Detroit Tigers Trade Rumors: Club Looking to Move “at Least Two Veteran Players”

The Detroit Tigers are looking to move multiple veteran players this offseason, according to Jayson Stark during his segment on the Baseball Tonight Podcast.

The Detroit Tigers have been mentioned in several trade rumors this offseason, but it hasn’t been clear exactly how far any of the talks have progressed or how aggressively the Tigers are shopping any individual player.

We won’t have any answers at the moment, but reports today confirm that the Tigers are still very much interested in trading veteran players to clear payroll.

ESPN baseball writer Jayson Stark appeared on Friday’s Baseball Tonight Podcast with Buster Olney and spoke of a conversation he had with a team that had been in talks with the Tigers this offseason (Tigers talk begins at the 19:00 mark, approximately).

"“They’re committed to moving at least two veteran players. J.D. Martinez… That’s not a difficult contract for almost any team to take on… but when you look at the rest of the group: Miggy and Verlander and Kinsler and Victor Martinez… that’s going to be incredibly challenging to see who they can trade to reduce payroll.”"

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Olney went on to mention that the Tigers might have trouble trading some of their hitters due to the relative availablility on the open market.

The Tigers certainly have some big-dollar contracts that would be difficult to move, but I don’t really buy the notion that they’ll have difficulty moving two of these players if they’re motivated. Ian Kinsler (two years, $21 million) and J.D. Martinez (one year, $11.75 million) both have very friendly contracts and carry a good amount of surplus value.

Even the highly paid Justin Verlander appears to have much value to potential buyers. Here’s Stark’s latest piece on ESPN dot com.

"And while the Tigers aren’t interested in a strict money dump, they’re asking for quality, but not quantity, in the package they would want back.“Is there a deal to be made there? I think there is,” said one AL exec. “I think it comes down to this: Do you want to give up five or six prospects for Chris Sale? Or would you rather give up two or three prospects for Justin Verlander?”"

This came after he mentioned the Tigers’ unwillingness to eat any of Verlander’s remaining salary. Even taking on the whole contract (three years, $84 million guaranteed), the Tigers would still be looking at three prospects coming back in return (in the mind of one executive, at least).

Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez would be different matters, however. Cabrera still carries plenty of present value, but he’s still owed $220 million over the next seven years. Those years will likely include plenty of decline years. The Tigers might be able to find a team willing to take Cabrera and his entire contract (or most of it) off of their hands, but that team will likely be unwilling to also part with top prospect talent for the pleasure of doing so.

Victor Martinez is similarly positioned, but without the long term commitment and without the high level of present value. The soon-to-be 38-year-old is owed $36 million over the next two seasons and has only averaged 1.2 WAR over his five (healthy) seasons with the Tigers.

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The Tigers will probably have to eat a sizable portion of his remaining contract in order to move him, and even then they shouldn’t expect much of a return.