The Trade Deadline Approaches
Ah yes, August 31st. The day every baseball fan knows, loves, and waits for like it's Christmas Day. Well… for this season, at least. Yes, it's Major League Baseball's trade deadline.
Some teams would have already bolstered their bullpens in a typical season, revised their rotations, or upgraded a position player or two. But so far… it's been quite dull.
By now, word has gotten out that the Tigers could potentially deal infielder Jonathan Schoop, catcher Austin Romine, relief pitcher Daniel Norris, and others. But what should they do?
General Manager Al Avila shared on Thursday that "it's really hard to gauge on how much a team is really going out and try to add, and how much they're willing to give in this short period of time."
"Right now it's really uncertain. Our situation now quite frankly is we're not really looking to add a big piece and trade away any of our good young prospects."
Avila did go on to say, however, that if the opportunity did present itself that they could benefit from a trade, they have to be open-minded to that.
I say stand pat and here's why:
The return they would get won't be better than the current chance they have to make the playoffs this season. I know it's impossible to measure those two against each other, but you know what I mean.
Generally, by now, teams have a good idea of what to expect in return for giving up prospects in exchange for "win-now" guys or vice-versa. But so far, we've seen a total of, drumroll please…… two trades.
Yep, just two trades. One trade included two average reliever arms and the other a decent starter where the return was a player to be named later.
So even with just a few days left before the deadline, we don't have a good idea what the market has in store for anyone. But I doubt it will be anything significant for anyone this season.
Last season, I was underwhelmed when the Tigers only snagged Joey Wentz, Atlanta's number seven prospect at the time, and Travis Demeritte for arguably the best reliever on the market in Shane Greene. And that was in a regular season.
Teams aren't willing to give up prospects as freely as they used to. So think about it, if the Tigers were only able to get one top-10 prospect and a 4A player for a near-lockdown closer at the time, what are they possibly going to get for a couple of decent bats with just 30 games to go?
It probably won't be enough to make it worth it. Will teams up top that sit comfortably in the 8-team playoff picture send away a prospect to help their section in this crapshoot season?
That is notorious for its crapshoot playoffs in a season that many fans will end up labeling with an asterisk anyways? I doubt it.
By no means would I be upset if they decided to sell.
Usually, I'd be the first person to tell you they should sell with a team like this and a farm system that still needs a couple of position players. But this season is different.
These are the first meaningful late-August Detroit Tiger games we've seen in a few years. Yeah, this might be the most bizarre season in the history of the MLB.
And yeah, it might have an asterisk next to it when all is said and done. It could also be the most memorable season in MLB's history when all is said and done.
Currently, the Tigers sit just two games back of a wild card spot, so why not attempt to make history in this crazy season and go for it?
