The week of the MLB trade deadline has arrived, and it’s a stressful time not only for the Detroit Tigers but the rest of baseball. Players are sitting on pins and needles waiting to see what new face could join them for a pennant push, or whether they’ll be uprooted and sent to another team for the final two months of the season.
The speculation will either come to fruition or prove to be just noise this week, but some are more likely to be traded than others. In the case of one former Tigers hurler, he may as well be filling out a change of address form as the deadline nears and could be on the move once again.
Former Tigers Relievers Andrew Chafin Could Be on the Move at MLB Trade Deadline
Getting traded at the deadline isn’t anything new for former Tigers reliever Andrew Chafin. The left-hander has been traded four times over the past five seasons and was moved at last year’s deadline by the Tigers in a deal that brought back pitcher Joseph Montalvo and Chase Lee from the Texas Rangers.
Chafin went 1-1 with a 4.19 ERA with the Rangers to finish the season and returned to Detroit on a minor league contract last February. While he failed to make the team out of Spring Training and was released in April, he signed with the Washington Nationals the following day, going 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA with 18 strikeouts and 11 walks in 25 appearances.
The 35-year-old has a problem with his control, logging a career-high 13.1% walk rate this season. But he also limits exit velocity (86.2 mph) and can still miss bats and limit damage with a 33.8% chase rate and 3.6% barrel rate according to Baseball Savant.
It creates for a pitcher that teams won’t be falling over each other to add ahead of Thursday’s deadline but could start a few conversations. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal noted on Monday that while high-profile names such as the Athletics’ Mason Miller, Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians, and Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota Twins could be available, teams could pivot to cheaper alternatives.
“Relievers are so volatile, so prone to fluctuate from season to season, even month to month, additional years of club control matter less than they do with more stable performers,” Rosenthal wrote. “The team peddling those pitchers, of course, see it differently, valuing them as long-term assets in trade discussions and asking for big returns. …And the game of chicken, particularly in the bullpen market is on.”
With several teams looking for bullpen help at the trade deadline, it wouldn’t be surprising if a few big names are moved. But it wouldn’t be surprising if the Nationals, who are buried in the National League playoff race, decided to ship off a veteran like Chafin even at a minimal return.
It leaves a player that knows the anxiety of the trade deadline on the block again and could have him with a new team by the time the deadline approaches.