2026 Trade deadline

[Edman85]

5 hours ago, 1984Echoes said:

I don't know where they get Jackson Wolf is one of the two of their best pitching prospects (Padres); but maybe they also think he can be fixed?

Link: MLB trade deadline grades for all 30 teams: Dodgers, Tigers, Red Sox earn high marks - The Athletic

Summary: 

"Analysis: The Tigers did what they needed to do, which was to trade their two best starting pitchers (Skubal and Mize) knowing they were likely to lose them in free agency with minimal draft pick compensation in return. They did the best they could with the return.

I thought they got back exactly what they should have for both starters. From the return in the Skubal deal, I think Hope has a chance to be a 25 HR/25 SB player with All-Star potential and will fit in nicely with their young nucleus. Once healthy, Ryan can slide right into their rotation.

For Mize, they got two of the Padres’ best starting pitching prospects, which was also a solid return. The Tigers should be competitive next season and put themselves in a strong position for the long-term."

 

Bowden calling Wolf a top prospect tells you all you need to know about Bowden.

[chasfh]

18 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It still seems odd to me that there would just be one discussion concerning their best player.  I am surprised he even said that publicly.  

If Harris approaches Boras about an extension for Skubal, and is told by Boras in no uncertain terms that he prefers to take Skubal to free agency—which we all know is consistent with Boras's philosophy—then how many more conversations do they need to have about extending Skubal?

[chasfh]

18 hours ago, oblong said:

I believe Harris. Maybe “once” is doing a lot of work in that it refers to a specific formal meeting vs any kind of casual talk in case they run into each other. I doubt Harris or Ilitch ever mentioned it to Skubal directly. That’s a breach of protocol. All indications were that Skubal is going to be a FA. I don’t think the Dodgers will sign him early.  He will enter a competitive market. 

I was wondering about this, this morning. Seeing that so many players have signed extensions, perhaps to take advantage of the current CBA rather than take their chances under the uncertainty of a new and possibly vastly different CBA, do the Dodgers and Skubal agree to an extension before December 1?

[chasfh]

18 hours ago, lordstanley said:

I once made a spur-of-the-moment decision in 1990 in an 8th floor hostel of Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong that has impacted my life every day since. 

The spur-of-the-moment decisions we all have made throughout our entire lives makes up the sum total of what we all are today. There's a really good book about this.

[chasfh]

8 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I am not saying that making the trades was the wrong thing to do.  What I mean is if they were having a winning season, they would not have made the trades.  They would have kept them and tried to win this year.  Teams that sell at the deadline are losers by deinition.  

I agree with your thinking, although I would love to see the Tigers turn this statement upside down by selling off Skubal and Mize, then still going to the playoffs, then to the World Series, and winning a ring. This is still a possibility, and it's not merely non-zero.

[chasfh]

8 hours ago, LongLiveMaroth said:

I mean, he didn't talk to Skubal, he talked to Boras who was going to take it to FA because that is who he is. Skubal is also big in the labor portion of things so he is of course going to push for the most because that's what the labor union would want. 

Exactly. Skubal has a fiduciary responsibility to his union brotherhood to lift all their boats by extracting the greatest payout possibility from ownership and management. 

[chasfh]

8 hours ago, Tigermojo said:

Having McGonigle and Clark signed would be a huge win.

I wonder how tricky the money and years part would be in trying to layer a Clark extension on top on the McGonigle extension? Would it also have to be eight years, and the money within a couple of points of Kevin's? Or could the money/years be substantially different in either direction? It's not nothing—big league ballplayers are accomplished human beings with strong egos, so the front office might they have to take into consideration what effect it might have on the ground. My guess is that the Clark camp would demur if Harris called about it today.

[Shelton]

16 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I was wondering about this, this morning. Seeing that so many players have signed extensions, perhaps to take advantage of the current CBA rather than take their chances under the uncertainty of a new and possibly vastly different CBA, do the Dodgers and Skubal agree to an extension before December 1?

I think technically Skubal will become a free agent a few days after the World Series ends. So it would not exactly be an extension in that case (unless he were signed shortly after the dodgers lose to the tigers in game 7).

But I do think that teams interested in signing Skubal for big money will be motivated to get it done before December 1.

[chasfh]

7 hours ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Harris took a lot of blame in his press conference. I don't blame him for his players not executing..... This bullpen should be a lot closer to middle of the pack. Not 29th out of 30.... That's on the players. Good guy for taking the fall on the sword but this isn't on him.... I blame Valdez for not living up to his contract and our BP for sucking this year. Harris because he sold off, did what was right for the organization. I give him an A right now for the job he's done the last two years for sure. 

For the reasons you imply here, I did wonder whether Harris's blame-taking was more performative than sincere. After all, it's a bad look for an executive to publicly say "I don't think that we played well enough" and then fail to add that it was his fault for that happening, essentially throwing the players under the bus—but we all can see that it was the players who lost on the field every day for a whole month, not Scott Harris.

[chasfh]

6 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

I think Harris was quite humble and my impression of him only increased with his comments. I was and remain happy he is at the helm. He has a process and seems consistent and willing to learn. Trading Skubal on Friday was perfectly ok I don't understand the criticism for not waiting longer. He did that with Erod and got burned so he adjusted which is good. He also avoided the "take it or leave it" offer pressure with the clock running down. 

 

 

I still believe the Eduardo thing was not Harris's fault—and not interested in re-litigating it here—but I also agree with you about lesson learned.

[chasfh]

6 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

yeah  - Finnegan, JV, and Jansen were OOZ swings.

If there is one place to ding Harris, it's for not applying the resource spent on those three more effectively. For that kind of cash he could have done better.

Finnegan was very good last year and when he was resigned on December 20 it was almost unanimously praised here. Go ahead and rake Harris in August for signing him when almost no one did so in December, but that would be 20-20 hindsight.

Jansen has not been his best self—what 38-year-old in baseball is?—but it's not like he's shat the bed literally every time out. He's been up at times and he's been down, and lately he's been up: last ten appearances, sub-1 ERA, sub-3 xERA and FIP in 9-1/3 innings. He's even logged four saves with zero blown. So let's be fair on that one. It's possible he could produce well for us down the stretch. Wait and see.

JV was an Ilitch sign, not a Harris sign. Ilitch wants ensure JV is wearing a Tigers hat on his plaque, and $15 million was a small price for him to pay to ensure that.

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I’m the opposite.  Really like the Skubal trade, but indifferent about the Mize deal.  Would have felt better if Mayfield had been a top 100 ranked prospect.  Did we just trade one of the best pitchers in the AL for Ben Jacobs?  His stats this season seem OK, but nothing to get excited about. I’ll trust the evaluators, though.

We are lucky, I believe, that we got a pitching prospect as good as we did in exchange for a guy who's been on the list twice already this year, in April and June, and came thisclose to going on it a third time in July. I would place the odds of Mize making it to the end of the season hitting all of his marks as being less than 50%.

[gehringer_2]

8 minutes ago, chasfh said:

and $15 million was a small price for him to pay to ensure that.

LOL - you're pretty free with that $15 large considering that that $15M might have been spent on the reliever that was the difference in this season.

And if no 38 yr old is his best self - why pay one best money? That's just a predictable fail. Harris's usual hard-headedness was missing there - he let hope get the best of him.😉

Harris ain't perfect, nobody is. He could have done better by the bullpen - I doubt he'd deny that.

Edited August 4 by gehringer_2

[NorthWoods]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - you're pretty free with that $15 large considering that that $15M might have been spent

Damn  I'm old.   "$15 Large" used to be $15,000, I can't keep up any more.

[oblong]

40 minutes ago, chasfh said:

The spur-of-the-moment decisions we all have made throughout our entire lives makes up the sum total of what we all are today. There's a really good book about this.

I can trace my life today in a few random ways. As a kid I had a paper route.  My dad loved our paper boy. He lived down the street but we weren’t friends. Just a different group. Eventually we ran into each other and just started talking about our routes. Then we became best friends. This is like age 13-14. 
 

fast forward to high school. He got a job at KFC.  A few months later after baseball season wrapped I got one there too. I needed spending money after my savings dried up.  It was a hangout. We would go up there at closing and meet up with our friends that also worked, take the leftovers and cruise telegraph. One Sunday he said “hey let’s go up there”. I hesitated.  Then he said “Eve might be working. You can give her a ride home”. So I went. Eve already left.  But another girl I had seen there visiting another working was. So we all hung out and here we are 36 years later.   Had I not gotten a paper route?  My wife only knew my co worker from a trip to Daytona in spring break thru mutual friends. What if she didn’t go?   What if Eve had not been put on the schedule that day, would I have gone back up there?

[chasfh]

35 minutes ago, Shelton said:

I think technically Skubal will become a free agent a few days after the World Series ends. So it would not exactly be an extension in that case (unless he were signed shortly after the dodgers lose to the tigers in game 7).

But I do think that teams interested in signing Skubal for big money will be motivated to get it done before December 1.

So do I, although it would also not floor me to see the Dodgers extend Skubal even before the season is over, provided Skubal performs in Skubal-like fashion.

[Nate7474]

2 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - you're pretty free with that $15 large considering that that $15M might have been spent on the reliever that was the difference in this season.

And if no 38 yr old is his best self - why pay one best money? That's just a predictable fail.

I think it’s fair for him to say that since didn't I read 13 million of that is deferred to the future so he’s really not paying him 2 mil this year? That reads exactly like I want to bring the fans in to see the last currently known Tigers HOF. Frankly if Verlander pitched all year the ROI would’ve probably been pretty good money spent in just tickets sales and merchandise. 

[chasfh]

1 minute ago, oblong said:

I can trace my life today in a few random ways. As a kid I had a paper route.  My dad loved our paper boy. He lived down the street but we weren’t friends. Just a different group. Eventually we ran into each other and just started talking about our routes. Then we became best friends. This is like age 13-14. 
 

fast forward to high school. He got a job at KFC.  A few months later after baseball season wrapped I got one there too. I needed spending money after my savings dried up.  It was a hangout. We would go up there at closing and meet up with our friends that also worked, take the leftovers and cruise telegraph. One Sunday he said “hey let’s go up there”. I hesitated.  Then he said “Eve might be working. You can give her a ride home”. So I went. Eve already left.  But another girl I had seen there visiting another working was. So we all hung out and here we are 36 years later.   Had I not gotten a paper route?  My wife only knew my co worker from a trip to Daytona in spring break thru mutual friends. What if she didn’t go?   What if Eve had not been put on the schedule that day, would I have gone back up there?

Almost my entire circle of friends in Chicago today, I can trace to a waitress at a bar I dated for a few months in 1997. She's gone. They're still around.

[chasfh]

6 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - you're pretty free with that $15 large considering that that $15M might have been spent on the reliever that was the difference in this season.

And if no 38 yr old is his best self - why pay one best money? That's just a predictable fail.

Harris ain't perfect, nobody is. He could have done better by the bullpen - I doubt he'd deny that.

Why are you blaming me for JV? That was pure Baby Doc. 😉

And you're right: pobody's nerfect.

Besides, Jansen is an old soul with a ring and ten seasons of playoff experience, more than anyone else on the team by a mile—so maybe there's more to it all then just his up-and-down performance.

[TigerNation]

44 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I wonder how tricky the money and years part would be in trying to layer a Clark extension on top on the McGonigle extension? Would it also have to be eight years, and the money within a couple of points of Kevin's? Or could the money/years be substantially different in either direction? It's not nothing—big league ballplayers are accomplished human beings with strong egos, so the front office might they have to take into consideration what effect it might have on the ground. My guess is that the Clark camp would demur if Harris called about it today.

Its pretty standard for top prospects to sign big league extensions these days, I doubt Clarks camp would not engage in those talks. His extension would be less than McGonigles, assuming the same number of years, and that wouldn't be an issue. Clark is well aware that McGonigle is a better player than him. A contract less than McGonigle, but more than Weatherholts would not be an issue.

[SoCalTiger]

54 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I still believe the Eduardo thing was not Harris's fault—and not interested in re-litigating it here—but I also agree with you about lesson learned.

I agree with you 100%. Erod and his agent both reneged on their word and it affected both Harris and the Dodgers. But Harris did learn that "**** happens" and waiting to the last minute can backfire.

[casimir]

Funny that Eduardo Rodriguez was brought up.  Or maybe just timely.  Eddys Leonard, who would have been a part of that Rodriguez trade and ended up being traded for anyway, was just promoted by the Giants.  He will be making his MLB debut

[Tenacious D]

6 hours ago, chasfh said:

Finnegan was very good last year and when he was resigned on December 20 it was almost unanimously praised here. Go ahead and rake Harris in August for signing him when almost no one did so in December, but that would be 20-20 .

I think you’re a bit wrong about Finnegan—he was very good when he first arrived—it seemed like the Tigers were unable to unlock something and he was able to K guys.  He got hurt and was out for a bit and was not the same pitcher when he came back.

[papalawrence]

Someone here mentioned the Dodgers are getting a bit long in the tooth. I was just looking at that. With their pitching obviously they'll be in games for the next few years. But on the offense side I can see fair drop-off coming soon. And with 1.1 billion salary deferred and current payroll now north of 400 million, there could be some issues as soon as next year. And I'm not sure they'll keep piling on salary. Of course the CBA will impact this. They're miles better than other teams. But one can hope they eventually suffer.

[Sports_Freak]

5 hours ago, papalawrence said:

Someone here mentioned the Dodgers are getting a bit long in the tooth. I was just looking at that. With their pitching obviously they'll be in games for the next few years. But on the offense side I can see fair drop-off coming soon. And with 1.1 billion salary deferred and current payroll now north of 400 million, there could be some issues as soon as next year. And I'm not sure they'll keep piling on salary. Of course the CBA will impact this. They're miles better than other teams. But one can hope they eventually suffer.

But they're about to win a 3rd straight WS. Possibly. And yes, they may go thru several lean years. But it's worth it, winning championships.