Tigers get Infante, Sanchez

[love_that_reefer]

The Tigers have addressed their two most pressing needs with one trade, acquiring Omar Infante and Anibal Sanchez from the Marlins in a deal that will send top pitching prospect Jacob Turner to Miami. Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports first reported the trade, which suggests the Marlins are willing to look to 2013 and beyond following a disappointing 44-51 start to the season (on Twitter).

The Marlins are extremely disappointed by their team's performance and are prepared to make a series of trades, Ken Rosenthal and Morosi report (on Twitter). Josh Johnson, Randy Choate and Carlos Lee are among the team's possible trade chips.

Wow! Tigers just filled two major holes and the Marlins got a good prospect in Turner. Infante will return to Detroit and be their 2B and Sanchez will join the rotation that desperately needed him. Detroit is in first place finally and are now hoping to stay that way. Looks like the first year in Miami will be a bust.

[Kingdom]

Verlander-Sanchez-Fister plus whenever Scherzer and Al Pacino show up....better certainly.

Ever since Infante was mocked for being named as an all-star years ago, he's become a pretty solid infielder. Not bad for Detroit. Your move, Chicago.

[love_that_reefer]

Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com reports that the Tigers have acquired right-hander Anibal Sanchez and second baseman Omar Infante from the Marlins.
Peter Gammons of MLB Network reports that the Tigers will get Sanchez, Infante and the Marlins' competitive balance pick for right-hander Jacob Turner, catcher Rob Brantly, left-hander Brian Flynn and Detroit's competitive balance pick. While the Marlins are officially sellers, the Tigers are making a major push to win the American League Central. Sanchez has a 3.94 ERA and 110/33 K/BB ratio over 121 innings this season and further strengthens the starting rotation. The Tigers have been hurting for production at second base all season, so Infante should be a major upgrade. Turner is a pretty good get for the Marlins, as Sanchez will be a free agent following the season.

Didn't take long for draft picks to be traded. Looks like the Marlins got a haul for those two.

[Kingdom]

Mr. Law,

While much of the focus today is on the Ichiro Suzuki trade (and my thoughts on that are at the bottom of this piece), a much more significant deal was reportedly made between the Detroit Tigers and Miami Marlins.
The Tigers clearly make themselves better in a tight AL Central race this year with the acquisitions of Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante, but the Marlins did well to obtain one top-30 prospect (Jacob Turner) and a couple of other solid prospects in exchange for an impending free agent pitcher and a 30-year-old hitter who would probably be a utility player on most teams.

Sanchez had significant shoulder problems earlier in his career, but has been healthy since the start of 2010 and has made himself into an above-average starter thanks to a plus changeup with good deception and at times some late tumble. His fastball is just average, but he locates it well enough to stay ahead in the count and avoid free passes, although it's fairly flat and might make him homer-prone in the wrong ballpark.
With Sanchez and a healthy Doug Fister back in the mix, the Tigers have five solid starters --Drew Smyly, now injured, was coming back to earth when he got hurt anyway -- and no depth if their rotation should sustain another injury. Infante isn't anything special with the bat or glove, but given what he's replacing, Tigers fans might mistake him for Rogers Hornsby. Detroit's second basemen have hit a combined .201/.286/.276 this season, so while Infante isn't likely to improve his performance when moving to the better league, he'll be an improvement over anything the Tigers have in-house at second base. The two additions make the Tigers two to three wins better for the rest of this season, plus some value from Infante in 2013 as well.
Turner was consistently up to 97 mph with his fastball in high school, touching 99, but is more 90-94 now. He works with a two-seamer that has some tailing life and generates a few more ground balls than his four-seamer does, but not enough to overcome the fact that he doesn't miss bats like he should.
He has a full starter's repertoire, with a power curveball at 77-82 that used to be sharper, a cutter at 84-86 that probably needs to be closer to his fastball in velocity, and a changeup with pretty good action at 86-87. As much as I understand the idea of making starting pitchers more efficient, I don't get the idea of taking a power pitcher like Turner and turning him into a finesse/ground ball guy; I think he's lost a little arm speed, but that could also be a function of trying to 'pitch' too much instead of just letting it go. He alone makes the deal worthwhile for the Marlins, as he's got enough stuff as is to end up a third or fourth starter but isn't far removed from a time when he looked like a possible star. It's quite possible he was just rushed to the majors and hasn't had time to make the necessary adjustments.
The other prospects headed to Miami are catcher Rob Brantly and lefty Brian Flynn. Brantly, who has struggled a bit since a promotion to Triple-A, is a contact-oriented hitter without much patience and a hook-oriented swing; he has an above-average arm but his receiving has always been a problem, most likely because he doesn't have the hands for it. Flynn, who was just promoted to Double-A, has good stuff but has trouble repeating his delivery, right down to his arm slot, and probably ends up a reliever, although his delivery seems to get worse when he's working from the stretch. The deal largely boils down to Turner, but as I said, I think he's a great pickup in exchange for two months of Sanchez and a season-plus of Infante.
One point of interest in this trade is that, for the first time in MLB history, we have seen draft picks traded, as the two teams exchanged their "competitive balance lottery" picks, with the Tigers sending their pick after to the second round to the Marlins for their pick after the first round. (We'll ignore, for the moment, the absurdity of the Tigers receiving a pick in that process while the Rays received none.) Let's hope teams' interest in using these picks as trade commodities spurs changes in the next CBA to allow teams to trade other draft picks as well.