Oct 1, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton (27) at bat against the New York Mets at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The Miami Marlins have recently stated that they’re willing to listen to offers on disgruntled outfielder Giancarlo Stanton. That’s not to say they will trade him or that they’re even actively shopping him, but it’s the first time the club has publicly stated openness to dealing their lone superstar.

This would be different from a fire sale. Stanton won’t be arbitration eligible until next offseason and still has four years of team control remaining where he’ll be providing his services at a deep, deep discount. He may be unhappy with the way the organization handled their business this offseason, and he may eventually be unwilling to negotiate a long-term deal to stay in south Florida, but there’s really nothing he can do about any of it in the short term. If Miami decides they want to hang onto him then he’s stuck for four more years. He could decide to dog it if they don’t agree to trade him, but being tagged as a problem child putting up poor numbers on purpose wouldn’t help him in the salary arbitration process, nor would it be good for his future free agent negotiations.

The Marlins don’t need to trade Stanton like they needed (in some sense) to unload the higher-priced players. It would anger the fan base in the same way, but it wouldn’t help payroll one iota. They would be doing it to raid another organization’s farm system in the hopes of turning one Stanton into two. Or, rather, to turn one Stanton into two or three above average pieces who would also be cost-controlled for a number of years.

And we’re probably not talking about players who would be three or four years away from the big leagues. The Marlins are likely looking for a handful of highly-rated players who are no more than a year away from being Major League regulars. For example, ESPN’s Jim Bowden recommended that the Texas Rangers might trade Jurickson Profar, Martin Perez, and Mike Olt for Stanton (and Ricky Nolasco). Those three prospects were all rated in the Top-100 by Baseball America (numbers 7, 31, and 43 respectively) prior to last season (and each carried an ETA of 2013). That’s a huge haul, and one the Tigers likely couldn’t match.

Detroit has one Top-100 prospect from a year ago, Nick Castellanos, but the club is thin on top-tier talent after that. Avisail Garcia might be in the Top-100 mix this next year, I really have no idea, (Baseball America hasn’t released their list for 2013 yet), but the closest the Tigers could come to Profar, Perez, and Olt would be Castellanos, Garcia, and Bruce Rondon. That package probably doesn’t come close to competing with any (hypothetical) deal involving Profar, and it’s almost certainly not a package the Marlins would accept.

Stanton would be worth something like $25 million in surplus value for next season alone, and probably something in the neighborhood of $70 million (today’s dollars) of surplus through the 2016 season. I don’t know that the Tigers could come up with equivalent value if they offered up their entire farm system.

Trades aren’t simply player for player, they’re value for value. Stanton, as a pre-arbitration MVP caliber player, has a ton of value. Only the deepest of farm systems could put together a package for him, and the Tigers have nothing like the deepest of systems.

With a Marlin mega-deal set to be completed tomorrow, and severals of deals made before that, one would have to hope that Dave Dombrowski has made a call or two to Larry Beinfest inquiring as to some additional players. They hammered out the Jacob Turner/Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante deal, so they know they can work with one another. And with that thought as a backdrop, the Tigers might want to slow down their pursuit of Torii Hunter and consider the possibility that Detroit can make a legitimate offer on Giancarlo Stanton.

Sept 14, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton (27) stands between second and third base during the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Marlins Park. The Marlins won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

First, some background on Stanton. As you may have already heard, this 23-year old rightfielder is, arguably, the most powerful hitter in the major leagues. This season Stanton played in 123 games, yet still hit 37 home runs (including two more in the minors on a rehab assignment). Stanton’s ISO for the last three seasons were .248, .275, and a staggering .318 in 2012. His career walk rate is 10.0%, and his slugging percentage has been on the rise for the last three seasons. Also, this guy can hit a ball out of any stadium in either league.

His defense is also exceptional: his career UZR/150 is 8.7. His UZR for this year was 9.3, which was good for fifth overall among Major League right fielders. His OOZ of 82 was just behind Justin Upton‘s 83 and 3 points ahead of Torii Hunter‘s.  He has a cannon for an arm and has good speed both defensively and offensively. And, to reiterate, someone this talented is only 23 years old. 23!

A major issue between the Marlins and him (aside from a merciless hatchet job on the team itself) is that he becomes arbitration eligible in 2014, and can theoretically be a free agent by 2017. With their penny-pinching ways flaring up like the fires of hell in the last several months, one can bet that the thought of paying dearly to keep Stanton is unappealing. And this is where the Tigers come in.

Detroit has the payroll flexibility to meet not only Stanton’s arbitration demands when they arise, but also to offer him a doozy of an extension if need be. And quite frankly, Stanton would be worth just about any dollar amount; he is in rarefied air in terms of talent and youth and team control. For Stanton, he’d be leaving the flaming wreckage of a franchise that has betrayed everything they have promised not just their fans, but their players, and going to one of the premiere franchises in all of baseball, let alone the top World Series contender. Wouldn’t this be an ideal trade for his interests as well?

For someone like this, Dombrowski would have to pony up something along the lines of the Miguel Cabrera deal: Two top prospects and two additional major-league ready pieces. The conversation begins with Nick Castellanos, I’m assuming. Honestly? For Stanton, I’d trade him in a heartbeat. Stanton, at 23, is one of the best players in the game. One can only assume that he maintains this upward trend for the next several years. If any team in the majors isn’t currently flashing their top wares to the Marlins they aren’t doing their fanbase justice (….poor Marlins fans…). Dombrowski and Illitch should have no reservations for this – if it revolves around a deal of Nick Castellanos, Drew Smyly, Brennan Boesch, Jhonny Peralta, or anyone else (even Avisail Garcia) they have to make the deal. I can’t stress enough how Giancarlo Stanton is one of the best players in the game at such a young age, and to have such fantastic raw power in an era where power is indeed quite the commodity…he should be all but untouchable.

This is a Miguel Cabrera-type opportunity, and I hope the Tigers are at least putting some feelers out before closing the deal with Hunter.