The Prince has Left the Building

In huge major news, that I saw no rumors of beforehand...

The Tigers have traded Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers for Ian Kinsler.  Straight up.

Dave Dombrowski just proves to us all once again that he is the mad wizard of trading.  This is an unbelievably amazing trade for both teams, but especially our Tigers.

This has huge implications beyond picking up a stud second baseman with a legitimate bat.  This deal opens the gateway for more moves, and and and I can't control my excitement!

First of all, Miggy will probably be moving back to first base.  He will happily do it.  He wants to win.  He moved to 1st, back to 3rd, I don't see why he wouldn't do it again.

But why would he move to first? You so thoughtlessly wonder...  Cuz Nick Castellanos is moving back to his natural position of third base.  He had been in left field for 17 months just because we needed to find him a spot.  Well now he's playing third and we'll see if those years of holding on to him were worth it.  I am convinced he's going to be a stud.

Kinsler provides a consistent top of the order bat who can hit leadoff or second.  Might be Jackson, Kinsler, Hunter, Miggy, V-Mart for the 1-5 next season.  Get excited about that people.

On the other side of this, this will be good for Texas and Prince.  Arlington has a "jet stream" for left handed hitters that make it very easy for hitters like Prince to hit 40+ bombs.  It's a very friendly home run park, and as we learned these past two years, if Prince isn't hitting bombs, he's hitting pop ups or grounders to the second baseman.

But remember this, while both have big contracts, nothing quite compares to the contract we were stuck with when it comes to Prince Fielder.  Ideally, he would have been an anchor for... nine years (still can't say it without laughing.)  But bottom line is he had $168 million of guaranteed money left.  Kinsler has around $62 million left.  That's $100 million saved. ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.

Dr. Evil would be proud.

Here's the deal.  That money can go to Mad Maxwell and Miggy because they'll be due a lot of money soon.  Also frees up money to reshape that bullpen, and hopefully bring in Joe Nathan.  Veteran closer, wants to win, still has great stuff, mutual interest, perfect fit.

Also, expect a Porcello deal to bring in a possible new left fielder and bullpen.

Get excited people.