Scott Harris' first ever trade deadline deal as Tigers boss is fueling their current surge

Longtime Tigers top prospect Hao-Yu Lee took a little while to ramp up in the majors. By the end of May, he was hitting .192 with a .527 OPS in 78 at-bats ... but basically the entire Tigers lineup was in the exact same boat. His turnaround corresponded with Detroit's AL-best June; he hit .352 with an .894 OPS that month and, toward the end, was being entrusted with more starts.

He hasn't been quite as hot in July, but he authored his first signature moment as a Tiger on Wednesday against the Cubs, with a go-ahead three-run homer in the fourth. On Thursday, he scored Detroit's winning run over the Royals on a Dillon Dingler double after getting on base with a single in the eighth.

Lee came to the Tigers in 2023, the return from Scott Harris' first ever trade deadline deal as the Tigers' president of baseball operations, which sent Michael Lorenzen to the Phillies.

The Phillies gave up their No. 5 prospect for a two months of a starter who would eventually post a 5.51 ERA in Philadelphia and now has a 6.53 ERA with the Rockies.

Maybe Harris knows what he's doing sometimes.

Looking back on Scott Harris' Hao-Yu Lee trade might reassure Tigers fans with deadline looming

There's been some skepticism as to Harris' ability to pull off a Tarik Skubal trade, should the Tigers choose to deal him. It makes sense; Harris' 2025 deadline was a disaster, and he's never had to negotiate a deal of this magnitude. He's never even really gotten close.

Lorenzen — even when he was putting together a very respectable year with the Tigers in 2023 — is not Skubal, but it is a credit to Harris that Lee ended up in a Tigers uniform and has been developed to the point of looking like a productive major league hitter.

Of course, a lot of this is luck. You could point to any number of trades that have worked out terribly for the selling team, and in the grand scheme of things, there are probably more failures than successes. But Harris' ability to get a prospect who was that highly ranked for a rental did give the Tigers the best possible odds to eventually win this trade.

There are still plenty of reasons to be apprehensive or downright opposed to a Skubal trade, but if it has to happen, we hope that Harris can channel whatever got into him in 2023 and milk every ounce of value out of the buying team.

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