Is Miguel Cabrera Available Via Trade?

There are a lot of questions concerning what the Detroit Tigers are going to do this winter. Some are speculating that there will be a firesale as the team tries to shed payroll going into the 2010 season, while others are saying that any such talk is ridiculous.

Still, that hasn't stopped rumors from spreading around the league that players like Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson are being shopped, and now there's a much bigger name floating around. According to a report by The Detroit News' Lynn Henning, even Miguel Cabrera -- he of the rogue first-place AL MVP vote -- is on the trading block.

Nor has anything irresistible been offered for first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who might be as available as Granderson, Jackson, or seemingly any Tigers player as the team attempts to pare payroll and prepare for a fresh start heading into a new decade.

"I'm not getting into any names," Dombrowski said Monday, when asked about Cabrera, who would figure to be just the brand of hitter the Boston Red Sox would welcome to Fenway Park in their eternal quest to one-up the New York Yankees.

The idea of the Tigers trading Cabrera would have seemed ridiculous a year ago considering that the team signed him to a seven-year contract extension in March 2008, only a few months after they brought Cabrera along with Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins via trade.

Now it still seems ridiculous on a baseball level, as Cabrera is the centerpiece of the Tigers offense and should be for years to come, but economically, the team may not have much choice. The economy in Detroit isn't doing the team any favors, as it's likely the Tigers lost money in 2009 and could stand to lose even more in 2010.

So clearing the $126 million the team would owe Cabrera through 2015 would no doubt bring some relief to the team's bottom line.

Still, I wouldn't put too much stock into this rumor just yet. It seems like Henning's just playing with doomsday scenarios.