2018 Detroit Tigers

[emu steve]

Who exactly are the star players the Tigers traded? Stars are guys like Altuve, Lindor, Judge, Harper, Stanton, Trout, Machado, etc. Every one of those guys was a prospect on their team before becoming a star. I guess the Tigers should have kept 35 yr. old Ian Kinsler and his .235 batting average or paid JD Martinez 25 million per year for his below avg. defense. Why hasn't he received a contract anywhere? Maybe they should have forced Verlander to stick around at 28 million a year even though he said he wanted no part of a rebuild? Had we kept those guys with our current pitching we would be lucky to play .500. This team should have been broken up two years earlier but, understandably, Mike Ilitch wanted one last shot before he passed even though I'm certain he knew it was a long shot. The Tigers tried to build a championship through free agency twice in the last 12 years and came close but without a core of young players from their farm system they came up short. I guess you want Chris Ilitch to spend 300 million on payroll. The team has a core of 4-5 starting pitching prospects to provide a foundation and now must develop some everyday players by trading for prospects. Candelario looks like a solid player at 3rd and Daz Cameron in center. Paredes may be a good middle infielder. They need a couple more everyday players, one or two of whom are stars. NO TEAM is giving up their top prospects in trades anymore. Then they can dip into free agency. This is and always has been the only way to build a team. So please, quit whining!

If I'm following MLB correctly this is what I see:

The market [[price for free agents) has gotten too expensive.

The 'remedy': Develop your own and control them at very sweet salary levels.

Eventually this market will even out where the price [[salary) for FAs will become more reasonable and teams will begin bidding on them.

What does Judge make? How much would he make if he were a FA and could command an open-market salary.

And yes, teams like Detroit, Miami, Pittsburgh, etc. aren't doing anything to keep FA competition going.

[Bham1982]

I
What does Judge make? How much would he make if he were a FA and could command an open-market salary.

Judge made 507k last year. A terrific bargain by MLB standards.

On the open market, I don't know, $25 million/yr? He has only one year of stats and is a strikeout king, but is also one of the most fearsome bashers in baseball.

But I doubt the NYY will ever let him hit free agency.