Detroit Tigers: Taking A Look Back On Al Avila’s Trades From The Past

The Detroit Tigers took a hit when former General Manager Dave Dombrowski stepped down in August of 2015 leaving Al Avila to man the ship. Here’s a look back at some of the trades Avila has completed since becoming the Tigers new GM.

August 4th, 2015- Al Avila becomes the new GM of the Detroit Tigers franchise as Dave Dombrowski departs the organization. Some fans may view this very day as the beginning of the end, granite the team was already in a selling mode, but for Avila haters… this is just a bad day.

Since that very day, Avila has made a plethora of roster moves, signings, and cuts but how about the trades since he took over? Avila has completed sixteen total trades since his tenure of four-ish years has begun as the Tigers actual GM, not an assistant role. Some of those trades included names like Justin Verlander, J.D. Martinez, Justin Wilson, and Alex Avila (Yes, his son).

Now not all of these trades have been blockbuster deals where the Tigers walked away with a prized prospect or even a proven MLB caliber player… some of them have been mini-swaps here and there. For example, back in the winter of 2016, the Tigers dealt Jefry Marte to the Los Angeles Angels for Kody Eaves which is not exactly anything to note.

Here’s the thing, the Detroit Tigers have made moves, signed free agents, made some trades and all that over the years. Now is the time to look back and see how those trades have panned out and see how bad the team got fleeced or how bad Avila fleeced the other team (didn’t happen often). In this case, taking a look back on Avila’s moves that had the Tigers walking away with the best returns is the subject matter of the remainder of this article.

Taking a look back the three trades that ring in the most buzz as of now would be the Verlander trade, the Martinez trade, and the Justin Wilson trade(s). These trades gave the best net returns but in no means did the Tigers “fleece” the other teams for prospects considering Avila is still pestering the Houston Astros for Kyle Tucker.

These trades are in calendar order, based off of when the trades took place not based on the returns, the losses, or the overall value of each trade. Simply in the order, they took place from, most recent to oldest.