Detroit Tigers: 5 best moves in Dave Dombrowski era

Dec 12, 2013; Orlando, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski, right, walks to the Rule 5 Draft during the MLB Winter Meetings at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Tigers have been through some tumultuous few weeks of the season recently.

From trade rumors to actual trades to rare in-season firing of the top team executive to fights in the dugout, the Tigers’ season has taken a downward spiral quite quickly.

We’ve covered the firing of Dave Dombrowski quite extensively here at Motor City Bengals, as you might expect. One thing is for sure, he did turn around the fortunes of this franchise and reestablished Detroit as a baseball town.

Dombrowski had his fair share of mistakes–which we will cover next week, but his very good deals greatly outweigh his poor ones. As we begin to put a cap on the Dombrowski era, we look at his five best moves as the Detroit Tigers general manager and president.

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Honorable mention goes to a couple of deals that did not make the cut.

Prior to the trading deadline in 2011, he traded for Doug Fister and David Pauley from the Seattle Mariners for Casper Wells, Charlie Furbush, Francisco Martinez and Chance Ruffin.

Pauley never amounted to anything but Fister went 8-1 down the stretch with the Tigers and helped them win their first divisional title in 24 years. The return pieces to Seattle? Non-factors and each of traveled to different teams since.

The other honorable mention was bringing in Jose Iglesias from Boston. This was one of those trades that was good for all sides because it sent Jake Peavy to Boston, helping them win the 2013 World Series, Avisail Garcia went to Chicago to help the White Sox rebuilding efforts and Iglesias came to Detroit.

He was not just an insurance policy for the soon-to-be suspended Jhonny Peralta, it was the first of many moves to begin to mold this team for the future.

Now, without further ado, on to the list…

Next: Carlos Guillen