Detroit Tigers should make this trade with the St. Louis Cardinals

Ryan Sherriff

Entering the 2017 season, left-handed relievers in the bullpen seemed to be an area of strength for the Detroit Tigers.

Justin Wilson was the bullpen’s top southpaw, while also moonlighting as Francisco Rodriguez’ primary setup man.

After Wilson, Detroit had a surprisingly long-ish list of options with Kyle Ryan and Blaine Hardy coming off encouraging seasons and Chad Bell and Daniel Stumpf likely to enter the picture at some point.

Then the actual 2017 season happened, and well… the situation is plenty different on the other side of things.

Wilson was dealt to Chicago on July 31, while the other three imploded in the Majors.

The phrase “hemorrhaging runs” comes to mind regarding Ryan, Hardy and Bell, who struggled mightily at times in 2017.

Left-handed relievers needed

Now, Detroit enters 2018 with Stumpf as the only southpaw likely assured of a place in the bullpen heading into Spring Training.

Ideally, Jairo Labourt, with his promising fastball-slider one-two punch, can establish himself in the Majors in 2018.

However, the Tigers will likely need some more left-handed options to help ease Labourt into high-leverage situations.

One fit could be Sherriff.

The 27-year-old made his Major League debut in 2017, working to a 3.14 ERA, a 3.93 FIP, a 3.35 xFIP and a 2.97 SIERA in a modest 14.1 innings. He also struck out 15 and turned in a 1.186 WHIP.

Despite just recently debuting with the Cardinals, the southpaw has a strong track record at the minors’ highest level.

He owns a 3.05 ERA, 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings and a 1.207 WHIP in 129.2 innings for Triple-A Memphis in parts of the last four seasons.

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He wouldn’t be the solution in the Detroit Tigers bullpen, but he could certainly help turn things around for the future.