Detroit Tigers: Shane Greene Is Worth A Pitching and Outfield Prospect

The Detroit Tigers have witnessed the deadline come and go. Gm Al Avila has learned that Shane Greene is worth a pitching prospect and outfield prospect. Avila has also failed to learn that the organization has enough pitching prospects.

The Detroit Tigers finally made a move after they reportedly pulled left-handed starter Matthew Boyd off the trade market. Greene managed a 1.19 ERA, with a .086 WHIP through 38 games, all while closing out 22 saves for the Tigers on the 2019 campaign. Tigers GM Al Avila dealt Greene to the Atlanta Braves for two prospects, bringing in left-handed pitching prospect Joey Wentz and outfield prospect Travis Demeritte from the Braves.

Acquiring Wentz is the biggest hull in terms of prospect rankings, coming in on the Tigers top thirty prospect list while Demeritte does not. Wentz was a former first-round draft pick(supplemental round) from 2016. Wentz was with the Braves Double-A affiliate in Mississippi where he has made twenty starts. During those 20 starts, Wentz accrued 103 innings where he managed a 4.72 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, which is not the prettiest. Wentz has 100 punch outs at the Double-A level as well as allowing 90 hits over the 103 innings he’s thrown.

Wentz is a prospect that almost acts as an insurance policy in the Tigers system. Wentz will be someone who the Tigers can add to the minor leagues in case one of our prized prospects goes down hurt or never develops to the big league caliber level that is expected.  Frankly, it was an unnecessary addition to the teams pitching prospects when position player prospects should have been the focal point of the trade.

“Big Al” Avila still managed to salvage a position player out of the deal, bringing outfield prospect Travis Demeritte to the Tigers farm system. Demeritte is a former first-round draft pick from 2013 where he was selected 30th overall by the Texas Rangers. The twenty-four-year-old has never reached the big leagues and at one point was a player that was up for selection in the Rule Five draft. Side Note: The Tigers selected Reed Garrett in that Rule Five draft, then proceeded to cut him earlier in the year when he struggled immensely.

In terms of production, Demeritte played at the Triple-A Gwinnett affiliate for the Braves where he has played in ninety-six games. In 399 at-bats, Demeritte has managed a .286/.387/.558 slash line with twenty home runs with seventy-four RBI on the season. Demeritte’s downfall comes with this next stat… strikeouts. This year he has struck out 106 times throughout his 399 at-bats with Triple-A Gwinnett.  Demeritte has had some trouble with strikeouts, and the Tigers can only hope this stays under control while in the Tigers system.

All-in-all, Detroit Tigers fans need to realize something, the team was not going to get Gleyber Torres after Boyd was considered off the market, or any of those big-name prospects. Avila may have made an enormous mistake by adding a total of three pitching prospects and one outfield prospect with the Nicholas Castellanos trade taken into consideration, but at least he moved these players. The upside is that we now have more prospects that could potentially be flipped in the future. The fact that Avila traded for more pitchers is quite sad to have to witness as a fan base.

It’s easy to see that not all of the pitching prospects like Casey Mize, Alex Faedo, Matt Manning, Franklin Perez, and Beau Burrows are going to make it to the big leagues as Cy Young candidates. There was no reason to bring in THREE more arms when there’s a draft and offseason for that. The focus should have been positional players, but working with the return, the Tigers did get? Wentz is a good pitching prospect, and Demeritte has excellent numbers but shows some worry with the strikeout issue.