Ridiculous trade proposal has Tigers trading Jason Foley away for peanuts

We've seen some bad trade proposals over the years, but holy heck, this one might take the cake. The Tigers are going to have to make some trades this offseason if they want to make some upgrades to the roster. Trading from the bullpen is not at all out of the realm of possibility. We saw them do it twice last offseason when they traded both Joe Jimenez and Gregory Soto.

The Tigers got two young position players for Soto, and a solid hitting prospect for Joe Jimenez. They didn't get an arm and a leg, but at least they didn't get a bag of chips in return.

This trade proposal we're about to talk about, though? Oh boy. It's a doozy.

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report recently wrote an article where he predicted one offseason trade for every MLB team. He has the Tigers and Phillies coming together on a trade for the second straight offseason.

He has Jason Foley going to the Phillies. Again, this is not at all out of the realm of possibility. The Tigers could very well move Foley this offseason. The Phillies could be a match again, as their bullpen has had its fair share of struggles during the playoffs.

So this is a trade that could feasibly occur. But man, this return...is just not it.

Reuter had pitching prospect Griff McGarry going to the Tigers in this trade. He's ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Phillies system according to MLB Pipeline. Across three levels of the minors this past year, he had an ERA of 6. He got a ton of strikeouts, but walked 50 batters in just 60 innings pitched. The epitome of a boom-or-bust prospect.

Here's why this wouldn't be a good return for Detroit. For starters, Foley was one of the best non-closer relief pitchers in the league a year ago. He's not a huge strikeout guy, but that bowling ball sinker of his is all but guarenteed to induce a ground ball. He hardly ever walks a batter, and misses barrels with regularity. He's really good.

The other thing is that Foley still has four more years of team control left. He's not even arbitration eligible yet. For a reliever as good as Foley, with as much team control he has left, the Tigers would need a lot more than a boom-or-bust pitching prospect to even consider moving him.

I don't think the Tigers would move him for prospects anyway. They'd likely look to get at least one MLB-ready player in return. I don't think even think they'll move him at all. But quite frankly, this would be a horrendous return for the Tigers.

We mean no disrespect to Reuter, but there's no chance the Tigers would do his proposed trade.