Detroit Tigers News: Dust settles after the trade deadline

What did you expect?

It looked bad early, that’s for sure. But after the initial panic of the J.D. Martinez trade, the Detroit Tigers got a solid return for their other two tradeable pieces and ended the deadline about where they were expected to be.

It’s worth repeating that the market is everything. There simply wasn’t a market for bats this trade deadline, as the majority of the contenders didn’t have a need there. Yes, it would have been ideal to trade Justin Verlander, but if Chris Ilitch wasn’t willing to pay off most of the contract, simply trading him to dump salary would have been asinine. So the team got some decent talent and upside from a challenging market.

Yesterday, both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press took shots at the team’s trade deadline effort. Jeff Seidel was underwhelmed.

I wish the Tigers could have found a way to trade Justin Verlander or Jose Iglesias or Ian Kinsler. Although, to be fair, there was not much of a market for position players, and Verlander’s massive contract was a clear problem.

I also wonder if the Tigers did the bare minimum – trading Justin Wilson, Alex Avila and J.D. Martinez was a no-brainer. Martinez and Avila were about to become free agents, and Wilson would have never been as valuable as he is now. If they would have held onto Wilson, it would have been a complete failure.

Well Jeff, I wish a lot of things, but the world is cruel and teams are smart.

Lynn Henning went even bigger by basically saying the Tigers should trade Michael Fulmer to really kick start this thing.

But one pitcher very much will appeal to any number of clubs.

His name is Michael Fulmer. And it is certain any trade gifts would include at least three Grade A prospects, one of which probably would be a young pitcher with heavy upside.

Fans will shriek but the Tigers will listen. Hard. And all because they must. A half-baked roster retooling will get them nowhere in terms of beating good baseball teams down the road (here’s looking at you, White Sox).

These are all shortsighted views. This is not going to be a two-year rebuild no matter how bad you want it. Stay the course, acquire talent, and hope for the best.

I’d rather have three options than one

After the acquisition of two third basemen at the deadline, including one with major league experience, the logical next question is whether Nicholas Castellanos is soon to be on the move. Nick, to his credit, said he is open to play anywhere.

“I know what it is,” he said. “At the end of the day, I don’t care what happens or where I play. I just want to win. I don’t care if I’m playing third, I don’t care if somebody else is playing third, I don’t care if I’m playing first, rightfield, or I pitch. Whatever makes the Tigers better.”

Castellanos has shown improvement at third but still looks out of place. It will be an interesting subplot to watch moving forward.

On Al Avila trading his first born

This seems to be the general consensus around the fact that general manager Al Avila traded his own son.

He traded his own son, and that takes all kinds of guts – a cold, detached ability to set aside blood and make a business decision – while risking his ability to go home at night.

Think about what it takes to do that.

Sure, but has anyone considered that he also just put his son in a great environment to win a World Series ring? I’m not sure it was the worst thing that has happened to Alex. Remember, this is a guy that had to play for the Chicago White Sox.

Austin Jackson, still good at catching baseballs

I mean...good lord.

Catch of the year.

Really?

Did you know there hasn’t been a left-handed catcher in 28 years? Because I had absolutely no idea. The last one to catch in the majors is Benny Distefano, the former Grand Rapids Whitecaps hitting coach (the article is from 2009). The more you know!

For your free time

FanGraphs projects all of the prospects traded at the deadline. The Tigers apparently inquired on Candelario for Wilson before the year started. Why you should love Adrian Beltre. Buried in this article is that Fivethirtyeight ranks Brandon Inge as the 12th-best defensive third basemen of all time! Dallas Keuchel was not impressed with the Astros’ trade deadline. Max Scherzer hit the first home run of his career but left the game with an injury immediately after.

Despite that, baseball is awesome