Rick Porcello rumors: Tigers 'said to be' listening to offers; Dave Dombrowski denies this

The Tigers on Sunday denied a report by the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo that they are "willing to listen" to trade offers for starting pitcher Rick Porcello. Cafardo credits "major league sources."

Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski disputed the assertion.

Dave Dombrowski: "We're not trading any of our starting pitchers. ... I don't know where that came from, but it's totally inaccurate."

— Chris Iott (@Chris_Iott) March 9, 2014

Dombrowski said he hasn't mentioned Porcello's name to one person.

— anthony fenech (@anthonyfenech) March 9, 2014

The idea of trading Porcello makes little actual sense at this point. Wait, let's rephrase that. Makes no sense whatsoever. The Tigers have a solid top three in their rotation -- Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez -- and will already be looking at the problem of Drew Smyly increasing his innings to a career high. He has never thrown more than 135. Starting the whole season he would be asked to pitch in the 180-200 level. Subtracting Porcello from the rotation would leave a hole, as neither left-handers, Robbie Ray and Kyle Lobstein, seem quite ready to make the fulltime leap to the big leagues. And why would the Tigers swap Porcello for another pitcher? He's shown steady improvement with a change to relying more on his curveball last year as well as a better defense behind him. Now is not the time for a move.

That isn't to say a trade can't or won't happen. In the past we've pointed out where a trade rumor makes little sense only to have one go down soon after.

But yeah, this would not seem to make any sense, so seems unlikely.

Your thoughts?