MLB Trade Rumors: Should Tigers trade Yeonis Cespedes?

The Detroit Tigers could be big players at the MLB Trade Deadline, but it might not be as the buyers they were last year.

With the MLB trade deadline quickly approaching, the Detroit Tigers are looking at what they need to do in order to get back into the thick of the AL Central race. The Royals are atop the division at the moment with the Twins less than five-games behind.

Currently, Detroit sits almost ten games back in the AL Central and are almost four games out of the last Wild Card spot, owned now by the Houston Astros. There are rumors that Houston could bolster it’s pitching staff by trading for Johnny Cueto, and the Tigers are looking at trades too — as sellers.

Detroit badly needs depth on their pitching staff and in their bullpen, which is why they could entertain the idea of training away Yoenis Cespedes this month.

As MLB scribe Steve Adams points out, the Tigers could acquire some much needed back-end rotation pitching if they move a player they’re not going to get a draft pick for this winter.

"I think they should move Cespedes either way and aim to get a No. 4 type starter with some control remaining — someone that can step into the MLB roster. Doing so might not even hurt the overall team all that much, and they need MLB-ready pitching depth in a bad way. I"

Adams goes on to point to the Minnesota Twins basically trading Sam Fuld back to the Oakland A’s for MLB-ready pitching in Tommy Milone. Detroit won’t hit a home run and acquire a Cy Young candidate for Cespedes, but they can weigh the value of Oakland trading the outfielder to Boston for Jon Lester last year as something to come to the table with.

The perk in trading Cespedes is that the Tigers not only need starting pitching depth but they need to find a way out from under the prospect of losing Cespedes for absolutely nothing this winter. IF Detroit misses the postseason, they could very well lose Cespedes and get nothing in return for him, as there’s no draft pick compensation attached to his free agent status.

Of course, the Tigers could still miss the postseason if they trade Cespedes for pitching, but they’d at least be better off than they are now and wouldn’t be wasting the slugger’s talents.

Detroit would’t be terribly hurt by dealing Cespedes away, and while he’s a popular name to have on the back of jerseys in the team store, Detroit could be better off trading him away and doubling down their investment while not dramatically hurting the roster.

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