The Tigers have a lot to do this winter, and they didn't waste time getting started. The club traded for two-time Gold Glove catcher Tucker Barnhart on the first day of the offseason.
"It feels good that we’ve got this (done)," GM Al Avila said Wednesday. "Last week we finished our meetings with my front office and we actually identified Tucker as one of our top priorities, if not the top priority. And we knew that to get a catcher of this caliber, we were probably going to have to do a trade."
So Avila reached out to Reds GM Nick Krall last week and the deal came to fruition Wednesday morning: Barnhart for infield prospect Nick Quintana. The Tigers have their starting catcher for 2022. And their offseason work has only just begun. Wednesday was also the first day to start making moves in free agency, or, in Avila's words, "to try to accomplish the other needs that we have."
"It’s the first day you can go out and talk to agents about players you’re interested in," Avila said. "So it’s been an entire day of finalizing this deal and making a lot of phone calls. It’s started already."
With catcher squared away, the Tigers were surely calling about shortstops and veteran starting pitchers. They were likely calling about guys like Carlos Correa and Justin Verlander, Marcus Semien and Marcus Stroman, all of whom became free agents Wednesday morning and are eligible to sign with new teams Nov. 7. Until then, the Tigers can't have direct contact with free agents of other teams.
But it hasn't stopped them from making inroads.
"It started today with a bunch of phone calls," Avila said.
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The Tigers have slow-played the free agent market in years past, not looking to make a major move. They went bargain shopping later in the signing cycle. But this year they're ready to spend. They have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and a young roster worthy of upgrades.
"The biggest difference is we’re not trying to trade veterans and rebuilding," Avila said. "Now we’re trying to build a winning team going into 2022. That’s a big difference from the last few years."
Avila downplayed the Tigers' quick acquisition of Barnhart as a sign of things to come. He said it "just happened to come sooner than later because both teams were in a position to make the trade." But that's sort of the point. The Tigers were hungry for a veteran catcher to lead their young rotation, and they went out and got one. (The Reds were ready to part with Barnhart after the emergence of 25-year-old catcher Tyler Stephenson.) Now they're hungry for a shortstop and a proven veteran for the rotation.
"If we have a deal to be made next week, great. If it comes later, then it comes later," Avila said. "Deals come together at different times for different reasons, but we’re approaching it the same way: we’re trying to put the best team on the field."
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