reasons as to why I now think standing pat is the wisest thing the Tigers could have done.
For starters, everything is still intact. The rotation is the same, the bullpen is the same, and the lineup is the same. When the Chicago White Sox come to Comerica Park for a three-game series, they’ll see the same team as they saw about a week ago. Nothing changed. Did anything really need to change though?
Fresh off of sweeping the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, the Tigers seem to be finding their groove after just 105 games. They’re playing the best baseball of the year and have a streak of six-straight wins to prove it. They made up a good chunk of ground over this amazing stretch of play, as Boston and Toronto have seen their lead slip to just 1.5 games for the wild card. After Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Indians now have a 4.0 game advantage over the Tigers.
Secondly, the Tigers are finally building an organization with depth in the minor leagues. When Avila chose to hold off on any deals, not only did he hang on to some players that are a few short seasons from reaching Detroit, he watched other contending teams deplete their farm systems.
The Indians acquired southpaw Andrew Miller from the New York Yankees in exchange for the Tribe’s top prospect Clint Frazier, and three other prospects. Two of those prospects belonged to the Indians’ top 30 prospect list, according to mlb.com.
Cleveland certainly filled a need, but they did so by shipping some of their best young talent for a guy that will throw one inning every few days. Miller is among the best pitchers in the game, but the costly price caused general manager Mike Chernoff to part ways with potential faces of the future.
Technically, the Tigers really didn’t even need to make any moves. You can argue that the addition of a starting pitcher would have been nice, but in about a week, Jordan Zimmermann and Daniel Norris are set to return to the big league club following injuries that forced them to miss play for nearly a month.
And then there’s J.D. Martinez, the Tigers’ All-Star who is also making his way back to the lineup and in the midst of a rehab stint with the Toledo Mud Hens.
There were no moves to be made on Monday, but there are moves that will take place within the next week or so as the Tigers will get two starting pitchers and an everyday right fielder back to a team that has won eight of their last ten contests.
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The best baseball they’ve played has taken place in the last few weeks, all without three key players. The Tigers may have been quiet on Monday, but are just days away from making a splash in the race for first place in the American League Central.