Detroit Tigers: Which Tampa Bay Starting Pitcher is Best Fit?

Jake Odorizzi

Just like Archer, Jake Odorizzi is under team control for the foreseeable future. The former top prospect isn’t arbitration eligible yet, and won’t hit free agency until 2020 at the earliest.

Couple that with a 3.80 ERA and 440 strikeouts in 468.2 career innings, and you get the feeling that the price tag for the former Royal will be high. As it stands, Detroit doesn’t exactly have a deep pool of young players to deal from.

Michael Fulmer is obviously untouchable at this point, and given the team’s current 25-man roster, so are Bruce Rondon and Steven Moya. Fellow highly-touted young players like JaCoby Jones, Joe Jimenez, Christin Stewart and Beau Burrows seem unlikely to be on the move either.

Dealing Norris for Odorizzi seems like a step sideways, if not backwards. The former Toronto hurler is younger and may have an equally high ceiling, if not a higher one altogether.

A deal centered around Boyd could work for the Tigers, but Detroit would obviously need to include more prospects. Pitchers like Jairo Labourt or Austin Kubitza could also make sense, but if Tampa Bay drives up the price, the Tigers don’t exactly have the depth to deal form in order to get a deal done.