Our friend Ian Casselberry is not getting a lot of MLove for his suggestion today that the Tigers make a push to acquire second baseman Martin Prado from the Braves. 

Ian cites an article by MLB.com's Braves writer, Mark Bowman, that Atlanta would like to free up some payroll by trading Prado and pitcher Jair Jurrjens. 

Ian notes:

Prado is coming off a down year, in which his slash average dropped to .260/.302/.385, the lowest totals of his six-year major league career. Those struggles may have been due in large part to missing six weeks with a staph infection in his right calf. The infection eventually spread to his knee, as well.

Ian bravely wades into the comments to respond to some criticism. I will avoid that part but assume people do not like Prado because of a career-worst season in 2011.

Let's deal with cost first. Prado is arbitration eligible, and MLB Trade Rumors projects a $4.4 million salary in 2012 and (one would assume) more in 2013. Martin Klaassen of Fangraphs writes of the cost of acquiring him:

(T)he main benefit Atlanta can likely expect in return is salary relief and an iffy prospect or two. That is nothing to sniff at for a team with a promising pitching staff, some young talent, and in need of payroll room preparing for another season in which they should contend for the playoffs.

So why should (or shouldn't) the Tigers want Prado? 

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"Una fuente cercana al jugador asegura que todo apunta a que Magglio se quedarà en Detroit"

- Carlos V. Rodríguez on twitter

I've been googling and trying to figure out if this has any merit, with no luck. As the helpful SabreRoseTiger pointed out, the tweet essentially says that signs point to Magglio staying in Detroit.

Update: It appears Rodriguez works for the Venezuelan newspaper Lider.

According to Jon Paul Morosi. More after it's confirmed, though this was kind of expected, as we already know St. Pierre is a good guy to have around.

This has been floating around the internet the last few hours so we figured we should link it. Ken Rosenthal blogged about the Tigers making a run for Crawford this winter:

Crawford, in fact, might make a greater impact for the Tigers than he would for any other club.

Defensively, the Tigers would benefit greatly by pairing Crawford in left field with Austin Jackson in center. The two would cover an enormous amount of ground, providing an edge at spacious Comerica Park.

MLBTR also linked to Rosenthal's story, and they have a pretty comprehensive post on potential Crawford suitors from a couple months ago you may want to take a look at.

Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown reported on Twitter:

Johnny Damon and the Tigers are near agreement, according to sources. Tigers and Damon contract is for one year, according to source. Damon-Tigers contract apparently has no second-year option. Guarantee is for more than $7 million.

Updates

The deal is for about $8 million, Brown addends.

SI's Jon Heyman reports there is a no-trade clause.

My reaction after the jump

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Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com reports the White Sox have pulled their offer to Johnny Damon, effectively making the Tigers the winners. Maybe.

He quotes Sox GM Kenny Williams:

"It became clear to us in our recent negotiations that the money that we were offering was not going to be good enough for Johnny at this time," White Sox general manager Kenny Williams told ESPNChicago.com. "At this particular point, we feel it's necessary to withdraw our offer."

Levine wrote the Sox offer was about $6 million.

However, Damon's agent Scott Boras is still trying to get the best deal out of the Tigers, ESPN's Buster Olney reports on Twitter in a series of tweets:

Heard this: Scott Boras is now working a two-pronged approach on the Tigers. No. 1 -- he'd like to get Detroit to remove all deferred ... money out of their one-year, $7 million offer. Or No. 2, he'd wants Ilitch to actually give Damon legitimate second year in their offer.

So I guess  that's what Dave Dombrowski was talking about earlier in the day.

Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski strikes me as a guy who who wouldn't admit to the media he likes eating chocolate cake.

He's just not a baseball executive who likes to commit to much of anything during hot stove season.

So seeing a tweet from @official_tigers confirming the Tigers' offer to outfielder Johnny Damon was nearly as surprising as the comments that came out of Dombrowski's media session moments later.

As quoted by the Detroit News' Tom Gage:

"First of all, he's a good player, who would help us from an offensive standpoint," said Dombrowski, the Tigers' president and general manager. "He's another left-hand bat, and he's been a winner.

"He's been a good player."

This is so outside the Tigers' norms that I do not even know how to react to it.

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It's been -- what? -- 48 hours since we last heard an update on where Johnny Damon and the Tigers stand in negotiations which will eventually lead to the left-handed outfielder wearing an Old English D this season.

Fortunately, Jon Paul Morosi of FoxSports.com is here to update us that ... nothing new is really happening. Maybe.

Nothing is imminent, but:

There is now only a "very small" difference of opinion between the Tigers and Johnny Damon as to what the outfielder’s salary should be, one major league source said Monday.

*snip*

The source downplayed the chances of a one-year deal with a player option for 2011 — similar to the contract that Adrian Beltre, another Scott Boras client, signed with the Red Sox.

Like I said, I'm convinced he's a Tiger eventually, given we haven't heard of any other teams offering anything remotely the same financial terms.

And hey, he does eat octopi. No word on whether he throws it.

Johnny Damon Watch 2010 continues!