The Detroit Tigers have been one of the surprise stories this season in the majors. The Tigers have the best record (insert here) in baseball entering Thursday’s doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and are a threat to make a deep playoff run in the fall.
For the Tigers to make that deep playoff run, and possibly get to the World Series, they’ll need to be active and aggressive at the trade deadline next month. Detroit could use another weapon out of the bullpen, along with a right-handed power bat.
The Tigers are ranked ninth in batting average (.252), seventh in OPS (.738), and tenth in home runs (89).
Spencer Torkelson (16 homers), Riley Greene (15), and Kerry Carpenter (13) currently lead the way for Detroit, but another power bat could put them over the top.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com unveiled his 14 prime trade candidates on Wednesday, and listed Colorado Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon and Atlanta Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna as potential landing spots for the Tigers.
The 30-year-old McMahon is playing on a historically bad Rockies team and could be a good fit at the hot corner for the Tigers.
Surprisingly, Detroit doesn’t have a solidified starter at third base. Javier Baez, Colt Keith, Andy Ibanez, and Jace Jung have all spent time at third.
Baez has been the best hitter among the bunch, sporting a .289 batting average, along with nine home runs and 35 RBI. As for McMahon, he’s only hitting .222 with 11 home runs and 24 RBI.
However, he came off a good month of May, slugging .283 with four home runs and 13 RBI. Thus far in June, the veteran third baseman is hitting .259 with five home runs and seven RBI. He’s a good defender and is under contract for the next two seasons, making him a good target for Detroit.
As for Ozuna, the Tigers and their fans shouldn’t get their hopes up. Even though the Braves are 11 games out of first place in the NL East and 5.5 games out of the final spot in the NL wild card, Atlanta isn’t in a market to be a seller.
The veteran slugger is hitting .254 with 11 home runs and 39 RBI, while sporting an OPS of .806. The 34-year-old Ozuna is making $16 million this season and is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.
Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see what happens with the Tigers and their pursuit of a power bat in the coming weeks. As more teams fall out of the playoff race, more options should become available.