Tigers: 4 trade deadline mistakes Scott Harris must avoid at all costs

4. Don't be afraid to make a hybrid deal

You may be asking, what is a hybrid deal? It's actually quite simple. A hybrid deal isn't one where a team is simply full-on buying or selling, but rather they could be doing both in one deal.

The Tigers don't necessarily have to acquire prospects in return in a trade. The Gregory Soto trade is, once again, a perfect example. They acquired two young, controllable players in Matt Vierling and Nick Maton in that deal. Vierling has been okay and Maton has been pretty bad, so hopefully Harris can get some better quality in an E-rod or Lorenzen trade.

Or, the Tigers could trade someone with control — such as one of their young starting pitchers — for a young, controllable bat. We're willing to bet that's something Avila never even thought about doing.

Instead of getting players that can help the Tigers in the future, Harris can get players that can help the team now. Really, the only time Avila did something like was when he acquired Travis Demeritte as part of the Shane Greene trade, and he played for the Tigers right away.

We've said it a bunch already, but Scott Harris has to get creative. Simply making a trade just to make a trade, or trading a guy just because he's going to be a free agent at the end of the year isn't good enough. If he's as savvy as people say he is, we'll see some interesting deals over the next couple of days.