It sure doesn’t seem like it, but we are nearing the halfway point of the MLB regular season. The Detroit Tigers will play their 80th game of the year on Tuesday, and we are less than a week away from the month of July. The halfway point of the season (or thereabouts) brings the MLB All-Star Game, and a timely point to assess how a team is doing. It also brings a deluge of trade rumors prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
Teams typically don’t get too deep into trade talks until after the All-Star break, but there have been a few rumors cropping up already. The Washington Nationals already acquired reliever Kelvin Herrera from the Kansas City Royals, while other teams are expressing interest in Orioles reliever Zach Britton. We also detailed the Seattle Mariners’ interest in Tigers starter Matthew Boyd, and one imagines they aren’t the only team who would want a durable, cost-controlled lefthander in their rotation.
While the Tigers have a number of assets they could deal, the market for said assets could be rather tepid. Lynn Henning of the Detroit News said as much in his most recent column, as he examined the meager trade value of Nicholas Castellanos, Jose Iglesias, and Shane Greene, players who could be on the move next month.
Looking at it from the Tigers’ perspective, Kurt identified three players the Tigers should trade, along with a few to hold onto and three more that are on the fence. And if you’ll indulge a shameless plug, we did something similar on our Patreon page yesterday for subscribers.
Subscribe to our Patreon page, where we played Deal or No Deal (sorta) with Tigers trade candidates! https://t.co/QthNYOe8yD pic.twitter.com/QaoQHEIuUI
— Bless You Boys (@blessyouboys) June 25, 2018
Monday? More like Mize-day
If you were busy at work or fighting fireworks traffic, you may have missed that the Tigers signed first overall pick Casey Mize on Monday. Mize’s signing bonus reportedly came in at $7.5 million, saving the Tigers roughly $500,000 that will mostly be allocated to second rounder Parker Meadows. We thought his brother spilled the beans on Sunday with this tweet...
My lil bro is off to pursue his dream! So excited for this journey to start for you man! It’s finally here! @parkermeadows3
— Austin Meadows (@austin_meadows) June 24, 2018
...but no deal has been announced yet. By our numbers, the Tigers have nearly $2 million to spend on Meadows even before dipping into an overage tax, so there shouldn’t be much concern about losing him to college.
Third rounder Kody Clemens also signed an underslot deal.
Congratulations to Jose Iglesias and Leonys Martin
They were sworn in as American citizens on Monday.
Congratulations to @JoseIglesias_SS and @leonys27martin on becoming United States citizens today! pic.twitter.com/fluNOmmDEU
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) June 26, 2018
Edwin Jackson’s Magical Baseball Tour
In case the Fox Sports Detroit broadcast didn’t mention it enough, former Tiger Edwin Jackson tied an MLB record when he pitched for his 13th different team on Monday. Our friends at Athletics Nation looked back at Jackson’s journey around the big leagues.
Around the horn
Jeff Sullivan talks about baseball, is worth reading. Ditto Grant Brisbee. Baseball Prospectus’ prospect team said nice things about Tigers prospect Wilkel Hernandez. Whitecaps pitching coach Jorge Cordova talks about Joe Jimenez and Matt Manning. The College World Series is set, and begins on Tuesday evening after a rainout.
Baseball is naked
After 4 years I finally decided to do these amazing and incredible pictures with @espnmag I hope everyone enjoyed them as much as I did. Thank you @espnmag I had a blast! #2018 #magazine #espn #body ♂️ pic.twitter.com/cGWo8vDIpN
— Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) June 25, 2018