Key losses: Max Scherzer, David Price, Alex Avila, Jose Iglesias
Key Additions: Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Evan Gattis, Justin Upton, Stephen Drew
For a team with a sizeable payroll of $167 million, it all went pretty quickly for the Tigers and their guest GM, Jonny Dumbrowski.
I built my plans more or less on the blueprint of what was expected in the real world: Letting Scherzer walk, shopping to improve center field and the bullpen, while maintaining or improving the offense. I wound up doing this more creatively than I expected, but when it came time to count the money I barely made it in.
Job 1 was finding a center fielder, where Rajai Davis isn’t the hitter or flycatcher you need on a championship squad. I set out at first looking for a durable regular with a good glove, investigating the possibility of a swap with the Giants for Angel Pagan (nothing doing) or the Mets, whom I know has some depth there. The Mets also have some affordable bullpen depth, so I thought a deal could be made.
The Mets GM was a tough but amenable negotiator and after a series of proposals and counterproposals we settled on a deal whereby I traded away shortstop Jose Iglesias, outfield prospect Steven Moya and $5 million for Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell and Matt denDekker. Parnell, though coming off an injury, will put a third guy with closing experience in the bullpen, joining returnees Joe Nathan and Joaquim Soria (I also signed free agent Jonny Venters, who’s likely to miss most of the year with an injury but could also step in and help). With help from guys like Al Albuquerque and younguns Iam Krol and Kyle Lobstein, the Tigers suspect bullpen should be stronger in 2015.
Though I asked for Lagares, I can live with den Dekker as a LH hitting counterpart to Davis in an old-school platoon. Moya has some serious HR power and might really help the Mets in a corner OF slot, but there’s still some questions about his on-base ability, defense and whether he’s ready for prime time. He’s the kinda guy contenders often sell. Letting Iglesias go left me without a shortstop but his injuries did that to the Tigers this season as well and we still won 90.
Niese, while not a star, is a solid starting-depth pickup with a reasonable salary — a necessity with Justin Verlander getting a $6M raise to a whopping $28 million. Arbitration was good to Rick Porcello and Anibel Sanchez got a nice raise. I knew I wouldn’t have the firepower to reacquire Scherzer.
Shortly after I completed the Mets trade I heard from the Braves GM, proposing to move Justin Upton and Evan Gattis for David Price. I rejected this deal initially, then thought on it, then said yes. My reasoning? It was going to be difficult to retain Victor Martinez on the open market, and Gattis allowed me to save a few million by letting Alex Avila walk. Gattis could also DH. Losing Price hurts the starting pitching depth, and in retrospect maybe I counteroffer with Sanchez, but I’m willing here to break in Robby Ray as the 5, behind Niese, and take my chances. In both deals I got one more player than I surrendered. I know quality counts more than quantity but that doesn’t mean quantity doesn’t count. I’m deep in the outfield now, with L-R platoons, pinch-hitter/runners, available all over and good players starting every night (Upton, denDekker/Davis, Martinez/Dirks). Even Castellanos if he doesn’t work out at third.
In the infield, the sophomore shortstop duo of Andrew Romine and Eugenio Sanchez got veteran depth in Stephen Drew, a bargain at $2 million. He’s gotta make it up somewhere, he may as well start in Detroit. I also used a few mills to sign Jonny Venters in the event he comes back from surgery in time, he’ll help the bullpen.
In the end I had only enough cash for those bargain buys but feel like I benefitted by acquiring what I needed by trade. I probably could have used the second-chance and NRI drafts but I had a high school reunion to go to out on the island that interfered with that. Oh well. Go Tigers!
Oh by the way I fired Brad Ausmus and hired Bobby Valentine.
Individual Salaries
Detroit Tigers