The winds of change will indeed be blowing through the Motor City as this year’s Major League Baseball trade deadline approaches.
With Nicholas Castellanos, Shane Greene, and coveted lefty Matthew Boyd all definitely on the block, a new report has surfaced indicating that the Philadelphia Phillies have also shown interest in another Tigers starter: Daniel Norris.
Norris’s current contract is up after this season, but he remains under team control for the next two years because of arbitration. His salary for this season is $1,275,000.
Of course, there is also word in this report that Phillies general manager Matt Klentak is also interested in Boyd and Greene. Boyd has three years of team control remaining, while Greene is under team control until after next season.
With so much term remaining on those contracts, it’s no wonder that the Tigers are asking for the moon in return for their trade bait this season. According to the report from above, one baseball executive familiar with the Tigers’ thinking said the club was looking for four young players for Boyd — “two with star potential and two more with a chance.”
The return Detroit could net from Philadelphia might include prospects such as Alec Bohm (3B), Mickey Moniak (OF), or Adam Haseley (OF). Pitching prospects in Philadelphia’s farm system include Adonis Medina, Spencer Howard, and Francisco Morales.
For the season, Boyd is 6-8 with a 4.13 ERA. He has racked up an impressive 160 strikeouts in 120 innings pitched. Norris has a much less impressive record of 2-8 this season, with an ERA of 5.02. In his 100 1/3 innings of work this year, he has punched out 82 batters while walking 26.
While Greene did blow his third save of the season last time out, his ERA of 1.25 over 36 innings still shines.
Philadelphia stands only a 1/2 game behind the Washington Nationals for the second wild-card spot in the National League. Whether or not that is enough for them to pull the trigger on what would cost them some of their big time prospects remains to be seen.
