According to Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, the Tigers would have preferred the Mets package of prospects in a potential deal for Kinsler, but were ultimately handcuffed by him not waiving his no-trade clause to come to New York.
“Sure, the Tigers would have preferred the Mets’ prospects,” Fenech said. “After all, they’ve been picking through a bad Angels’ system in salary dumps for the past two seasons — but even those players weren’t going to make the team big winners.”
Original report: Dec. 13, 9 p.m.
Perhaps the Mets biggest second base target is off the board as Ian Kinsler has been traded to the Los Angeles Angels, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Anthony Fenech of Free Press Sports is reporting that the Tigers are receiving RHP Wilkel Hernandez, No. 20 prospect per MLB Pipeline, and OF Troy Montgomery, No. 24 prospect, in return for Kinsler.
Kinsler’s name has been linked to New York over the last several weeks, but would have had to waive his no-trade clause to come here.
This past year, Kinsler managed to hit just .236/.313/.412 with a 91 wRC+ and .313 wOBA, but still clubbed 22 long balls and drove in 52 runs in 613 plate appearances.
However, his advanced metrics show that there is still reason to believe he can get back on track next year. Kinsler set a career high hard hit rate at 37 percent in 2017, while his line drive rate (20.6), strikeout rate (14.0) and base-on-balls rate (9.0) are still in line with his overall career marks. Additionally, his average suffered from a career low .244 BABIP.
The 35-year-old has also proved to be durable throughout his career, appearing in at least 130 games from 2011 through this past season.
Among second basemen the last four seasons, Kinsler ranks fourth in games played (599), fourth in hits (676), 14th in average (.275), fifth in home runs (76) and third in RBI (294).
With Kinsler no longer available, a couple other names to keep an eye on are Jason Kipnis and Josh Harrison.
