Avila Denies Tigers' Interest In Outfielders Cespedes, Gordon
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Don't start digging out that old Yoenis Cespedes Detroit Tigers jersey just yet.
Reports from Monday indicated the Tigers were in the market to acquire Cespedes from the team they traded him to at the deadline this past season, the New York Mets. But Tigers general manager Al Avila refuted that report, saying "at this point," he could rule out both Cespedes, as well as outfielder Alex Gordon, who had also been linked to the Tigers. Asked if there was anything that could change that, he said, "not that I see in front of me, no."
Avila admitted that the Tigers had been in discussions about acquiring outfield help via trade, but that none of those talks had advanced to anything serious.
"Nothing that I would say serious, nothing that's advanced, nothing that right now I can say, 'Oh, we're pretty close,'" Avila said in his meeting with reporters at the MLB winter meetings Monday. "A lot of possibilities that right now are, quite frankly, lukewarm to us – not that exciting."
Players like Cespedes and Gordon would require mega-contracts, which would surely put the Tigers over the luxury tax line, unless they unloaded pieces of their payroll. When asked if he expected the club to reach that luxury tax, Avila said he "didn't want to get into the finances right now."
Throughout the offseason and specifically through this week's winter meetings, Avila has stuck beside his goal of bolstering the Tigers' pitching corps. ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reported that Detroit had reached a deal with reliever Mark Lowe, although that hasn't been confirmed by the team, and Avila said he could not comment on the situation "at this point."
The Tigers also signed two starters in Jordan Zimmermann and Mike Pelfrey last week, while also acquiring reliever Francisco Rodriguez.
Avila has not ruled out the possibility that the club could make "tweaks" to its offense, although he said it likely wouldn't happen during winter meetings this week.
"I doubt if it'll happen here," he said. "It could happen between now and the end of spring training. Those kinds of guys sometimes – things develop as people make trades, guys get moved, and then maybe a team acquires a player, they need to move a player, so it could unfold at different times throughout the offseason or spring training or even during the season."
Should the team decide to pursue outfield help, Avila said he's looking for a very specific type of player.
"I think a perfect combination would be a guy that maybe can a play a little infield, a little outfield, can give us that combination, and that can provide some offense," he said. "That's a hard combination to acquire. We've pretty much let the teams out there know, particularly after we made the (Cameron) Maybin trade, that if that kind of player – if they have that kind of player that they feel they can move, then we would be interested in listening to that."
If the 2016 season were to start tomorrow, Avila said he would be fine with the Tigers' outfield. Although owner Mike Ilitch had previously commented that he didn't mind spending plenty of money - even making a joke at Zimmermann's introductory press conference about the luxury tax - Avila said that Detroit isn't in the market to throw piles of dollars at anyone.
"Most of the day we were kicking it around," Avila said. "We had the guys in here - different scenarios as far as the bullpen, possibly adding a bat, that kind of stuff, so it's difficult. It's not that easy. It's not like we're in a market to go say, we're gonna go sign this player at X amount of dollars. We're not in that market. It's a whole different way about going about it. It's more of a mix and match."
