Tigers acquire Cabrera, Willis

By Zeke Jennings
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With all the focus on the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, as usual, the Detroit Tigers stole the show at the Baseball Winter Meetings on Tuesday.

The Tigers acquired a pair of All-star caliber players in Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins.

Detroit gave up a pretty penny to do so in elite prospects Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin, back-up catcher Mike Rabelo, and three other minor-leaguers, including Euglio De La Cruz, who has the stuff to be a potential set-up man or possibly even a closer at the major-league level.

Tiger fans will view this trade with mixed emotions.

The cost

Maybin's reputation as a can't-miss, five-tool future star has reached almost-unrealistic proportions among Tiger fans.

He slid to tenth in the 2005 amateur draft because of potential signability, when the Tigers snatched up the high school star.

Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski reportedly said he wouldn't have traded Maybin straight up for Alfonso Soriano when the latter was on the trade block at the 2006 trade deadline.

Maybin has drawn comparisons ranging from Ken Griffey Jr. to Andre Dawson to Joe Carter, but his star may have lost a little bit of luster late last season.

In mid-August, the Tigers called up Maybin, who had only been promoted to Double-A Erie a week prior, and it showed how far the 20-year old is from reaching that stratospheric potential.

Maybin hit just .143 (7-for-49) with one home run and struck out 21 times in 20 games. Aside from the numbers, he looked woefully overmatched by major-league pitching.

The Tigers would never admit it, but Maybin's struggles may have given them second thoughts on how untouchable he should be.

Maybin, who plays center field, is projected to be better than current Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson, but after the season Granderson had, that's by no means a given, especially not anytime soon.

Dombrowski has built the Tigers into a winner after the franchise suffered through 12 straight losing seasons, including the 119-loss nightmare in 2003.

He did so by rebuilding the farm system (Granderson, Joel Zumaya, Justin Verlander, Fernando Rodney), trades (Jeremy Bonderman, Carlos Guillen, Placido Polanco, Nate Robertson, Gary Sheffield) and free agency (Pudge Rodriguez, Kenny Rogers, Magglio Ordonez, Todd Jones).

The Tigers are now among the elite franchises in baseball, and elite franchises are built to win championships.

The booty

Cameron Maybin might be a stud.

Miguel Cabrera is a stud.

Some baseball fans tend to fall a little too in love with prospects. They hear, read and see all that potential and can't bear the thought of giving up somebody who might be the next Ken Griffey Jr.

In the world of baseball, the old saying a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush can often be applied.

You know what you have in Cabrera. You only know what you could have in Maybin.

Cabrera has been amazingly consistent over his first four years in the majors, averaging 32 home runs and 116 RBIs and a .318 batting average. In those years, he's hit no fewer than 26 home runs or driven in less than 112 runs.

All while playing for the Marlins with little around him and in a pitcher-friendly ballpark.

Willis is a little bit of a wild card because of his second-half struggles in 2007.

He finished with a 10-15 record and a 5.17 ERA, easily the worst numbers of his career. Some question whether all the early-career innings Willis, 25, has logged have caught up with him.

Would the Tigers have traded Miller for Willis, a former All-Star? Probably not given Dontrelle's late-season struggles.

But the Cabrera was the centerpiece of the deal, and Maybin and the other prospects simply wouldn't have gotten the deal done.

The leftie Miller has loads of potential, but he relies mainly on his fastball at this early stage of his career. Potential is just potential until if and when he can develop reliable offspeed and breaking stuff.

Willis has everything developed, the only question is whether he's right.

The bottom line

Cabrera could very well be the best hitter in a lineup that already features Granderson, Sheffield, Ordonez and Guillen.

It's also a lineup that is still very unbalanced with righthanded hitters, which is fine when you face lefties, but in a perfect world the Tigers would have a little more balance in the heart of that lineup.

There is still plenty of time to lock up Cabrera with a long-term deal, but the same cannot be said for Willis.

It's probably unlikely that Detroit will work a contract extension given Willis's second-half numbers, nor would the Willis camp probably want to sign anything knowing that he's capable of a much better performance, which could lead to some serious dollars on the open market next offseason.

So really the Tigers are treating Willis as a one-year rental with a player option to buy. If he performs well and likes it here, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has shown he'll take care of his own players.

The Tigers became a better baseball team for 2008 on Tuesday, but there are still questions.

The bullpen is questionable with the injury to Zumaya and Jones, who is not getting any younger or any more reliable. Dombrowski also added Denny Baustista on Monday to hopefully give the pen a little more depth.

The rotation needs Bonderman to get back on track and become the solid high-end rotation guy that everyone thought he would become. Robertson also could use a bounce-back year.

The trade on Tuesday, along with the deal for Edgar Renteria has significantly depleted the farm system's depth, so the rotation, especially, needs to stay healthy.

At the end of the day, the Tigers gave up a lot of potential.

But potential doesn't win titles, performance does. In Willis and Cabrera, they've added two guys that have proven they can perform at an All-star level.