Detroit Tigers Trade Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers for Ian Kinsler; What It All Means

By Charlie Portelli

Detroit Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski worked his magic yet again folks. He pulled off another blockbuster deal that will greatly benefit the Tigers in the long run. He traded 1st baseman Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers in exhange for 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler. Few general managers in the game have displayed the creative abilities that Dombrowski has exhibited over the years with the Tigers. 

First things first. When the Tigers made the deal two years ago to sign Prince Fielder to a massive 9 year/ $214 million dollar deal, it was not Dombrowski's idea. It was more of a knee jerk reaction to fill a giant hole in the lineup after Victor Martinez' went down with a season ending knee injury. Mike Illitch had an impulsive idea to replace him with Prince. Illitch was like a 6 year old kid and Prince was like the shiny new toy. He wrote the check for Dombrowski, handed it to him and said "make it official". For Dombrowski, it would have been nearly impossible to say no to that. Lets be real here, Prince Fielder is one of the games greatest sluggers. Of course on the surface this seemed like a great idea. You are acquiring a perennial all-star that bashes 30 home runs and knocks in over 100 RBI, year in, year out. But in reality, the contract that was required to sign Fielder would eventually become an enormous burden in the latter half of the contract and would essentially paralyze the entire Tigers organization before long.

Money

Dombrowski turned this into a positive due to his wizardry business skills. He rented Prince Fielder for two years, and then shipped him and his huge contract off to Texas. In return the Tigers receive 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler, a very good baseball player. Prince Fielder was due $168 million dollars over the next 7 years of his remaining contract. Ian Kinsler is due $62 million over next 4 years. In order to complete the deal, Dombrowski agreed to send $30 million along with Fielder to Texas. All in all, the Tigers are saving themselves $76 million dollars. That is an absolute colossal amount of money. Make no mistake about it, that is what this deal is all about for the Tigers. Money. The Tigers saved a whole lot of it by escaping Fielders suffocating contract and bought themselves a boatload of payroll flexibility to spend however they see fit. Kinsler is a nice player, sure, (I will get to him shortly), but this trade was not about acquiring Ian Kinsler.

Cabrera and Scherzer; Protect and Lock Up your Assets

Second to the money aspect of this trade, it was more about the other pieces on this team than it was Kinsler. Miguel Cabrera is the best hitter in the game. He is a true talent and can carry any team on his back. When Fielder was traded to the Tigers, it was not an ideal fit on the defensive side of the ball because it would move Cabrera from first base, back to third base. With longevity and durability in mind, Cabrera absolutely has to go back to first base. He is your franchise player, your biggest asset, and he needs to be protected. Playing Cabrera at third base is like having a shitty car insurance policy on your Cadillac, playing him at first is like having full blown coverage. This was evidenced last year when Cabrera, for really the first time in his career, battled serious injuries. This was due to the wear and tear that naturally comes with the third base position. First base will be much easier on the body for Cabrera, and he will indeed be a greater defensive first baseman than Fielder.

Also, with the freed up money, the Tigers will be able to sign starting pitcher Max Scherzer to a long term (an expensive one at that) contract extension.

Starting pitching trumps all in baseball. If you can somehow acquire dominant starting pitching, you need to do everything in your power to hold onto it. If you have a strong starting staff, you give yourself a chance to win a World Series. The Tigers have the best starting pitching staff in the game and trading Scherzer would have been idiotic. Dombrowski should be commended for figuring a way financially to be able to keep his pitching staff in tact. He has his priorities in line.

Ian Kinsler and What He Brings to the Table

I do not want to shortchange Ian Kinsler. He is a really good baseball player. He is extremely scrappy and those kinds of players will always have a place in baseball. Every team needs them, in fact, you cannot have too many of them. (Just ask the World Series Champion Red Sox). He has mastered a lot of the little things that people do not necessarily notice on a stat sheet as well. Although he does not hit for a very high average (career .273 BA), he is an effective leadoff hitter. He walks a lot, finds his way onto base a lot, can steal a base, runs the bases well, and has some nice pop in the bat. He has the ability to hit home runs, as he has hit over 30 twice in his career, but those numbers were absolutely inflated from playing at his home ballpark in Texas. He will never get close to hitting 30 in Detroit, so you can forget about that right now, but he will hit some home runs for you. He is also a very streaky hitter. Over his first 8 seasons in the major leagues, his batting averages and home runs starting with his rookie year in 2006 and ending last year are as follows. (.286 and 14, .263 and 20, .319 and 18, .253 and 31, .286 and 9, .255 and 32, .256 and 19, and then last year .277 and 13.) As you can see, he is all over the place, he has been consistently productive, which is a huge pro, but inconsistent in the way he produces. Another concern with Kinsler is the fact that he frequently deals with injuries. With that said, when healthy, he will be a very solid hitter in this lineup.

On defense, he is also streaky. He is regarded as a plus defender, and one of the best in the game at his position. But he led the AL in errors at second base last year. He will make some spectacular plays, and then follow that up with a defensive blunder.

While his contract is not even close to being as ridiculous as Fielder's was, he is also probably overpaid. That is part of the reason this deal got done as well. He is also turning 32 years old in June, and that is typically when players begin their decline.

Prince Fielder, the Baseball Player

One thing that I cannot seem to grasp is why so many people are rejoicing in Detroit after hearing the news that Prince Fielder had been traded. If it was because we escaped his awful contract, then I understand. But it did not seem to be. Rather, I get the impression that it was because they did not like Prince as a baseball player, which is pretty ridiculous. While I was completely fed up with his playoff ineffectiveness and lack of clutch hitting last year, he provided adequate protection in the batting order for Miguel Cabrera. That is not debatable. Cabrera won two MVP's in the only two years that Fielder was hitting behind him. Fielder has annually delivered 30 home runs while driving in over 100. Those kind of hitters do not just grow on trees.

While I do not think that Fielder's massive playoff struggles were a huge factor in the trading of him, I do think it played a part. The Tigers are not satisfied winning division titles anymore, it is now about winning a World Series. Over the last two postseason runs for the Tigers, Fielder did not help in that regard, in fact, he hurt.

While I may sound a little critical of this deal, I am not. I am merely being realistic about it. I am actually very pleased with the deal.

Having said that, I am more excited to see what follows this deal than I am excited about trading Fielder for Kinsler.

Dombrowski was stuck with Fielder's contract on the books. With this deal he has earned himself some wiggle room. Hold on for the ensuing ride.