NEWSLETTER
Hey, good for the Detroit Tigers. Not everyone sees it, but that is a loaded young roster that is at their corner-turning inflection point, and they could be very, very good this year. And now they want to push in a little bit more.
Turns out the market had at least one more notable trade in it before Opening Day:
We have acquired OF Austin Meadows from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for INF Isaac Paredes and a competitive balance-B pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. pic.twitter.com/33E6FppgET
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 5, 2022
Austin Meadows has been clearly on the block for a while, with his pricier arbitration years looming (and also a couple years that didn’t replicate his breakout in 2019). There’s still a lot of potential in that bat, though, so I commend the Tigers for going out and getting him.
The trade return for the Rays, in addition to the ever-desirable draft pick, is a familiar name – it’s former Cubs prospect Isaac Paredes, who went to the Tigers along with Jeimer Candelario in the Justin Wilson/Alex Avila trade. Paredes, still only 23, hasn’t hit yet in a couple big league shots, but he can play capable third and second, and he raked at Triple-A at a precocious age. Seems like a great get for the Rays, who may yet fulfill the promise of the Cubs regretting that trade in time (Candelario has already been great for the Tigers, but he never would’ve gotten a shot with the Cubs).
I don’t anticipate much in the way of after-effect fallout from this. Meadows was arguably superfluous to the Rays as is, and his arrival in Detroit doesn’t impact anything they would have otherwise been doing out on the market. I suppose it is all the more confirmation that Kevin Kiermaier isn’t going to be traded in these last few days of the offseason, but we kinda already knew that.
