Detroit Tigers Fire Sale Candidates

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Credit: Creative Commons, Montecruz Foto, https://goo.gl/oApgNX

The Detroit Tigers are not contenders in 2015.

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It pains me to write this as much as it pains you to read it, but if we think this team will magically turn a corner and pull a Kansas City Royals from last year, we are all fooling ourselves and perhaps dooming ourselves to another dark era of Detroit Tigers’ baseball.

If the current era of AL Central titles, playoff adventures, multiple MVPs, and dual Cy Young winners is over–well it has been a helluva ride. We will always lament not winning a World Series when it was within reach, but for those of us who stood by this team for the annual 90- and 100-loss seasons from 1989 to 2005, we greatly enjoyed the ride.

But there is a time for sentimentality and time for reality. This Tigers team is an average team, not one that will make the postseason this year. So why should the team go out and get rid of the few bright pieces they still have in the minors in order to add pieces to a sinking ship?

They should be sellers and not buyers come July 31.

My Motor City Bengals’ colleague Josh Scramlin hit the nail on the head in his article on Thursday morning, saying the Tigers have a wealth of desirable options to shed at the trading deadline.

He named David Price, Yoenis Cespedes and Alfredo Simon as the first three players that could be on the trading block, and I could not agree more. Each of these players is not signed beyond this year and, at least in the case of Price, seem more likely to play for another team than to don the Olde English D next March.

However, if the Tigers really want to have a good old-fashioned fire sale, they have several more options to really start an attempt at rebuilding the minor league system and possibly avoid another 16 years of terrible baseball.

Next: Ian Kinsler

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