11:22am: The teams are likely to complete a trade today, according to MLB.com's Steve Gilbert. Eichhorn and another player would go to Detroit and the D'Backs would take on most of Galarraga's $2.3MM salary.
9:24am: The Diamondbacks are 'likely' to acquire Armando Galarraga from the Tigers, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported over the weekend that the D'Backs were making a "strong push" for the right-hander and were exchanging names, including Kevin Eichhorn's, with Detroit.
The Nationals do not appear to be interested in Galarraga and the Indians aren't likely to get involved. The Pirates could have interest in the 29-year-old Venezuelan, though. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski has said he's 'confident' he'll find a taker for Galarraga, who was designated for assignment to create roster space for Brad Penny last week.
The Tigers and D'Backs have exchanged a number of pitchers in the past 13 months. Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth arrived in the Motor City in the December, 2009 deal that sent Edwin Jackson to Arizona. Six months later, the Tigers sent Dontrelle Willis to the D'Backs for Billy Buckner. Those deals, however, were completed under former D'Backs GM Josh Byrnes.
This guy showed great potential in 2008… maybe a move to the NL will help him a bit.
Why would a move to the NL help him a bit? Its so funny how delusional some of you are. In the same article that mentions someone like Edwin Jackson you would think people would know better a move from the AL to NL might make things worse for him.
Of course it ‘might’ make things worse for him, but the general belief is that a switch from the AL to the NL for pitchers has the potential to make it easier. Of course there’s a chance for both though……but it’s not at all delusional to say ‘Maybe a move to the NL would help him a bit’, because it’s essentially just a prediction.
I didn’t see Galarraga going to Arizona
I don’t know….seems kind of like Edwin Jackson all over again – only the no-hitter already [didn’t] happened.
is it me or does Heyman never give a definitive answer to anything…
i wonder why Sandy Alderson had no interest I know he has a man crush on Chris Young for some reason.
I would take Chris Young over Galarraga any day. Young has been a pretty good pitcher before, if he can return to form he may be their number 2 or 3. Galarraga is nothing special, highly overrated due to his near no hitter.
He also had a near perfect game! 🙂
Thats right.
It’s bad that we care about this move. Please come faster spring training!
An uninspiring A-ball pitcher for him? That sounds about right. Detroit is dealing from about the least position of strength as possible – selling low on a guy who is a free agent in a couple days…
As of this far in our offseason moves I have been very pleased with all of the Tigers moves, however this move makes no sense at all. Gallaraga should have at least netted a good minor leaguer or two moderate ones. This kid Eichorn doesn’t look even decent, his numbers aren’t very good nor at 6 foot 170lbs does he look like he has potential to ever be good.
I hate to break it to you, but Gally isn’t worth a “good minor leaguer” or “two moderate ones” even if the Tigers didn’t designate him for assignment. The Tigers also have little to no leverage whatsoever in trading him because he could just as easily become a free agent in a month or two and teams could sign him anyway, so the fact that the Tigers are going to get anything for him at all is pleasing.
The reported trade isn’t too bad in my mind, especially if the D-backs are paying most of the salary, I’d just rather the Tigers get something now than not get anything and wind up paying most of his salary later.
Knowing they are covering his salary wasn’t revealed until now and 2.3 milliion should net a decent minor leaguer or two under any circumstance. Gallaraga could make number 5 spot on at least a few teams. Now the fact that they are picking up his contract and throwing in a bum ot two to boot is alright. Had they played there cards right he could have netted better is all I am saying.
I just hope this doesnt come and bite us in the end. Seeing jurrijens succeed was bad enough, and everyone drawing the comparisons between galaragga and sanchez has me slightly worried that he will end up as a good starter and we will see him succeed elswhere while we piece together a rotation that is one injury away from being screwed.
Galarraga is nothing special. He is on par with Sergio Mitre.
I don’t think we’ll end up seeing that. As a poster above pointed out, in his only decent year his BABIP was .236. Other than the near-perfect game, he really has been mediocre. He nibbles at the strike zone, can’t attack big hitters, and gives up the long ball WAY too much. The guy isn’t as good as we give him credit for.
And you say the rotation is one injury away from being screwed? I disagree. The club has some minor league depth where they can afford to get rid of Gally and yet still be set by the trade deadline where, if an injury were to occur, the Tigers could acquire a starter at the deadline to balance out the rotation. I honestly don’t think the Tigers are that much better off with Galarraga than they are without him. They have at least two starters in Oliver and Furbush in the minors that can step in and get the job done until the Tigers either get an injured starter back or they trade for a better option.
You hare more faith in our farm system then I do currently, I dont know how ready those guys are to step in and produce, oliver pitched alright last year but is he ready to come up?
I dont know, with penny’s history and coke might not working out i would have liked the safety net of a guy that started in the majors. Just throw him in the pen and see what happens. A few mil isnt that much considering we paid 25+ to pitchers to pitch for other teams last year.
I guess I am just worrying. I just dont like trading starters with major league experience for essentially nothing.
It’s not faith, it’s just simply the fact that if a guy goes down and the Tigers need to throw a guy in the rotation for a couple months, they have the ability to do that.
Oliver > Galarraga anyway.
The thing is we have more then a few questino marks going into the season, verlander is the only guy that can be 100% relied on. I wouldnt mind holding onto that extra depth so we dont end up with miggy and the mudhens again.
I don’t think you’re giving Scherzer and Porcello’s second halves enough credit, but I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere with this argument regardless.
I am not really disagreeing with you, its obvious you just like using minor league pitching to fix holes right now more then I do.
I just dont like trading a guy for nothing, esp when its a sp.
Porcello and Scherzer could be great this year, they also could suck. Porcello was supposed to be awesome last year and had a slump in the first half. Starters can be fickle, I just like having a lot of depth at the major league level. Personally I think they will both have solid years, but I am not going to bet the farm on it, esp after seeing what happened last year when our lack of depth showed.
If we were trading galaragga for anything that would help us now then I would be for it but we arent.
Alright so what do we do with Galarraga he can only be sent down once after that he would be des assignment again are released.So who would go out of the pen for him
Andy Oliver suddenly gaining command of his repertoire is the only prayer that I see in the short term coming from the minors. The long term prospects are good, but Charlie Furbush would be murdered in the majors, Oliver showed he isn’t ready, and there’s not much else that’s close to being ready. We’re back to Enrique Gonzalez. Give the system a year or two and we won’t have this problem, but the guys that they have now aren’t ready.
Galarraga isn’t even close to Jurjjens.
You are right, but I am still worried about us trading away players and then they go elswehere and do better, especially starting pitching.
Comparisons to Sanchez??
Yea it was on here awhile ago when they were talking about arb figures, similar numbers through the first 3 years of their career and sanchez had a no hitter, and gal had the near perfect game.
Arb numbers typically include innings pitched, wins and losses… they’ve more or less got nothing to do with skillset. Sanchez and Galarraga are completely different pitchers.
Right they are, but their numbers are very similar and I would hate to see gal explode like him.
Galarraga doesn’t have the stuff to explode like Sanchez, that’s my point. The only numbers that are similar are their innings pitched and W-L record at their first year of arbitration eligibility.
Galarraga is already almost 29, has awful peripherals, and can’t keep the ball in the park. Moving to one of the most homer-friendly stadiums in baseball isn’t going to help his cause. I know Arizona needs pitching, but I’m surprised they’re interested in such a prolifically homer-prone pitcher.
I will be fairly surprised if the Tigers pay any of his salary. But if they do, I’d guess it’s no more than the equivalent of the termination pay. If that’s the case, however, I’d rather subject him to waivers. If a team isn’t willing to pay his salary in a trade, then they are also unlikely to do it via waiver claim. These mid-level prospects are worth much. And if he passes waiver, he could be sent to Toledo.
I don’t care if they pay his entire salary as long as they get good prospects back. Ain’t my money.
I think that’s a very short-sighted approach. Unless you think the Tigers have an endless payroll, and I think it’s clear that they don’t, cash is more important to this ballclub winning than fringy A-ball prospects. If a portion of this $2.3MM is put to work at the trade deadline for a piece we need to compete, saving the money will be well worth it. And maybe it’s worth more if it’s put to use in the June draft.
And regardless of what you or I think, the organization clearly was going to look for a deal where they dumped the entire salary. And clearly they did, since DD said that they had other offers from teams that couldn’t afford the $2.3MM.
DD also said that, if Armando cleared waivers, they’d have outrighted him rather than release him, thereby keeping the 2.3 MM on the payroll. What would be short sighted is worrying more about 2.3MM than about who’s going to start if Penny is injured, Coke doesn’t make the transition, or Porcello has another sub par season.
A guy who allowed 1.42 HR/9 pitching half his games at Comerica and walks 3.5 per nine is now moving to Chase Field?
I don’t see how that could go wrong at all.
It’s actually 1.13 HR/9 at home and 1.60 on the road
Maybe a trip in the NL is all he needs. He has an okay fastball and a decent feel for some offspeed stuff. Middle to back end of the rotation guy for sure.
He’s a Fastball / Slider guy. Some of the data I’ve seen shows that he also has a change-up, but frankly I don’t recall ever having seen it. He throws his slider 35-40% of the time and gets good movement, which is a lot compared to other SP. I have often wondered if that’s going to lead to elbow issues, and I think in 2009 he did have some issues (maybe some tendonitis if I recall correctly). But he has trouble controlling the slider at times, and generally is a nibbler. I’m sure he can help some team absorb innings at the back of the rotation, but given that he is out of options, he isn’t the ideal guy to provide depth because he can’t be stashed in AAA without passing through waivers.
2010 Tiger rotation: 4.46 ERA, .262 BAA, 1.36 WHIP
Galarraga 2010: 4.49 ERA, .258 BAA, 1.34 WHIP
Galarraga career: 4.46 ERA, .254 BAA, 1.36 WHIP
For those that like FIP and BABIP, there’s another story behind those numbers.