Jeff Passan has something that makes no sense to me:
Sources: AL Cy Young winner Max Scherzer “definitely in play” in trade talks. Nothing imminent, but teams know he can be had.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 11, 2013
The presumed reason why Prince Fielder and Doug Fister were traded was so the Tigers could afford extensions for Max Scherzer. At the very least the Fister trade was based on the assumption that the Tigers’ pitching staff was strong enough to weather his absence. Because, hey, you got Mac Scherzer there.
Not that trading Scherzer while he’s at his most valuable is a bad move in a vacuum. He’s unlikely to ever be as good as he was in 2013 again and he is going to get expensive.
But if you’re thinking of trading him, why lose Fister first? That just seems nutty to me.
