Detroit Tigers trade rumors: Justin Wilson, Alex Avila appear to be heading to Cubs

The Detroit Tigers are close to a trade with the Chicago Cubs involving Justin Wilson and Alex Avila according to multiple reports.

The Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs are close to a trade that would send closer Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila to the Chicago Cubs for a group of prospects headlined by Jeimer Candelario.

Multiple baseball reporters are saying that a deal is very close to being completed. The rumors began with Wilson’s name, but Ken Rosenthal said Avila is in the deal as well.

It’s not clear what the exact return will be, but it looks like the switch-hitting Candelario is the big name in the trade. The 23 year old has spent most of his minor league career at third base, but most prospect analysts give him below average marks defensively and think he’ll have to move across the diamond to first base before long.

Candelario is currently the number one ranked prospect in the Cubs system according to MLB.com. He’s already appeared in 16 major league games, so he won’t require much seasoning in the minor leagues before the Tigers will be able to bring him to the big leagues. It’s not clear when they’d be able to do that, however, with Nick Castellanos, Miguel Cabrera, and Victor Martinez entrenched in the third base, first base, and designated hitter roles.

Candelario’s calling card is his bat. He’s hit for a .298/.388/.524 batting line across his two partial seasons in AAA. The one concern for Candelario is that he might not have enough power to carry his bat-first profile. FanGraphs grades his raw power as only average. He does have 21 home runs in 639 plate appearances in AAA, so he can still hit the long ball with some frequency, but he probably won’t become an elite slugger.

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This trade, if it gets finalized, could be the last one the Tigers make before Monday’s 4:00 p.m. trade deadline.