Trading Rick Porcello Would be the First of a Series of Moves for the Detroit Tigers

Rumors surfaced this week that both the Boston Red Sox and Miami Marlins have inquired about Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Rick Porcello. Porcello is coming off of a career best 15 win season, 3.43 ERA, and 204.2 innings. Porcello struggled down the stretch, but he has steadily improved since the 2010 campaign.

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Porcello will be 26 at the start of the 2015 season and has one year remaining on his rookie contract. Porcello has been a number four or five pitcher most of his career, but if he continues to improve in 2015, he will be paid well in free agency.

If the Tigers decide to trade Porcello, it would definitely be the first in a series of moves. The first factor of the following moves would be the return for Porcello. If the Tigers went through with the Porcello-Yoenis Cespedes trade with the Boston Red Sox, the Tigers outfield would be complete with J.D. Martinez, Cespedes, and the platoon of Rajai Davis and Anthony Gose.

If the Tigers wanted to trade with the Marlins, the return is up in the air. The dream of course is Christian Yelich, but there’s a reason that’s a dream. The Tigers would probably get back a package much like the one they gave up to get Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez in 2012 with some prospects for the Porcello rental. Honestly, you never know with a Marlins-Tigers trade, but that is most likely.

If the Tigers trade Porcello, the instant help they would receive in return would be in the outfield. That would leave the Tigers with Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez, and David Price as their established starters. Robbie Ray, Kyle Lobstein, Kyle Ryan, Buck Farmer, and Drew VerHagen also made starts for the Tigers in 2014, but only Tigers fans shouldn’t rely on these 5 to supply significant starting contributions in 2015 barring injury.

If the Tigers trade Porcello, they definitely have other moves in place to improve their starting rotation. One of those moves would most likely be signing Max Scherzer, James Shields, or Jon Lester.

Even if the Tigers hold onto Porcello, they should be in on free agent starters Jason Hammel, Brandon McCarthy, Francisco Liriano, Justin Masterson, and Jake Peavy.

The Tigers will make multiple moves before next spring to try to make another run at a World Series Title. With the Winter Meetings approaching, Rick Porcello is the most likely Tigers’ pitcher to be trades along with David Price. Knowing Dave Dombrowski, some kind of move is in the works which will set off a chain reaction of moves for the Tigers heading into the 2015 season.