Tigers make frustrating trade for reliever Braves fans can't stand as deadline nears

Scott Harris basically warned Tigers fans that they shouldn't get too excited for a huge trade deadline, so no one can claim to be surprised or underwhelmed by Detroit's first two trades of deadline season.

On Monday, Harris and the Tigers' front office made a deal with the Twins for starter Chris Paddack, who left Minnesota with a 4.95 ERA, to fill Reese Olson's spot in the rotation. Paddack did manage to pay off quickly for Detroit, when he threw six innings and only gave up one run in his team debut on Wednesday.

That kind of turnaround is definitely what the Tigers are hoping for out of their newest addition in veteran reliever Rafael Montero. The Tigers broke the news themselves on Wednesday night, which once again indicates that Harris is a fantastic mover-in-silence (or maybe no one cared enough about this particular deal to be in on the news).

Fans couldn't really blame the insiders if the latter was true. Montero has a 5.40 ERA this year between work with the Astros and Braves. The Tigers gave up Double-A infielder Jim Jarvis to Atlanta in exchange.

Tigers make a trade with the Braves for veteran reliever Rafael Montero

Montero has been a frequent source of frustration for Braves fans since the Astros traded him to Atlanta in exchange for cash and a player to be named later (which was eventually minor league pitcher Patrick Halligan). It's not hard to figure out why, as the Astros gave Montero a three-year, $34.5 million contract in 2023, and he's since logged a 5.06 ERA in 144 innings.

One of the Tigers' identified needs has been a reliever with swing-and-miss, a role which Montero technically (kind of) fulfills. He still has nice chase and whiff rates and a decent 9.16 K/9, but he also has a pretty ugly 5.40 BB/9.

When Tigers fans said we wanted swing-and-miss, we meant David Bednar or Jhoan Duran or Ryan Helsley. Two of those names have already come off the board, and it would be surprising if the Tigers were in on them at all. Bednar is still floating around out there, but it seems likely that Harris would balk at whatever the Pirates are asking for him after all of the massive overpays we've seen for good relievers.

This trade is nothing more than filler for the bullpen ... we hope. Because with the way that unit's been performing lately, Montero being featured as one of the main deadline acquisitions feels like it'd be throwing gasoline on a raging fire.