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Tigers rumors: Team is 'focused on retaining Max Scherzer'

ESPN's Buster Olney tweets that the Tigers are "prepared to spend big, big dollars."

By Rob Rogacki
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Another day, another page in the saga that is the Detroit Tigers' winding offseason. Today, ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the Tigers are "focused" on retaining starter Max Scherzer. Olney tweeted that the Tigers are "prepared to spend big, big dollars" in order to keep Scherzer in the rotation.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise after the Tigers traded for another starter last week. The Tigers flipped Robbie Ray and infield prospect Domingo Leyba to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a three team trade, receiving Shane Greene from the New York Yankees in return. With Greene in the fold, the Tigers' rotation looked to be set. Dave Dombrowski said as much afterward, claiming that the club was pleased with how their starting five stacked up.

However, this clashes with just about everything else we heard prior to the surprise trade. The Tigers were reportedly in the thick of the Scherzer sweepstakes. Even Bryan Holaday chimed in, saying that the Tigers were "definitely still on the table."

The interesting part of Olney's tweet may not even be about Scherzer himself. Olney claims that the Tigers are also interested in keeping David Price in the 2015 rotation. This would, among other things, make for a very expensive rotation, which goes against all of the low-cost moves the Tigers have made in recent weeks.

I'm not sure how much stock I put into this rumor -- Scott Boras is a master of smoke and mirrors during the offseason -- but Olney isn't one to spew baseless information. However, take it with a grain of salt, as we have heard a lot of conflicting information in the past couple weeks.

UPDATE: As expected, Olney's report seems to be a Boras product.

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