Trade rumors surrounding Edwin Jackson aren't going away. They may even be picking up heat. USA Today's Bob Nightengale posted the latest rumblings he's been hearing on his Twitter feed:
Keep and eye on developing three-way trade talk with Tigers and Mariners and mystery team involving M's Brandon Morrow and Dets Jackson
If anything, this corroborates what Jon Paul Morosi and Ken Rosenthal reported at the beginning of the week. The Mariners are interested in Edwin Jackson, and the Tigers might be looking to get Morrow in return. Although a "mystery team" making this a possible three-way deal is a new development.
As something of a follow-up on ESPN's Rumor Central (Insider), there's an implication that this deal could end up setting the market for starting pitching this offseason. If the M's got Jackson, they wouldn't pursue a free agent like John Lackey or Rich Harden. But this would also establish a price for acquiring a starting pitcher in trade.
(Keith Law thinks highly of Jackson and believes that Morrow's problems with developing into a starter are due somewhat to mismanagement by former Seattle GM Bill Bavasi).
If the Tigers are going to make a deal, is it possible they'd make it before the Winter Meetings in the second week of December? A few days ago, Peter Gammons wrote that many general managers are still waiting to hear what their budgets are going to be for next year. So if Dave Dombrowski believes he can only work with what he already has, perhaps he needs to have payroll freed up before GMs get together in Indianapolis.
I guess we'll be keeping an eye out for a potential deal between now and December 7, when the Winter Meetings begin.
(Thanks to granderson28 for posting this in the comments of our last post.)