Tigers trade Fielder to Texas for Kinsler

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Still not enough to make up for the huge amount of dead money at the back end of Fielder's contract. They should have asked for more.



That depends entirely on how much their payroll is going to be going forward, which we don't know. Getting out of a massive albatross tied a declining DH certainly won't hurt that effort, though. The freed up money can presumably be spent in a much more effective way.

I ask again - what freed up money?

Yes, it clears some money off the books in 2018, but they'll have already had to expand their payroll substantially to fit Cabrera/Scherzer into it.

If the whole idea behind this is to make 2018-2021 (which are likely just going to be decline years for Cabrera for anyway), I'm not sure they've accomplished much, if anything.

Besides, Ilitch is beyond rich and may well be dead by then anyway.

I do wonder, however, if the Ilitch children don't share his love of sports ownership. If this is done with an eye on perhaps making the team more attractive to a potential buyer in the event of Ilitch's demise, it actually makes a little sense.

From the baseball side, however, the timing and the immediate long-term liability taken on in the Kinsler deal effectively eliminates any benefit to the Tigers and their current roster.