Detroit Tigers News: Justin Wilson, Alex Avila, and J.D. Martinez garner interest

The market always dictates the return

Jon Heyman, a very reliable source for league news, published a pretty straight forward run down on who is available and what kind of interest they are drawing for the Tigers. We appreciate it Jon.

Let’s start with Justin Verlander, who sources have stated that the team is not actively shopping, but is listening to offers on. No word on whether the sources are actually Al Avila when he said this two months ago, but I digress. There appears to be no strong offers out there considering his salary and under-performance on the year. He will likely remain a Tiger.

Ian Kinsler, one of the better players on the team, isn’t drawing interest due to his position, not his output. It makes sense to hold on to him considering he is the heart of the locker room and should garner significantly more than what is being offered.

While Kinsler and Verlander will most likely stay put, J.D. Martinez, Alex Avila, and Justin Wilson are extremely popular around the league.

Sources do suggest Martinez, Wilson and Avila are triggering plenty of calls. While corner outfield isn’t an area of need for many contenders, Martinez is probably at the top of any list considering his big bat and expiring contract. Wilson’s in the upper echelon of relievers available, and Avila, now fully healthy, is having a big year and getting good playing time behind the plate.

Justin Wilson looks like he might be the first to go with serious interest from the Dodgers but it seems all three will be departing Detroit. Should be an interesting month.

The making of an ace

Or at least we can hope. Fangraphs put together a very bullish piece on Matt Manning only noting a lack of experience separating him from some of the top prospects in the game. Considering more pitching is one thing you can guarantee, I’ll keep my excitement level at a 13 out of 10.

Want some bad fantasy baseball advice?

The Free Press says buy Anibal Sanchez for the second half. I’m all in on the redemption story, but probably hold off on picking him up.

ExpelliarMud

Here. We. Go.

Trade season is officially underway with a massive deal that sends White Sox’s ace Jose Quintana 6 miles up the red line to the Chicago Cubs in return for a significant prospect haul of Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease, Matt Rose and Bryante Flete.

The trade appears to be relatively even on both sides, assuming you are as pro-Quintana as Fangraphs. The Cubs get the starting pitching help they need as well as keeping their chief rival from scoring the same player. Meanwhile the White Sox get a big haul toward their rebuilding efforts including the number 8 and 63 prospects in MLB Pipeline’s rankings. In other news, I’ve gone from unconcerned to terrified of the White Sox in a season and a half.

But the most important part of the trade was the person who broke it. Not Ken Rosenthal. Not Jonah Keri. That would be the well known reddit user wetbutt23.

Way to go wetbutt.

For your free time

Tigers continue to try and ignore the trade rumors. It’s going to be tough when the rumors will be coming almost daily. Nick keeps grinding despite the bad luck. Jason Kipnis eats corn dogs with a knife and fork and the Indians are going to lose the rest of their games. Colby Rasmus has stepped away from baseball with little reason given by the Rays. Hope all is OK. Red Sox release Jhonny Peralta. He is going to end up on the Tigers somehow.

Baseball is awesome