Detroit Tigers 2000-2009 All-Decade Team
By Matt Snyder
Shortstop: Carlos Guillen
Speaking of deft player acquisitions, Dave Dombrowski was able to pry Carlos Guillen away from the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2004 season in exchange for hot shortstop prospect Ramon Santiago. Santiago was a noted glove man at the shortstop position but hadn’t shown much with the bat in his two seasons in Detroit. He didn’t pan out in Seattle — in fact he was released and re-signed by the Tigers after two seasons — but Guillen made an instant impact in Detroit.
Guillen was named an American League All-Star immediately in 2004 with 20 home runs and a .921 OPS. He would be named to two addition All-Star teams in the decade and was even a top-ten finisher in the 2006 MVP balloting (a year in which he didn’t make the All-Star team).
Guillen finished out the decade in a Tigers uniform with a .301/.373/.486 batting line while averaging a tick above three WAR per season. He might just have been the Tigers’ team MVP in the several years immediately preceding Miguel Cabrera’s arrival.