Whether or not the Tigers intend to sell at the July 30 trade deadline, they're going to get calls on Jonathan Schoop. Probably lots of them. He's been one of the hottest hitters in baseball for the past two months and he can play multiple positions in the infield. And he's cheap, with a prorated salary of less than $2 million for the rest of the season.
But Schoop won't come cheap in a trade. A.J. Hinch indicated as much a couple weeks ago in a warning to the rest of the league: "You have to come pay for our guys if you’re going to come get our guys." And Al Avila confirmed as much Tuesday when he said the Tigers aren't interested in trades that won't help them now or in the near future.
Schoop has helped the Tigers tons this year. He leads the team in offensive WAR. He leads the AL in multi-hit games. He's played good defense at both first and second. It's no coincidence that in the same time Detroit has gone 36-27 -- the fifth best record in the AL since May 8 and the club's best run of play in five years -- Schoop has an OPS of .956. His OPS is over 1.000 since May 25.
"He’s done an outstanding job," Avila said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "He’s been the perfect guy to have on this team because he’s very personable, he gets along with everybody, he’s one of the hardest workers and he’s been producing at a high level. We just have to take it a day at a time and see where we go with him."
In the early years of the rebuild, Schoop is the kind of rental Avila would have dealt for whatever was out there. But the rebuild is finally showing progress in Detroit, progress the Tigers would like to sustain through the rest of this season. Will Avila deal Schoop now? It depends how the Tigers assess his value as a trade chip versus a player who can continue helping them win.
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"For us as the Detroit Tigers, what we’re looking for is to make this team better now and for next year," Avila said Tuesday when asked about Schoop. "There’s no pressure to trade anybody, there’s no need to trade anybody, unless we feel there’s a trade out there that’s going to make us winners next year and as we move along in the future."
In other words, the Tigers won't trade Schoop without getting a high-level prospect or major league-ready player in return. They're not sacrificing the best bat in their lineup for a couple of mid-tier prospects who might never make it. So maybe the better question is this: will the Tigers extend Schoop?
"I wouldn’t get into any of that with you guys at this point," Avila said. Then he smiled and added, "That’s a good question."
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You have to think the Tigers are at least considering it. This wouldn't be a reward for a two-month hot streak. Schoop is tied for fifth among second baseman in homers and slugging since last season; he's a tick behind Jose Altuve in FanGraphs' all-encompassing Offense metric and a tick ahead of him in wRC+. After a dip in 2018 and 2019, Schoop has re-emerged as one of the most productive bats at his natural position. Which reminds us: he does the job at first now, too.
And who's manning first for the Tigers next season? Or any season in the foreseeable future? Miguel Cabrera will get some time there, but not everyday. Spencer Torkelson is being groomed as a third baseman in the minors. And even if Torkelson ultimately takes over first in Detroit, who's manning second? Isaac Paredes hasn't exactly sprinted away with the job. Willi Castro is supposed to be a shortstop.
"There's more speculation during the deadline and more people fantasizing about what could be or what might happen and pretending different scenarios that are usually not realistic," said Avila. "At the same time, as an organization, you have to be open-minded to anything that could make you that much better as we move along."
So maybe the best question is this: why not extend Schoop? You could point to his below-average batted-ball metrics as a sign of regression, but he's outhit those for most of his career. You could point to his age within the timeline of the Tigers' rebuild, but now you'd be getting picky. Schoop is 29 and built like a guy who will hold up for several more years. And you could only point to the players behind him if they had seized the opportunity before them.
Schoop has been a bargain for the Tigers the past two seasons, especially after last winter's free-agent freeze forced him into a $4.5 million deal for 2021. He's due a raise if Detroit wants him to sign long term -- and eschew free agency with newly-hired agent Scott Boras in the process. Would three years, $30 million work for both sides? (Probably not for Boras.) Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu got a six-year, $90 million deal last offseason, but that was after a year in which he finished third in MVP voting.
Boras might bring up infielder and fellow client Mike Moustakas instead. Moustakas got four years and $64 million from the Reds in 2019 after posting 35 homers, 87 RBI and an .845 OPS in his age-31 season. Schoop is on pace for close to 30 homers and 100 RBI with an .804 OPS that continues to climb. Moustakas had a longer track record of success when he hit free agency, but Schoop has done more damage since.
The same offseason the Reds signed Moustakas, they gave an identical deal to Nick Castellanos. The Tigers had dumped Castellanos at the prior deadline after deciding he didn’t fit in their future. Castellanos, like Schoop, will be 30 at the start of next season. Don’t you think the Tigers could fit the MLB’s leading hitter somewhere in their lineup? Instead, they have two pitchers in the minors.
In any potential deadline trade this year, Avila said the Tigers "would be looking for a guy we could have here for the near future." Otherwise, "we prefer to keep our players and continue our winning ways." The Tigers don't have to make a trade to fill one of the many holes in their infield. Forget fantasizing and pretending. Maybe the club's most realistic move as the deadline approaches is extending Jonathan Schoop.