When a team is riding high atop not only its division but the whole Major Leagues, as the Detroit Tigers are, determining what the trade deadline will bring is not easy. What do they need?
In the Tigers’ case, they have done very little wrong this season, and when they face the team formerly known as the Oakland Athletics Tuesday at Comerica Park with last season’s Cy Young winner, who is also this year’s Cy Young favorite, Tarik Skubal on the mound, the Tigers stand an excellent chance of winning their 50th game of the season.
The win, if they pull it off, would get the Tigers to the 50 mark at least a game before the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers who have 48 wins prior to Tuesday’s action. No other team currently has more than 47 (the Philadelphia Phillies).
But there’s no such thing in MLB as too much pitching, as the saying goes. And the Tigers probably do not feel that can count on remaining baseball’s dominant team for the next 83 games, as they have for the first 79. This is the same Detroit franchise that missed the playoffs for nine straight seasons before surging in with a late-season hot-streak last year.
Tigers Closer Nursing Injury to Finger
Not only that, but Detroit saw a 96-loss season as recently as 2022, after losing 114 three years before that. In fact, the Tigers endured four painful seasons of 96 or more losses since 2015. So the organization is likely to take no chances with the 8 1/2 game lead they now hold in the American League Central.
This season has seen the emergence of 30-year-old Will Vest at the back of the Tigers’ bullpen. After saving just five games in the previous four years, the 2017 Seattle Mariners 12th-round draft pick has now recorded 12 against three blown save chances .
But Vest has not saved a game since departing an appearance against the Cincinnati Reds one week ago with an injured pinkie finger. While he avoided a trip to the injured list, how the damaged finger will affect him going forward remains unclear.
Tigers Could Reinforce Bullpen For Stretch Run
Vest has pitched only once since the injury. That was against the Pittsburgh Pirates last Friday when he struck out the side in the ninth inning of a tie game , eventually lost in 10 innings by the Tigers.
It makes sense then, that Tigers have been named by ESPN as one of the “best fits” for Tampa Bay Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, 31, who according to the ESPN.com report by Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan, has a 60 percent chance of being traded at the deadline.
Though the Rays enter Tuesday hot on the New York Yankees’ tail, just two games off the AL East lead, the seven-year veteran is in the final season of his three-year, $12 million contract with Tampa Bay.
Though he has one more year of club control remaining, the Rays have a $7 million club option for 2026 that given their tight-fisted history they would probably rather not exercise.
With 13 saves against just one blown opportunity under his belt, and 58 over the previous two seasons, Fairbanks would easily side into a closer’s role in Detroit, or share the duties with Vest, while the Tigers could hold on to their top 10 prospects and deal from their lower tier to acquire Fairbanks with his expiring contract.
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