Sizing Up The Competition: Detroit Tigers

Detroit managed to get Price, not with the farm system, but with two of their few remaining young players.  They gave up Drew Smyly, 25, who started 7 games for the Rays and went 3-1 with a 1.70 ERA, and Austin Jackson, 28, who struggled with Seattle but has been a good player.  They've eaten through the farm system and started trading young major leaguers for older major leaguers.

How long can that last?

It's not jsut trading prospects.  They turned that awful Fielder contract into Kinsler.  They signed JD Martinez and now Cespedas as relative bargains with good bouncebak potential.  They turned Granderson, a guy with a skill set that wouldn't age well, into Scherzer and Austin Jackson.

 

Say what you want about their age (they are old) and their farm (it's not good), but the Tigers have proven to be remarkably effective with what resources they have available to them.  

I do agree with that, and as long as they have a wealthy owner spewing money like water they will probably be at least competitive.  I wonder if his heirs will have the same interest- maybe.  How much money will they be willing to spend, though?  

I still can't believe they managed to offload that Fielder contract.

Yeah, Texas did the analysis and concluded that while Prince was not going to age well, he would probably age much better in Texas summers, playing near 100 degrees each day.

I do agree with that, and as long as they have a wealthy owner spewing money like water they will probably be at least competitive.  I wonder if his heirs will have the same interest- maybe.  How much money will they be willing to spend, though?  

I think you have seen the Tigers keep about the same payroll and it won't increase further.  They have picked and choosed a bit lately, letting Max walk for example.   They tried extended one of Max or Miggy.  They probably don't do the Victor extension until they off-loaded Prince.  And I don't see them handing out another $27M a year deal to Price.

If that is an accurate assessment, they won't have payroll wiggle room to add and the money tied up will get older and older.

The question about the heirs is a fair one. My understanding is the Illitch just wants a ring and is not in good health.  I can admire that.  He is losing about $30M a year but doesn't care because his other businesses are making money hand over first.  Maybe the heirs don't have the same passion, who knows.