The annual Baseball Winter Meetings opened today in Indianapolis, Indiana, and to on ones surprise the Detroit Tigers spent the day as the focus of the rumor mill. Several rumors swirled around that the Tigers have dealt Pitcher Edwin Jackson to the New York Mets, and while those rumors were mostly debunked, another rumored surfaced that the Tigers were ready to deal both Jackson and Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees.
While no trade has happened as of yet, there is little doubt that the Tigers are looking to dump salary, and this old adage shall prove to hold true, where there is smoke there is fire. In day one of the Winter Meetings the Tigers organization was surrounded by smoke.
While Tigers fans can understand the though of dumping Jackson, after he struggled down the stretch run, for the second consecutive year, dumping Granderson is nothing more than a cost cutting move.
Granderson is one of the better players on the Tiger roster. Not only does he play Center Field, and makes up for the defense Right Fielder Magglio Ordonez lacks, he also hit .249 with 30 home runs, 71 RBI, and stole 20 bases.
While he has not been a great leadoff hitter, and is terrible against Left Handed pitching, he is owed 23.75 million over the next three years, with a club option for 2013 at 13 million with a 2 million dollar buyout.
Tigers CEO, President, and General Manager Dave Dombrowski insists that he is not holding a fire sale, but given the fact that he allowed starting second baseman Placido Polanco to leave town without, so much as a contract offer, or a salary arbitration offer, seems to suggest otherwise.
In 2009 Polanco won a Gold Glove for his play at second and as the #2 hitter in the Tigers lineup, hit .285 with 10 home runs, and 72 RBI. There are also rumors that the Tigers are looking to unload the massive contract of first baseman Miguel Cabrera.
While Cabrera proved in 2009 that he could play first base, and hit .324 with 34 home runs, and 103 RBI, his late season alcohol fueled incident with his wife seems to have soured the Tigers on him. Of course the team is on the hook to him for 126 million dollars over the next six years.
Since it appears that the Tigers are looking to dump salary any way that they can, Dombrowski’s insistence that this is not a fire sale is kind of insulting to Tigers fans intelligence.
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