At some point, the Tigers' wealth of young pitchers is going to present a dilemma.
Who stays, who goes? Who starts, who relieves?
And what about the guys that are already here?
Guys like Matthew Boyd, Daniel Norris and, when he returns from Tommy John, Michael Fulmer. Are they part of the future? Or are they placeholders until the future arrives?
In the case of Boyd, the Tigers might be inclined to test the trade market this summer. Or next winter. Or sometime beyond that.
The 28-year-old lefty is off to a terrific start this season and he's under team control team control through 2022. His salary in 2019: $2.6 million. Tradable? You bet.
And according to The Athletic, the Tigers would absolutely deal Boyd for the right return: "A premium young hitter who would complement the young pitchers rising through their system."
For as well-stocked as Detroit's system is with young arms, it's short on young hitters. The Tigers only have one position player among baseball's top 100 prospects, per MLB Pipeline: Isaac Paredes, who's ranked No. 99. Their top three pitchers, Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Franklin Perez, rank No. 16, No. 49 and No. 74, respectively.
It might behoove the Tigers to draw from a position of depth to address one of need.
It also might behoove them, as The Athletic notes, to shop Boyd sooner rather than later, after learning their lesson the hard way in the case of Michael Fulmer. Boyd's trade value will continue to climb if he keeps pitching well -- through six starts, he has a 3.13 ERA and his 2.21 FIP leads the AL -- but it probably has more room to fall.
Trade chip? Or core piece of the rebuild? That's the question the Tigers must answer with Boyd -- whose agent, it should be noted, is Scott Boras. So don't bank on a team-friendly extension, even with a guy as team-centric as Boyd.
Another Boras client the Tigers must make a decision on -- and in a much a shorter timeframe than Boyd -- is Nicholas Castellanos. The Tigers haven't found any serious takers on the trade market for the pending unrestricted free agent, and they likely won't unless they lower their asking price.
And they certainly won't if Castellanos doesn't heat up at the plate before the July 31 trade deadline. (Safe to say he will.) He's hitting .266 with a .774 OPS through 23 games.
If the Tigers aren't able to trade Castellanos before next winter, they'll likely make him a one-year qualifying offer -- somewhere in the range of $18 million -- to at least ensure draft-pick compensation if he signs elsewhere.
