Tigers needed relief more than a good catcher
Certainly, this isn't how GM Dave Dombrowski planned things. After all, this offseason he paid dearly — both in terms of money and young talent — to get Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria. Adding those two bats to a team that won 88 games a year ago necessarily led to high expectations. Then, however, events conspired against the Tigers.
There was the dismal 0-7 start, there was Curtis Granderson's early-season injury, there was Joel Zumaya missing almost the first three months of the season, there was Jeremy Bonderman's season-ending injury, there was Todd Jones' continued ineffectiveness, there was Renteria's decline, there was Gary Sheffield's awful production, and there was Cabrera's somewhat disappointing transition to the American League. Add up all the miseries, and it's somewhat surprising that the Tigers are still in the race in the tough AL Central.
At this writing, Baseball Prospectus gives the Tigers a 14.0% chance of making the postseason. Obviously, it's unlikely they'll get there, but the odds aren't so small as to strain the imagination. Working against them is the fact they have no more remaining home games against the White Sox and Twins, but it's still possible.
And that, of course, brings us to recent events. The decision to trade Pudge Rodriguez is, at first blush, a curious one, and certainly feels like one of the those "white flag" trades. It's not. First and foremost, the Tigers didn't trade Rodriguez away for young talent — they traded him for bullpen help. Dombrowski is making a deal that he believes makes them better in the present. He's right. Rodriguez is a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and is still useful at age 36, but the Tigers, in parting with him, were dealing from a position of strength.
To fill the catcher hole, the Tigers will wisely turn to Brandon Inge, who manned the position in the minor leagues. Inge isn't Rodriguez's equal with the glove, but, given the respective stages of their careers, it's not as much of a drop-off as you might think.
Inge is hitting .227 AVG/.320 OBP/.438 SLG, while Rodriguez has a 2008 batting line of .295 AVG/.338 OBP/.417 SLG. Ignore the batting averages — when it comes to getting on base and hitting for power (the two most important things a hitter can do) Inge and Rodriguez have performed quite similarly this season, and there's nothing aberrant about Inge's current numbers, particularly in light of recent history. On the whole, the Tigers probably won't be any worse off at catcher going forward.
However, they figure to be better in terms of relief. On this point, let's have a look at a few key indicators for the Detroit bullpen in 2008 ...
Relief in sight?
As you can see, the Detroit bullpen isn't keeping runs off the board, isn't stranding runners, and is working hard in the process.
Kyle Farnsworth, whom they acquired from the Yankees on Wednesday, helps on all fronts. Farnsworth isn't what you'd call an elite reliever, but he's having a nice bounce-back season (3.65 ERA and no unearned runs in 44.1 innings, and a .295 batting average on balls in play that suggests he's not getting unduly lucky). So long as he keeps it up (not to be assumed, of course), he'll help Detroit.
Provided Fernando Rodney improves the further removed he is from his shoulder troubles, and provided manager Jim Leyland gives the high-leverage setup innings to Zumaya, Farnsworth, Aquilino Lopez and Bobby Seay, the Tigers should be much improved in the late innings.
So Detroit may have improved its lot by making this deal. Certainly, Rodriguez, in a vacuum, is a more valuable commodity than Farnsworth, but that's not the case for the Tigers, whose unique strengths and needs mean they'll benefit because of this trade. As mentioned, they're probably not going to catch the Twins and White Sox, but because of Wednesday's trade they've got better odds of pulling off the unlikely.
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