Trade Deadline Action Plan: Detroit Tigers

Over the course of next four-and-a-half weeks, we'll be creating action plans for select teams around the league. Many of the action plans that will be done will be for teams that have a lot of trade chips to sell off or teams that look like they'll be heavy buyers.

Either way, these action plans represent a basic plan of action for that respective team's front office to follow from now until July 31st and presents potential fits for some of the trade chips for those teams selling. In other words, think of each of these plans as being an emergency plan or a code that dictates what must happen in the event of an emergency. In this case, that emergency is a crisis involving contenders that have needs that must be filled or sellers that have assets to sell off like in an auction.

With that being said, let's see what the Detroit Tigers Trade Deadline Action Plan looks like.

Goal: The goal for the Detroit Tigers is to continue to keep an eye on the future and look ahead to 2021 and beyond when the team will begin to be in the postseason race again.

In the Market For: The Tigers are in the market for prospect depth to add to the middle-to-upper levels of the minor league system. The most glaring need for prospects are offensive players that can compliment the future core group of RHP's Casey Maize and Matt Manning, OF Daz Cameron, and SS Willie Castro.

Action Steps to Accomplish Goal: The following steps must be followed to accomplish the goal and find the goods that the Detroit Tigers are in the market for.

1. Trade Closer Shane Greene to the Minnesota Twins for a Haul - Shane Greene is easily the Tigers biggest trade asset between now and July 31st and will for sure bring back the largest haul of anyone on the 25-man roster. Given that and the landscape of bullpens across baseball, the demand for Greene is going to be extraordinarily high and the price is going to super steep. However, the Detroit Tigers need to focus on the Minnesota Twins, who are not only trying to win the American League Central, but are legitimate World Series contenders. In turn, the Twins would send three-to-four prospects back to Detroit with the package being headlined by number two prospect, OF Alex Kirilloff. The Tigers could technically demand Royce Lewis back as the headliner, but Minnesota needs to keep Lewis off limits for the future. Other potential names in the deal include: number 6 prospect, OF Trevor Larnach, and number 15 prospect, 2B/OF Luis Arraez. 
2. Trade Starting Pitcher Matt Boyd to the Atlanta Braves - After Shane Greene, Matt Boyd is going to be the Detroit Tigers next best trade chip and the focus here should be on making a deal with the Atlanta Braves. The Braves will likely be in the market for two arms, potentially a starter and a reliever or two starters/two relievers, and Matt Boyd could be the perfect target. Boyd, who won't hit free agency until 2023 when the Tigers should be in full blast competitive mode again, is replaceable because of all of the depth that the Tigers possess in their upper minor leagues for the makings of their future starting rotation. Among all of that starting rotation depth are a lot of right-handers, which means the focus needs to be on obtaining a lefty, with Braves number 10 prospect, LHP Kolby Allard, the perfect target. On top of that, Atlanta would send number 19 prospect, LHP Thomas Burrows, to Detroit in this proposed deal, to be a potential setup man/closer moving forward and potentially one other prospect. 
3. Acquire Leonardo Rivas from the Los Angeles Angels for Nick Castellanos - Depending on how the Los Angeles Angels do over the next month will decide if this would be the best course of action for them, but if they stay in contention, Nick Castellanos, might be a great addition to their lineup. Castellanos rated poorly offensively and great defensively last season and it seems as though both of those have seemingly intertwined this year with Castellanos doing great at the plate and subpar in the outfield. Therefore, the asking price wouldn't be a lot and that is a nice asset for the Los Angeles Angels who can't afford to give up a lot of prospects for additions to their 25-man roster. As a result, Leonardo Rivas would be an ideal target, as many scouts project him to be a utility player down the road, or potentially a full-time middle infielder at second or shortstop. Furthermore, Castellanos has the ability to play third base, which would mean the Angels could move Tommy La Stella back to second base on a full-time basis, and can play right field against lefties where Kole Calhoun is batting: .198/.310/.442 against lefties this season. Meanwhile, Nick Castellanos, is batting: .298/.393/.511 against lefties and could turn it up a notch if he's back to playing a position he's comfortable with, third base, on a more full-time basis. 
4. Clear a Spot for Catcher Jake Rogers on the 25-Man Roster - In order to do this, the Detroit Tigers would likely need to DFA catcher, Bobby Wilson, who is in his age 36 season and batting well under the Mendoza line so far this year. Sure, Wilson brings great leadership behind the plate, but for a rebuilding club, Jake Rogers deserves a look at the major league level. Down in Triple-A this season, Rogers had 77 hits, 15 doubles, 1 triple, 17 home runs, 56 RBI, 41 walks, and a .305 on-base percentage over 352 at bats. Looking ahead to the future, the Detroit Tigers catching duo is likely to include Jake Rogers and John Hicks. Hicks isn't set to hit free agency until 2024 and has the makings of being a good catcher down the line. However, catching is also an area that the Tigers might look to upgrade over the next few seasons, as they move back towards contention again as it is one of the weak spots within the organization overall. 

From here, it would appear that those are the four primary things the Detroit Tigers need to focus on in the coming four-and-a-half weeks. Other veterans including: Tyson Ross, Josh Harrison, and Michael Fulmer are on the 60-Day Injured List and are absolutely untradable at the moment. If those three individuals were healthy, they could bring back some nice assets to add to the farm, but that's not the case.