Well, it’s official. It’s the end of baseball relevance in Detroit for a while.
Well, it’s official. It’s the end of baseball relevance in Detroit for a while.
The Detroit Tigers made it so when they shipped off their best hitter, J.D. Martinez, to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a Double-A infielder prospect in Dawel Lugo and a couple of lottery tickets.
If you can set aside what general manager Al Avila got in return for a moment — it doesn’t look like much — this should feel a lot like relief. Because it’s over.
Finally.
No more $150 million contracts. No more signing back-edge-of-their-prime stars. No more chatter in February about possible parades. No talk of hanging around one more year when too much has to go right.
It’s done.
And should have been done two years ago.
Except that Mike Ilitch owned the team, and he was willing to spend whatever he could to win a ring.
As long-term team building goes, it wasn’t always the best strategy. But he had the pockets. And that ethos is why this franchise contended for as long as it did.
We’re seeing the downside to all that spending now, a bloated, aging club fighting injury and time. Martinez, of course, is just the beginning.
Next up could be Justin Verlander, or closer Justin Wilson, or just about anyone else in the clubhouse, including starting pitcher Michael Fulmer.
Avila said this week that the chances of moving Fulmer are “probably zero.” Yet he also said he’d listen if the right offer were there.
He should. As he said, swapping one Michael Fulmer for two Michael Fulmers is a great way to reboot. The trick is identifying a Michael Fulmer sort of prospect.
Lugo is not. Nor are Sergio Alcantara and Jose King. They are toss-ins from this trade to throw into the farm system and see if you get lucky.
To be fair, Lugo could be a major league player some day. He is the prospect Avila wanted. Obviously, he thinks Lugo has a chance.
And if he doesn’t?
The Tigers don’t lose much.
Martinez was probably going to leave anyway. He’s set to be a free agent this winter, and the Tigers would’ve had to spend $120 million-plus to re-sign him.
That didn’t make sense. It will for a contending team. Or at least a team that thinks it’s a J.D. Martinez away from contention.
Essentially, Martinez is now a three-month rental player for the Diamondbacks. If they make the postseason, good for them. If not, they’ve given up their No. 4 prospect and a couple of guys who might never make the big leagues.
Now, it’s easy to say that the Tigers should’ve gotten more for Martinez. If he had a year and this season left on his contract, they would have.
But Avila was shopping a hitter with a short shelf-life. Not exactly the kind of leverage to pry away a bevy of top prospects.
Still, Lugo needs to become some kind of contributor for this to be a success. We won’t know that for a few years.
That’s OK. There is time.
To wait and see who is next to go. To watch if the additional prospects the Tigers get in return are any more promising than what they just got for Martinez. To gauge if Avila is the right general manager for the rebuild.
Again, it’s not like the assets — other than Fulmer and maybe Wilson — are golden trading chips at this point. What matters is that the process has finally — mercifully — begun.
Trading Martinez signals the end of a dynamic time in Tigers baseball. It’s all about the future. Though if Avila bungles the coming deconstruction, that phrase will get old, too.
Fast.