Detroit Tigers trade Justin Verlander to Houston Astros for prospect haul
By Matt Snyder
The Detroit Tigers traded Justin Verlander to the Houston Astros for a package of quality prospects late Thursday night.
The Detroit Tigers pulled off a shocking last-minute trade that sends future Hall of Fame pitcher Justin Verlander to the Houston Astros in exchange for prospects Franklin Perez, Daz Cameron, and Jake Rogers.
It’s a sad day for Tigers fans, no matter the reality of the situation. Verlander was drafted by the organization, came up through the organization, and his promotion to the major leagues on a full-time basis in 2006 coincided with the club’s magical turnaround and helped to usher in a decade of competitiveness. He was quite possibly the best pitcher in the history of the organization — hopefully he’ll go into Cooperstown wearing a Tigers hat.
The reality of the Tigers’ rebuild now hits hard. The Tigers look to head into 2018 without much in the way of major league-caliber talent on the roster, but they’re stocking the farm system for a better future. This latest deal helps that endeavor tremendously.
The headline in the trade package is Franklin Perez who ranked No. 32 on Baseball America’s midseason top 100 prospects list. Perez has split his season between High-A and AA and has succeeded at both levels. In 86 combined innings he owns a 3.02 ERA with 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings. He’s still only 19 years old.
Here’s what FanGraphs prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen had to say about Perez before the season began:
"Perez has very much grown into his 6-foot-3 frame and is thick and strong bodied. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Perez’s fastball has climbed from the upper 80s and into the mid-90s, sitting 92-94 and touching 96 with sink. By the end of 2016, Perez was showing some feel for running his fastball off the hip of left-handed hitters and back into the zone for unhittable strikes"
Sounds good to me.
Daz Cameron, son of former big leaguer Mike Cameron, might be a more familiar name to baseball fans. He was the 37th overall pick of the Astros in 2015 but he was a name talked about at the very top of that draft (he fell due to a signing bonus situation).
Some of Cameron’s prospect luster wore off last season when he struggled to perform in the Midwest League in his age 19 season. He broke his finger in July and lost the rest of the year. Still, Cameron is just 20 years old and probably still carries many of the tools that scouts loved at the top of the draft in 2015. Here’s Longenhagen again:
"Cameron’s tools are modest but well rounded, and he projects to competently play a premium defensive position. He struggled to make contact last year during an aggressive Midwest League assignment, and his swing is being reworked. Scouts are cautiously optimistic about his ability to make necessary adjustments because they believe in his athleticism and bat speed."
Sounds like he has the ability to be a quality defender in center field while also carrying plus potential as a hitter. That sounds like a relatively safe major league player to me.
Jake Rogers is less heralded than the other two names in the prospect package, but he can’t simply be overlooked. As a prime defensive catcher (see the Longenhagen link again) his bat was supposed to be the weak point in his game, but he’s hit just fine in 156 professional games so far. He was promoted to High-A in the middle of the season and responded to the challenge with a .265/.357/.457 batting line in over 350 plate appearances.
He’s still a ways from the major leagues but his numbers suggest some power and patience at the plate — tools that would pair well with an above-average defensive glove.
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The Tigers might not be done disassembling the current team. Ian Kinsler is a no-brainer trade candidate this offsesaon and there’s been some indication that they might look to trade Nicholas Castellanos as well. We’ll have to see how that all pans out.