Trade Season Is Officially Here

There are two times of the year that everybody can pretty much agree is the most stressful of the year. One is the Christmas season when you have to try and figure out who might gift you and so you must be ready with a gift in return. The other is the trade deadline for pretty much the same reason, just with baseball players.

Today, a major trade took place and a major trade didn’t. First up, the one that didn’t happen, as Ryan Dempster was not traded to the Braves in exchange for 22-year-old pitching prospect, Randall Delgado. As originally reported by Dave O’Brien, Jon Heyman, and Mark Bowman as a done deal, the story changed drastically when Ryan Dempster, complete with 10-and-5 veto rights, denied that any deal had gone down. Yeesh. A lot of egg and whatnot.

Onto a completed trade, the Tigers will be collecting Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante for top prospect Jacob Turner, catching prospect Rob Brantly, pitcher Brian Flynn, and a sandwich pick in next year’s draft . While Turner is only 21 and in the midst of a very strong season at AAA, albeit with a depressed strikeout rate (6.1/9), the Tigers are in a win now mode with Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Verlander leading the team and those prospects may have little to do with the next Tigers World Series dream.

The addition of Anibal Sanchez should strengthen an average Tigers rotation (though pitching in spacious Marlins stadium covers some of his flaws) while Omar Infante will provide an immediate upgrade to the TS Eliot-esque wasteland that has been occupying that positon this year. Having just taken over first place again, the moves close some visible gaps in the pitching staff and will make it more difficult for the White Sox to remain in the hunt.

Of course, since time is only a construct since mankind cannot view all events at once, all trades that have or ever will happen are already completed. So what’s even the point of passing this information along?