The Tigers are taking calls on Drew Smyly, Rick Porcello

With Anibal Sanchez locked up the Tigers rotation looks pretty spiffy:

Justin Verlander
Max Scherzer
Anibal Sanchez
Doug Fister
Rick Porcello/Drew Smyly

Six legit major league starters for five slots is not a bad position to be in. You can keep ‘em all and have some nice pitching depth. Or, if you have some other holes to fill, you could deal one. Which may very well be what Dave Dombrowski plans on doing:

Tigers are taking calls on Smyly as well as Porcello. Not committed to trading either one, but with tons of interest, I’m guessing one goes.

— DKnobler (@DKnobler) December 18, 2012

We already heard about the Tigers fielding interest on Porcello, but one wonders if Smyly wouldn’t bring greater value. With only one year under his belt, Smyly already looks pretty good: a good strikeout rate, not particularly lucky on balls in play. In this market a cheap, solid pitcher should bring a lot of value. It’ll be interesting to see what the Tigers do with him.