The wild idea of ​​trading with the division rival would see the Detroit Tigers land another ace

The Detroit Tigers enters an offseason where they need to make aggressive moves to take the next step toward legitimate contention, coming off the last month and a half of the season in which they became the hottest team in baseball and made the playoffs, eliminating Houston Astros in the Wild Card round.

Even though Detroit sold at the deadline, the team made do with what they had and went on a historic run, proving to ownership and management that they are not far from being a true title threat and that the investment needs to be made now. The Tigers are still an extremely young team and the rebuild is beginning to bear fruit, so an argument can be made for staying the course and letting the prospects develop, but Detroit appears to have a rare opportunity to speed things up.

They already have the best pitcher on the planet in the Tarik Skubalbut the lack of any confidence behind the likely Cy Young winner was ultimately one of the things that did the team during the ALDS against Cleveland. The Tigers need to at least add quality arms behind Skubal, but what if the opportunity presented itself to land another ace? Bleacher Report proposed a deal to acquire Detroit Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet for top prospects Bryce Rainer, Owen Hall and Ethan Schiefelbeinbut FanSided’s Zach Pressnell doesn’t see this as a good deal for the Tigers.

“Would the framework make sense for this business? Yes, that would make sense. The Tigers would love to add a talent like Crochet, and the White Sox would love to add a ton of teenage talent,” Pressnell wrote. “But this deal only works in the White Sox’s favor. Detroit would be very interested in adding a young ace with the team control that comes with Crochet, but not at the expense of their most talented teenage prospects.”

In the end, Pressnell is probably right when he said this is probably too much for Detroit to give crochetwho just made his first All Star game in 2024 first year as a rookie. Crochet posted a 3.58 ERA in 32 starts and 146 innings, striking out 209 batters.

The numbers are encouraging enough to believe he can develop into another bona fide superstar to go alongside Skubal, but ultimately Crochet probably hasn’t done enough yet to warrant sending three prospects top in exchange for his services.