Detroit Tigers: Miami Marlins trade ideas

Detroit Tigers general manager Al Avila should consider absorbing contracts in order to improve the team for the future. One team who could match up with the Tigers in this regard is the Miami Marlins.

Detroit Tigers fans aren’t going to see a Giancarlo Stanton trade this offseason.

Let’s just get that out of the way first and foremost.

Stanton would cost too much in both the monetary sense and the sense in which Detroit would have to give up a king’s ransom in terms of prospects to acquire the slugger.

Plus since the team is rebuild, the on-field fit isn’t really there.

Now that we’ve gotten the obvious out of the way, there are actually a number of Miami Marlins who could be trade fits for the Tigers.

The Marlins, according to a recent article in the Miami Herald by Clark Spencer, are looking to cut payroll.

Spencer wrote the following:

“According to a Major League Baseball source, Jeter and fellow owner Bruce Sherman proposed cutting the team’s 2018 payroll to around $90 million – down from last season’s franchise-record $115 million – as part of the operating plan they submitted to league owners during the approval process.”

If the Fish look to offload some of the team’s more substantial contracts, Detroit could look to extract a prospect or two in return for absorbing the deals.

New-found payroll flexibility

The Tigers probably shouldn’t take on any serious cash contract-wise.

However, with salary commitments to Justin Upton, J.D. Martinez, Alex Avila, Justin Wilson and Justin Verlander completely or mostly off the team’s hands, Detroit has some financial flexibility.

What’s more, the franchise will see past financial commitments to Mike Pelfrey, Mark Lowe and Francisco Rodriguez come off the books after the World Series.

Here’s a look at some trade ideas involving the Detroit Tigers and Miami Marlins.

Bolstering the pitching staff

Right off the bat, Miami is in a rough situation with most of the team’s hefty contracts.

Starting pitchers Wei-Yen Chen and Edinson Volquez are both far from locks to pitch in 2018 due to injury.

Because of that, the team may obviously find it hard to move the duo.

There’s also Stanton’s monstrosity of a contract that, per Spotrac, comes with a full no-trade clause and could run through 2028 if all of the options are exercised.

Additionally, Miami doesn’t have the deepest farm system known to mankind.

This would conceivably make it difficult to package a high-end prospect with a bloated contract in order to get the salary off the books.

Still, the team does have some conceivable trade chips that could be useful to the Detroit Tigers.

Brad Ziegler

The most prominent among them are relievers Brad Ziegler and Junichi Tazawa.

Both were signed from Boston last offseason and things didn’t exactly go swimmingly for the ex-Red Sox.

Ziegler had the worst, and arguably first, down season of his career in 2017.

The fact that the reliever is just now turning in a struggling season says a lot about his successful career. However that doesn’t take away from the ineffectiveness.

A side-arm hurler, Ziegler struck out just 4.98 batters per nine innings while surrendering 3.06 free passes per nine frames.

He also had a career-high 1.55 WHIP and a career-low 12.3 strikeout percentage in 47 innings.

Still, some of the issues with base runners can be somewhat attributed to a sky-high .346 BABIP.

Ziegler will enter 2018 on an expiring contract, according to Spotrac, making $9 million.

Fellow reliever Tazawa will also be pitching on an expiring deal, with his salary (according to Spotrac), checking in at $7 million.

While Ziegler’s struggles were in part due to the BABIP, Tazawa was a different story entirely.

The pitcher turned in a 5.69 ERA, a 5.30 xFIP, a 4.96 FIP and a 4.94 SIERA in 55.1 frames despite a seemingly-low BABIP of .280.

The (hypothetical) trade

This is all hypothetical mind you, but one conceivable trade could see Detroit acquire the two relievers for utility man Andrew Romine and a reliever already on the Tigers’ 40-man roster like Kyle Ryan.

Romine, according to Spotrac, is also set to hit free agency next winter, so Detroit might as well get something of value for him.

MLBTradeRumors projects the arbitration-eligible veteran to earn $1.9 million next season.

Meanwhile, Ryan wasn’t recalled to the Majors after a spell of early struggles.

The reliever allowed nine hits, seven walks and five runs in 5.2 Major League frames.

Moving the southpaw opens up more opportunities for fellow lefty Jairo Labourt in the bullpen.

Considering Miami doesn’t have the prospect capital to make the deal worth the Detroit Tigers while, the Marlins could use pitcher Adam Conley as a deal sweetener.

Overall, that would be Ziegler and Conley for Romine and Kyle Ryan.

Adam Conley

Conley also had a down year in 2017. He posted a -0.1 fWAR, a 6.14 ERA and a 5.62 FIP in 102.2 innings pitched.

The struggles were partly due to a drop in strikeouts from 8.37 punch outs per nine frames in 2016 down to 6.31 in 2017.

Conley also saw a spike in home runs allowed. The starter’s home runs allowed per nine inning rate jumped from 0.88 in 2016 to 1.67 this past season.

Still, if Conley can rebound, he could be an extremely valuable rotation piece.

Controllable through 2021, per Spotrac, and not even arbitration eligible until after next season, the Washington State product pitched to a 3.82 ERA, a 4.07 FIP and 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings in 200.1 innings from 2015 to 2016.

Looking to the future

Just 27, he could be a long-term rotation staple alongside Michael Fulmer.

Meanwhile, in regards to Ziegler, the Detroit Tigers could utilize him as setup options for Shane Greene in hopes of rebuilding his trade value.

A return to form for Ziegler would be particularly encouraging. After serving as Arizona’s closer for the first half of 2016, the veteran was flipped to Boston at the trade deadline for two prospects.

Ideally, at least in this hypothetical scenario, Detroit would only pay part of Ziegler salary as the hurler would be traded half way through the season.

The Detroit Tigers (hypothetical) trade return

In exchange, Detroit would nab a controllable reliever with swing-and-miss stuff in Barraclough. The Tigers would also acquire the second-overall pick in the 2014 draft in Kolek.

Just 27 and controllable through 2021 (per Spotrac) Barraclough will be eligible for arbitration for the first time following the 2018 campaign.

The reliever wasn’t as dominant in 2017 (4.14 SIERA, 10.36 strikeouts per nine innings, 11.9 swinging strike percentage in 66 frames) as he was in 2016.

Just a season ago, the ex-St. Louis farm hand pitched to a 3.06 SIERA, 14.00 strikeouts per nine innings and a 13.8 swinging strike percentage.

However, he was a valuable late-inning arm nonetheless.

Bullpen potential

Long term, he’d form an imposing, late-game bullpen troika with Shane Greene and Joe Jimenez.

Rounding out the deal would be Kolek. In this situation, he’d purely be a lottery ticket in the sense that he’s been limited to just 3.2 innings over the past two seasons due to Tommy John surgery.

Yet to pitch above Single-A, Kolek still has time on his side at 21.

Now back on the mound, he’s still got plenty of potential moving forward.

Miami doesn’t exactly have a deep farm system, so parting with Kolek wouldn’t be easy.

That being said, the franchise started to take steps in restocking their farm system with mid-season trades of A.J. Ramos and David Phelps.

Next: So yeah, the Tigers RF defense wasn't the best in 2017. Will it improve next season?

If the likes of Stanton, Yelich, Gordon and Marcell Ozuna are also moved, the Marlins could have a number of premium prospects on hand, making the hypothetical loss of Kolek a little easier to deal with.