Taking a crack at what the Detroit Tigers could do at the trade deadline.

This is a part of a four-part series on the Detroit Tigers and the upcoming trade deadline. We look at three different teams and what could fit for Detroit in the most realistic way possible.

The tail end of July will be a busy time for the Tigers. The MLB Trade Deadline falls on Tuesday, August 2nd, just two weeks after the Tigers have the 12th overall pick in the MLB Draft. There will be several new faces via the draft, but how many could come from the trade deadline?

What do the Detroit Tigers need?

Truthfully, everything. Let’s ‌look at the current positional depth chart based on the 40-man roster.

CF	LF	RF	OF	3B	SS	2B	1B	C
Riley Greene	Robbie Grossman	Willi Castro	Austin Meadows	Jeimer Candelario	Javier Baez	Jonathan Schoop	Spencer Torkelson	Tucker Barnhart
Derek Hill	Akil Baddoo	Daz Cameron	Victor Reyes	Harold Castro	Harold Castro	Kody Clemens	Kody Clemens	Eric Haase
	Eric Haase		Harold Castro	Brendon Davis (TOL)	Zack Short (TOL)			Jake Rogers (IL)
			Brendon Davis (TOL)	Zach Short (TOL)				Ali Sanchez (TOL)

Starting Pitchers	Relievers
Tarik Skubal	Gregory Soto
Beau Brieske	Michael Fulmer
Garrett Hill	Andrew Chafin
Michael Pineda	Alex Lange
Drew Hutchison Elvin Rodriguez (TOL) Joey Wentz (TOL)	Wily Peralta Will Vest (TOL) Angel De Jesus (TOL)
Rony Garcia (IL)	Joe Jimenez
Casey Mize (IL)	Jason Foley
Matt Manning (IL)	Tyler Alexander
Spencer Turnbull (IL)	Jose Cisnero (IL)
Alex Faedo (TOL)	Kyle Funkhouser (IL)

Meanwhile, down on the farm….

With new names potentially arriving via trades, the Detroit Tigers may have more space to add to the 40-man roster this winter. Here’s the list of eligible players who the Tigers may protect from the Rule 5 draft:

OF Kerry Carpenter

OF Parker Meadows

SS/3B Ryan Kreidler

2B Wenceel Perez

INF Andre Lipcius

SP Austin Bergner

SP Reese Olson

RP Brendan White

The emergence of Perez and Meadows has been a small victory for the Tigers’ development system. Both had strong starts to West Michigan, and it has carried over to Erie. The only downside to Perez is his defense. He has made 11 errors at second base this season mainly struggling to make accurate throws. Meadows has been walking more and striking out less.

Another development has been Andre Lipcius. Lipcius has raised his walk rate to 18% and his wRC+ is a career high of 147. He is hitting for more power, which is important if he wants to be an everyday regular. He is currently on projection to hit 20 home runs this season and that could work on the next level.

Detroit Tigers have bullpen depth to trade

The strength of the Tigers this season has been the bullpen. Several arms have emerged that could be traded. Michael Fulmer, who can be a free agent after this season, first comes to mind. However, there is a mindset to trade among some fans to trade every arm in the bullpen for offensive firepower or more arms.

But, with the recent article by Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic revealing that other general managers around the league do not think too highly of Al Avila, ($) this deadline could present some challenges.

First team up is the St. Louis Cardinals.

St. Louis is chasing the Brewers in the NL Central standings. Bullpen wise, they are in the middle of the pack in the league, ranked 16th. The Cards have several outfield prospects who they have to make a Rule 5 decision on and could fill the void for power in the outfield for Detroit. Despite the injuries to Tyler O’Neil and Harrison Bader, St. Louis still has flexibility to trade a few prospects.

Conner Capel
The 6’1 left-handed Capel is the son of former major league pitcher Mark Capel. Originally drafted by the Guardians, he was traded to the Cardinals for Oscar Mercado. He walks around a 10% clip and his isolated power numbers are just shy of the benchmark standard of .200 at .188. Capel can play all three spots in the outfield, which would help tremendously.

Moisés Gómez
The right-handed Gomez has put up some great power numbers this season as he hit 23 home runs in Double-A Springfield. However, the downside to this is that he strikes out over 30%. Is he a full-time solution in the outfield? Until he cuts out his strikeout rate down at the major league level, he lines up to be a fourth outfielder type.

Packy Naughton
A lefty reliever who throws a fastball, slider and a changeup. The slider plays up well because it is a funky 79MPH compared to his fastball, which sits at 92MPH. With the lack of lefties currently in the upper levels of the Tigers system, Naughton could be a good addition since Andrew Chafin is also going to be a free agent after the season.

Should Detroit ask about 2o-year-old shortstop Masyn Winn? (ranked number 5 on the FanGraphs Top 34 prospect list) Sure, his numbers are down at Double-A but, worth asking.

I know these names on this list do not move the needle. Detroit should aim for a prospect that has potential similar to the Reese Olson trade. Olson has thrived at Erie this season and the cost was left-hander Daniel Norris. Let’s hope they can identify something similar with whomever they acquired.