As trade speculation continues to be at an all-time high for the Detroit Tigers, it seems like just about every player on the team has been made available, including former American League MVP Justin Verlander.
According to Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News and 97.1 The Ticket, there is only one destination that makes sense for Verlander.
The conventional theory is, Verlander is too expensive to be traded, yet too legendary to be sold cheap. My theory is, it takes a legendary franchise to do the deal, and the one that makes perfect sense is the Yankees.
It’s about time for the Bombers to return to their historic nature and dive in, and they appear increasingly inclined to do so. And it’s about time the Tigers benefited from it. This is the trade GM Al Avila needs to pull off to officially close this era of Tigers baseball and launch a sensible rebuild.
There is no question about it that Verlander still has some gas in the tank and is more than capable of dominating a game. His fastball velocity is identical to what he had in 2011 when he won 24 games on way to Cy Young and MVP awards. Unfortunately, Verlander’s control has been off this season. In fact, he has walked 55 batters in 117 innings this season compared to 57 walks in 227.2 innings last season.
But Verlander has also shown flashes of brilliance as he has given up two earned runs or less in 10 of his 20 starts this season. Because of those moments, you can be sure he is on the radar of teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Astros.
The main thing preventing the Tigers from easily dealing Verlander is his contract. He is owed roughly $12 million for the remainder of this season and then $56 million over the next two seasons. For the Tigers to reach an agreement, even with a team like the Yankees who always seem willing to spend, they will have to eat some of JV’s remaining money owed.
Only time will tell if the Tigers will deal Verlander before the trade deadline but you can be sure the talks will continue right up until the final minute if need be.
To read the remainder of Bob Wojnowski’s article, please CLICK HERE.
Bob Wojodumski should be flipping burgers at McDonalds,
None of the mlive, freep, or detnews Tigers beat writers/reporters have the balls to call out
‘in over his head’ Al Avila and Chris Ilitch that this is nothing but salary dumps of any contracts
including HOF bound players who should retire as Tigers. Instead they are all licking Avila’s sack
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