Tigers Rumors: Injury to Marlins pitcher could help Detroit's trade deadline efforts

Although the Tigers took two of three against the White Sox over the weekend and both the lineup and rotation showed some great signs of life, Detroit still seems to be heading toward a sale at the trade deadline. It's still unlikely that they'll send away marquee players like Tarik Skubal and Riley Greene. However, Mark Canha, Gio Urshela, Carson Kelly, and especially Jack Flaherty seem to be on the Tigers' list of players to shop.

Flaherty will undoubtedly be the headliner; his great bounce back year continued into his most recent start in Game 1 against the White Sox, when he pitched 5 2/3 innings and only gave up one run — a solo homer to Tommy Pham in the fifth, which wasn't enough to mount a win for Chicago.

Despite a brief back issue that invited some fear about his value at the deadline, he only ended up missing one outing because of it and is still carrying a 1.96 ERA over 41 1/3 innings in his last seven starts.

Another pitcher who's been projected to be a hot commodity on the trade market is the Marlins' Jesús Luzardo, who is dealing with injuries of his own and hasn't been so lucky as Flaherty. He was placed on Miami's 15-day IL on Saturday with a lumbar stress reaction before being transferred to the 60-day just a day later.

It's bad news for Luzardo and the Marlins, but it could send Flaherty's trade value skyrocketing.

Could Marlins' Jesús Luzardo's injury help the Tigers get more in a trade for Jack Flaherty?

Flaherty coming back with a vengeance after a bad 2023 split between St. Louis and Baltimore (where he was kicked to the bullpen and still didn't look good) is the best thing that could've happened to the Tigers, who only signed him to a one-year contract anyway.

While Flaherty's eligibility to receive a qualifying offer at the end of the season could complicate things (subscription required) and potentially incentivize the Tigers to keep him until the end of the season, it feels more likely than not that they'll trade him for a couple of powerful bats and try to make a push for, at least, a winning season even if the postseason is out of the question.

Flaherty is definitely up there with Luzardo and Angels starter Tyler Anderson in terms of demand, and starter-deficient teams are almost guaranteed to run straight to the Tigers following the news of Luzardo's injury.