Detroit Tigers Clips Wednesday, November 9, 2016
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Detroit Tigers Clips Wednesday, November 9, 2016 Detroit Free Press Detroit Tigers' Ian Kinsler 'finally' wins Gold Glove at second base (Fenech) Tigers GM laying groundwork at winter meetings for leaner payroll (Fenech) Impending labor agreement leaves Tigers’ luxury-tax bill up in air (Fenech) The Detroit News Tigers' big money days are over, Avila pledges austerity (McCosky) Prospect Grayson Greiner puts himself back in Tigers’ fast lane (McCosky) Tigers take page out of Yankees’ retooling guide (McCosky) Tigers' Ian Kinsler wins 1st Gold Glove (Staff) Justin Verlander highlights his own merits for Cy Young (Paul) MLive.com Tigers' Ian Kinsler wins 1st Gold Glove award (Woodbery) See the 16 Tigers minor-leaguers who are now free agents (Woodbery) Al Avila: Tigers listening, but not shopping Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera (Woodbery) Tigers lefty Joe Mantiply claimed on waivers by Yankees (Woodbery) Don't think Justin Verlander should win Cy Young? Here's a spreadsheet he'd like you to see (Woodbery) MLB.com Kinsler wins first Gold Glove in career (Beck) Jones' key hit fuels AFL comeback win (Rosebaum) Tigers open to roster overhaul (Morosi) Oakland Press Tigers’ Ian Kinsler wins first Gold Glove award (Mowery) Daily Transactions 1 Detroit Tigers' Ian Kinsler 'finally' wins Gold Glove at second base November 9, 2016 By Anthony Fenech/ Detroit Free Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Ian Kinsler was taught at a young age, by his father, Howard, on the baseball fields of Tucson: There are three aspects to baseball. There’s hitting, fielding and baserunning. “You can affect the game doing any three of those things,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways to affect the game and defense is a huge component of that.” On Tuesday night, Kinsler – an 11-year major league veteran – finally won his first American League Gold Glove Award. The Detroit Tigers’ second baseman beat Boston’s Dustin Pedroia and Seattle’s Robinson Cano for the award. “It’s something that I work hard at,” Kinsler said. ”I want to be someone that can play really well on both sides of the ball and I work really hard at it. To finally be rewarded, it’s a good feeling.” The award was long overdue: Kinsler was a finalist in each of the past two seasons and once during his tenure with the Rangers. In 2016, Kinsler had a .988 fielding percentage. He finished tied with Pedroia for the AL lead in Defensive Runs Saved with 12 and fourth in defensive rating according to FanGraphs, with 10.8. He credited Tigers’ defensive coordinator Matt Martin with helping him improve. “He had a lot to do with it,” Kinsler said. “Just really helping me slow the game down and working on my footwork and making sure that I’m not making pressure mistakes that I used to make when I was a little bit younger. “I was always capable of playing really good defense, so Matt really worked with me in slowing down the game and it’s really benefitted me.” He is the first Tiger second baseman to win the award since Placido Polanco and sixth all-time. Lou Whitaker won three Gold Gloves in 1982, 1984-85, and Frank Boling won in 1958. Kinsler, 34, has been worth 15.2 defensive wins above replacement in his career, according to Baseball- Reference.com. He feels he has improved as a defender as he’s gotten older. “Obviously being a veteran and playing a lot of years, a lot of repetition, a lot of practice, obviously being more and more comfortable with the game, that all plays into it,” Kinsler said. “It’s really about understanding yourself and what plays you expect yourself to make and how to get certain balls and how to make it easier on yourself and all of that stuff starts to happen quicker and quicker the older you get. That’s my experience and I don’t really plan on slowing down.” 2 Tigers GM laying groundwork at winter meetings for leaner payroll November 9, 2016 By Anthony Fenech/ Detroit Free Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – At some point, Al Avila said, the Detroit Tigers are going to hit a brick wall. “We’re at that brick wall right now,” he said. “And I don’t want to smash right through it.” The Tigers and their second-year general manager are up against it. Led by owner Mike Ilitch, they have overspent their means for quite some time. Now it’s Avila’s job to bring a payroll well above $200 million down to earth, under Major League Baseball’s luxury-tax limit, which threatens to further limit their financial flexibility. On Tuesday, the second day of the general managers meetings, Avila said what he has said often this off- season: The Tigers’ goal is to cut payroll. They want to remain competitive. Their big-money players are not coming off the books. They will have to trade some. “Are there going to be good, viable trades out there?” he said. “We’ll find out. If there are, a trade or two may happen. If not, then we’ll wait.” In a day’s time at the Omni Scottsdale Resort, Avila heard from a number of GMs. Some surely inquired about the Tigers’ top-two players — right-handed ace Justin Verlander and first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Other players likely were mentioned, too, such as second baseman Ian Kinsler and rightfielder J.D. Martinez. Nothing substantial had been discussed, Avila said, but with the team scheduling meetings for the final two days of the GM meetings, he probably will gather information to lay the ground work for moves that will shape the organization’s future. “This is where you get that process started,” Avila said. “I think there’s going to be interest in several of our players, I do. It’s just going to be a matter of where we go with those talks. But, yes, there is interest, and we expect there to be interest.” Which players have garnered the most interest, Avila would not say. But he did say — again — the moves to be made represent a change in philosophy from the free-spending days of the past decade, which produced perhaps the best stretch of Tigers’ baseball in franchise history minus a World Series title. “I don’t have a hard number,” Avila said, when asked about the 2017 payroll. “You just can’t keep adding and adding. Eventually, you’re going to have a $300-million payroll. That’s just not the way to operate. You’re trying to put together a good business model moving forward.” That means being active on the trade market, beginning this winter. And though Avila’s free-agent signings in his first off-season certainly bear some of the blame for the financial situation the Tigers are in, his wise trading will be leaned on heavily in the process. Last winter, Avila acquired centerfielder Cameron Maybin and closer Francisco Rodriguez via trades. Both were good moves. Parting with prospects for those players, however, pales in comparison to the monumental moves he might be forced to make should the trade market not look favorably on some of the team’s tradeable assets. “Obviously, in every business, and this is no different, the supply and demand will dictate how these things will go,” he said. “It’s a situation where last year, there were more starting pitchers available than this year, so you would think that would affect how you would handle it.” A weak starting-pitching market could benefit the Tigers in two ways: First, they could receive an offer for right-handers Anibal Sanchez or Mike Pelfrey from a team starved for pitching. Second, they could receive an offer they can’t refuse for Verlander from a team unable to sign a front-line starter in free agency. A number of teams will be interested in Martinez, a middle-of-the-order bat, and Kinsler, a great player. But Avila insisted that, at this point of the off-season, the Tigers are open to all options as opposed to dead-set on moving particular players. “We’re not here actively shopping,” he said. “We’re here actively listening to see what the interest is in those guys, and then we’ll react to that. Depending on what we find, we’ll act accordingly. But I’m not calling these guys saying, ‘Hey, this guy is available.’ We’re not saying anybody’s available. All we’re saying is we’re listening on all of our players.” 3 The process, as detailed by Avila, likely will not be completed this winter. But the most painful part — trading a future Hall of Famer like Verlander or Cabrera, or All-Stars like Kinsler or Martinez — could be realized in the coming months. “The first step is always the hardest,” Avila said. And there will be many more to come. 4 Impending labor agreement leaves Tigers’ luxury-tax bill up in air November 9, 2016 By Anthony Fenech/ Detroit Free Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – As a lengthy off-season of trade rumors and payroll projections for the Detroit Tigers begins, there is one yet to be resolved that could make a big impact on the team’s moves. Because Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires in December and a new pact, negotiated by the league and players’ association, has yet to be agreed upon, next season’s luxury-tax limit has yet to be announced. For the past two seasons, the luxury-tax limit was $189 million. In 2014, it was raised $11 million.