Tigers Thinking Trades

I think they'd rather have some bounce-back years from players like this guy.

The Tigers' brass will meet over the next week to determine who they think could be traded and for whom they would be traded. It's been said they have too much payroll and want to decrease it. Unfortunately, they showed a lot of holes last season and will need to fix them. So who do they trade and where would make sense?

Magglio Ordoñez (35 at beginning of next season)
He's the prize of the group that could be traded. He's an excellent offensive player that's somewhat limited defensively, but he could play every day for a lot of teams. His big drawback is his contract, which calls for him to receive $18M next season, but the two later seasons are options worth $15M each (the first has a buyout of $3M and the last has no buyout). Because of the low buyout numbers, teams can decide if they want to keep him or ditch him. My guess is that he'll still play well and get all of those options, but people have become increasingly paranoid of the mid-30's player (I still think you have to look case-by-case, but they'll get lumped together fairly or unfairly). The contract will be a big burden, so if the Tigers want anything in return, they'll need to eat about $7-10M of his contract for next season. Can they do it? I think so because it still saves them $8-10M. As for teams interested, the Braves (young pitching as long as the Tigers can deal with no Hanson, but there are some interesting bullpen options), the Rangers (who have young catching), the A's (who have young pitching), the Rays (who have young pitching even though they like to hold onto it), the Mets (who have some young pitching), and the Dodgers (who have young pitching) could all have interest and match-up with the Tigers. Matt Joyce and Brent Clevlen could take the job left over.

Armando Galarraga
He was a nice story this season, but does anyone really believe he'll do it again? The Tigers might sell high on Galarraga hoping someone (especially in the NL) will take the trade and give some useful players back. Even better for the Tigers, he's under control for five more seasons. I'm guessing he'd garner a lot of interest. His 3.73 ERA looks good, but he doesn't strike out many hitters (6.35 K/9) and his BABIP was ridiculously low at .247. His GB/FB is a respectable 1.10, but he did give up 28 HR. I'm saying he'll seriously regress next season in the AL, but in the NL, he may not regress so far. Still, the Tigers should get rid of him now while they have the advantage. Again, lots of teams would like him and could fit them in their payroll. The problem is that the Tigers don't really want to give up what they really don't have much of, but they could turn him into a good young pitching prospect and a good young catcher.

Nate Robertson
He had a terrible season to say the least, but FanGraphs seems to think he could have a nice bounce-back season next year. He's owed $7M and $10M over the next two seasons, so the Tigers might have to eat some of that but not much. However, they probably won't get much back for him either way. As for whether or not he'll bounce back, his K/9 was a bad 5.76, his BB/9 was 3.31, but his BABIP was a ridiculously high .343, his LOB% was a low 64.3%, and has a solid GB/FB of 1.21. Could he bounce-back? Sure, but I wouldn't give up much for him, and I'd have to be an NL team. Also, he'll be 31 next season, so he might only be useful for a couple more seasons, and luckily, that's all that's on his contract.

Gary Sheffield
The perenially-disgruntled outfielder can be had for $14M next season. Expecting his 2000 Dodger output might be a bit high, and at age 40, I wouldn't expect a hug bounce-back from his terrible 2008 season. His body is really starting to drag, and he's not a good outfielder anymore. An AL team might take a flier on him to DH, but Sheffield would rather play the field as well as hit. He's just not a really good idea to bring aboard, but I could see the Rays, the A's, and the Rangers in on the action at some point. He had a really, really low .237 BABIP last season and should do better, but I don't know that I could count on 130 games from him.

I honestly don't know who else they would trade from their team to make payroll more flexible or that would bring in a lot of players in return. They could re-sign Renteria and trade him, but they might want to spend the $8M ($11M contract - the $3M buyout) on reconstructing the bullpen and no one would really want him. Bonderman and Verlander are probably off-limits (especially Bonderman after his injury). Guillen, Cabrera, and Granderson are probably too crucial to the team to give up, and I think the Tigers want to keep Inge, although he wasn't very good last season, and probably couldn't get rid of him. They have some good bullpen arms, but they desperately need to keep them. It might be a difficult off-season for the Tigers.