3 Detroit Tigers prospects who should be traded and 2 who should not

The Detroit Tigers should trade Wilmer Flores

Considering all of the injuries that the Tigers have suffered in their rotation, it is fair to question why Detroit should consider trading away a starting pitching prospect with the stuff that Wilmer Flores has shown at Double-A. Flores possesses a mid-90's fastball that can touch the upper 90's, a plus curveball, a cutter that is his weapon of choice against lefty hitters, and a changeup that isn't particularly great. Normally, this is the kind of guy to keep around if you think a team is going to be contending soon.

However, the types of guys that the Tigers should be targeting at the trade deadline are either cheap rentals or guys that have some team control. For the latter group, prospects of real value need to be given up and Flores is one of our choices there. The Tigers have a lot of young pitchers either returning from the IL or are a little further away in the minors and Flores' lack of a changeup means that there is a decent chance that he ends up having to get shifted to the bullpen. His numbers have been reasonable at Double-A, but he is not dominating by any stretch. Making Wilmer available gives the Tigers a real trade chip to play with without mortgaging their future too much.

Detroit should absolutely not trade Jace Jung

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Jace Jung who the Tigers selected in the first round of the 2022 draft. Coming into the draft, Jung was hailed as an advanced college bat that could hit for average and power from the left side. Jung doesn't provide much value with his legs or his defense, but the guy should flat out hit as a professional.

The problem with using Jung as a trade chip this year has a couple of dimensions. First, he is only at high-A and guys who are in the lower levels of the minor leagues just have a lower value on the trade market. Moreover, Jung has yet to really figure things out as a pro as he is only hitting .245 at the moment with an .820 OPS in high-A. Given how highly Detroit drafted him and the value associated with that pick, trading Jung now wouldn't be getting great value back at the moment. Our guess is that the Tigers still like Jung in the long-term, so hanging on to him so that he can reach his full value (either with the big league squad or in a trade after he develops some more) makes more sense than trading him now.