One seller believes that the Detroit Tigers are “actively shopping,” ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports. The report puts a muzzle on reports and speculation over the last week that Detroit would sell expiring contracts like David Price, Yoenis Cespedes, Alfredo Simon, Rajai Davis and Alex Avila.
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The question now becomes who the Tigers will actually go after. They were reportedly interested in Scott Kazmir, though he’s long gone to the Astros. If that tier of starter is their market they’re in, Mat Latos of the Marlins and Mike Leake of the Reds could both be matches. However, no reports have directly linked the club with either pitcher.
The club could also look for bullpen help, as their are plenty of controllable bullpen arms out there. The bullpen market could especially appeal to Detroit because of the controllable players out there, as they already have several expiring contracts set to potentially depart in the offseason.
A poor performance in this week’s set of games and an inability to pull off buyer deals could shift the Tigers back into sell mode, but for the time being, they appear to be looking for help this year. General manager Dave Dombrowski had a closed-door meeting with the team in the locker room after Monday night’s game, and one has to wonder what that discussion entailed.