Tigers, Marlins: it's a Whopper!

The Detroit Tigers and Florida Marlins made a big splash Tuesday evening, reeling in the biggest trade of the Winter Meetings thus far.

Tigers skipper Jim Leyland, sans cigs and smoking jacket, approached a Marlins executive Tuesday morning and simply said, "We want [Miguel] Cabrera."

Now, the Motor City Kitties have acquired the 24-year-old slugging third baseman along with once-awesome pitcher Dontrelle Willis, whose value went down considerably after a rough 10-15 season with a 5.17 ERA.


The Marlins, who can barely afford new rosin bags, received two of the sweetest prospects in the league in sweet-swinging Cameron Maybin (20) and promising lefty Andrew Miller (22). The deal also has four other players heading to Forida: catcher Mike Rabelo, reliever Eulogio de la Cruz and starting pitchers Dallas Trahern and Burke Badenhop.

So, the Tigers are pretty much out of young kids for their future, as they traded away outfielder Gorkys Hernandez and starter Jair Jurrjens, to acquire shortstop Edgar Renteria from the Atlanta Braves earlier this offseason.

But, now they can pride themselves on having one of the most intimidating lineups in baseball...

Curtis Granderson
Placido Polanco
Miguel Cabrera
Magglio Ordonez
Gary Sheffield
Carlos Guillen
Edgar Renteria
Ivan Rodriguez
Jacque Jones
Marcus Thames

Scary stuff.

[SI]