Well, the deal isn’t done quite yet, but what looked like a deal that wasn’t going to happen this afternoon turned into a fact when the Tigers traded Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin, Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz, Mike Rabello and Burke Badenhop to the Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

Wow, the Tigers gave up four of their top eleven prospects in a deal which will essentially gut their minor league system of top quality talent.  In exchange, the Tigers get a front of the rotation starter as well as one of the best hitters in baseball.  Miller and Maybin were the cornerstones of the deal but Eulogio De La Cruz had a ton of talent as well.  Trahern was a wait and see type of guy because he wasn’t a hard thrower. 

Willis came close to winning a Cy Young back in 2005 and Miguel Carbera has belted at least 25 homers and driven in 110 runs the last four years.  Cabrera won’t be 25 until after the start of the season and Willis will be 26 in January so this isn’t a one or two year buy.  You have to figure that the Tigers wouldn’t have made this deal if they weren’t going to sign both guys to at least three year deals.

In conclusion, this is a hard deal to digest because none of the guys that the Tigers gave up had even a full year with the big league club outside of Rabello as the team’s backup catcher.  Still, I like the way this sets up the Tigers for the next couple of years at least.  This should vault them over the Indians as the favorites in the Central next year and they should be at least in the top five talent wise in all of baseball so you have to be happy about that. 

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