What Does David Price do to the AL Central

The 2014 Major League Baseball trade deadline has now come and gone.  For the Twins, the only notable move was in dealing outfielder Sam Ful back to Oakland and receiving left-handed pitcher, Tommy Milone, in return.  However, the AL Central received a big shake up, David Price is headed to the Tigers.

What does this do for the rest of the division? A lot.  The Tigers get a guy in David Price who they can immediately slot into their rotation as yet another workhorse.  While a contract extension was not worked out prior to the trade, the Tigers have shown they are willing to spend money (their offer to Max Scherzer), and they have Price until 2016 at least.

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Detroit will now feature a rotation that encompasses Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Justin Verlander, and Rick Porcello, quite the impressive stable of arms.  While their bullpen is far from solid, they have to feel good about their starting arms.

Around the Central, most teams have one guy comparable to what the Tigers can run out to the mound.  The White Sox feature Chris Sale, the Royals have James Shields, the Indians have Corey Kluber, and the Twins have Phil Hughes.

As the Tigers make their rounds through the AL Central, and really baseball as a whole, there will no longer be circled dates in the series as games where the top arm is missed.  Detroit watched what Oakland did this morning in acquiring Jon Lester, and they went all in to make sure that the two teams would be seeing each other in the American League Championship Series.

For Twins fans, getting Milone for a rental of a waiver pickup was a nice addition.  While it doesn’t come close to the Tigers offerings, a rotation of Hughes, Alex Meyer, Trevor May, Kyle Gibson, and Tommy Milone is respectable enough to get Minnesota back to relevancy.

Look for the AL Central to only continue to get better in the next calendar year.