Detroit Tigers: Will the team be buyers or sellers at the deadline?

The Detroit Tigers are sitting right under the .500 mark as June quickly approaches.

This does not bode well for the Detroit Tigers as we fans know them today.

As the trade deadline looms shortly after the All-Star break, the answer to the question of whether Al Avila will buy or sell is getting clearer. And, the answer looks like sell.

But, if the Tigers sell, they have to replace what they’ve sold. And, the choices are slim in the Tigers’ Minor League system. So, who will stay and who will go?

Unfortunately, the Tigers do not have many players that are worth more than their contracts, so Avila doesn’t have many pieces to play with. The most valuable players that could be attractive to other teams are J.D. Martinez, Jose Iglesias, and Ian Kinsler. These three men occupy almost $29 million. Martinez would most likely be the first to go, because of his age and his batting stats over the last few seasons.

Martinez also enters free agency in 2018, so selling him now would make sense for the team. By trading him away by the deadline, the Tigers could actually get something for him. Remember how the team blew it with Max Scherzer and didn’t get anything for him? Yeah, that still hurts.

The Tigers do have some outfielders that they could put in his place. Mikie Mahtook is looking for a permanent spot and he has shown that he can hit and field. He is currently making the league minimum, which would give the Tigers money to spend on pitching prospects that they so desperately need.

Kinsler would be another story. He is older than Martinez, but he is coming off of a Gold Glove season. The Tigers do have a $5 million obligation to him in 2018, but he could be worth more than that to a team that wants a speedy second baseman. He could be replaced by Dixon Machado or JaCoby Jones. Machado’s bat is nowhere near the quality of Kinsler’s bat, but when the team sells, it isn’t expecting to win much.

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Jose Iglesias has a $4.1 million contract and he doesn’t reach free agency until 2019, but he is a shortstop who can field with style. His bat hasn’t been up to par until lately and if he can keep it, he will be desirable to teams that want a shortstop that can wow a crowd.

Unfortunately, the Tigers will have difficulty unloading the big boys. Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Jordan Zimmermann, and Victor Martinez are all performing under the value of their contracts and their ages aren’t helping, either. The Tigers are already paying too many players NOT to play for them, so it’s safe to assume that unless someone really wants to pay Tesla prices for a tricked-out Chevys, teams will shy away from them.

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Of course, these are just my assumptions about what could happen. Do I have a magic crystal ball?No. Do I want any of these players to leave Detroit? No. But, we have to be realistic. The team needs to do something to make up for the ho-hum starting pitching and Avila may have to sacrifice a star to get someone who can throw strikes for outs, not for home runs.