Could the Rockies deliver CarGo to Detroit?
As the Tigers look forward to the trade deadline, I often find myself thinking about potential trades they could make. I’ll admit, some of them are more far fetched than others, but some seem to be pretty realistic. So I present to you a trade the Tigers should consider making, even though there’s a very minimal chance that it will actually happen.
There’s no denying that the Tigers are lacking offensive production from their corner outfielders, so it would make sense to trade for one, especially if he happens to be on one of the worst teams in baseball, right?
Entering today, the Colorado Rockies are sitting at 28-44, in a tight race with the San Diego Padres for the worst record in the NL West. If that doesn’t make them sellers at the trade deadline, I’m not sure what it would take.
They have a star player in Carlos Gonzalez, who would certainly attract plenty of teams come the middle or end of July. Any deal for Gonzalez would likely include a slew of prospects, as well as a couple major-league ready players. The Tigers have just enough depth to do just that.
I propose offering our best pitching prospect, Jacob Turner, along with outfield Brennan Boesch and relief pitcher Luis Marte. If that’s still not enough, I’d even be willing to add Quintin Berry to sweeten the deal.
I’m not necessarily sure that the Rockies will even consider trading Gonzalez, who is due only 71 million dollars over the next five seasons. I say only 71 million dollars, because if he continues at his current pace, he’ll likely have a true market value that is high above that.
Sure, there’s some reason for concern. When you look at the numbers, Gonzalez has always done significantly better at home than on the road. Is this just a coincidence? Coors Field has always been considered a hitter-friendly ballpark, so I don’t think it’s completely worth dismissing.
From 2009-2011, Gonzalez has a line of .347/.404/.653 at home, compared to .271/.325/.452 during road games. That certainly should cause some alarms to go off, but I don’t think that should prevent you from wanting him on your team.
Again, I don’t think there’s any sort of realistic chance that the Tigers would make this move, and there hasn’t been any reports that the Rockies are willing to even trade Gonzalez. But if they are, the Tigers should definitely consider giving them a call.
Brad Jeffers
This trade offer is funny. CarGo is under team control and there is no way they move him, as you stated and they could get a package 3 times better than this if they did. Love the dreaming though, that would be amazing.
I don’t think it’s a terrible trade offer by any means, at least from Detroit’s perspective. I find it hard to believe that the Tigers would be willing to trade any more than basically what I mentioned, and that’s about the extent of what I’d be willing to offer. I do think CarGo is slightly overrated, so I don’t think Colorado will get as much as a lot of people might otherwise think. Personally, I don’t think they’ll even offer CarGo, so it’s pretty much a moot point. It’s just fun to hear who everyone thinks we should trade for, as well as trying to predict what other teams would want in return.
I would definite go for that trade you mentioned, but why on earth would anybody want Boesch? He can hardly hit his weight and is a poor defender to boot. I think it would take quite a bit more than you mentioned to get him, but we should still look into it.
There’s still a lot of upside and curiosity with Boesch, so I think a lot of teams would be willing to include him in a package. Realistically, the Tigers are going to have to give up quite a bit to make a move for CarGo, such as giving up Turner, Castellanos, Garcia, Brantley and still maybe someone else.
If you really want to have fun, and think outside of the box, the Tigers could look to move Cabrera. I’m not saying I’m an advocate of this, but if we package Cabrera, we could keep Castellanos and still get a lot back in return. I’m not saying I’d do this, but it’s a fun hypothetical.
We’re not too far off from where we need to be, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. It should be a very interesting trade deadline and offseason for the Tigers.