Detroit Tigers News: Justin Verlander trade still in play

Yup, we are still doing this. With only two days left in the August waiver trade period, Justin Verlander’s name has re-entered the trade speculation. For the first time in a month, it is not the Houston Astros who are inquiring — it is a team that remains nameless.

That tweet isn’t much to go on, but it reaffirms the fact that Verlander is in demand. He had a rough start to the season, but has a 2.38 ERA in his last 10 starts. Opponents have a .198 batting average, and Verlander has 75 strikeouts in 68 innings. The team may be bad, but Verlander has been vintage.

Interest does not make a trade, though. The same salary and no-trade clause barriers remain and the source could even be from the Detroit Tigers side attempting to apply pressure to Houston. It’s especially odd when you consider just yesterday Jon Heyman suggested that the team hadn’t had any serious conversations on Verlander. Per usual, this is just smoke until a team and prospects names are thrown around.

Mahtook’s rise

With another home run last night, Mikie Mahtook’s surprise season continues to be the only good part of 2017 for the Tigers. Well, that and Justin Upton blasting home runs everywhere. At least Al Avila has a couple signing wins from the past two offseasons.

Miggy’s not back

Miguel Cabrera left Monday night’s game with back tightness and was out of the lineup on Tuesday. He has been dealing with back issues all season and manager Brad Ausmus offered this extremely reassuring quote when asked about it.

“And quite frankly, I think he’s going to have to deal with it the rest of his career, the back issues, at times arising. I had the same issues the last 10 years of my career. … Whether that did affect him going forward in the regular season, my guess is probably yes.”

So that’s not great. I know Cabrera wants to play, but for the good of the franchise he should really take a seat and try to get right. Continually hurting himself is helping no one.

Fall League participants

The Tigers will be sending six prospects to the Arizona Fall League this year. There aren’t any big names, but it will be interesting to see if Cam Gibson can maintain his surprise season and what Spencer Turnbull and Adam Ravenelle can do with their remaining innings.

Missed him by thaaaat much

For your free time

The Giants might be interested in Justin Upton. Tigers prospect and Wyandotte native John Schreiber is on an absurd run. Our short national nightmare is over. Joe Nathan is retiring. #NeverForget. Kansas City scored last night. They hadn’t done that since last Thursday. Peak Joey Votto. The AL Wildcard race is a beautiful mess.

Baseball is awesome