Sometimes the best trades are the ones you never make.
Last offseason, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams was looking to acquire slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins.
The deal fell through because salary-dumping Florida insisted on including left-hander Dontrelle Willis in the trade. Williams wisely had no interest in adding Willis to the Sox roster.
Enter the Detroit Tigers, who acquired both Cabrera and Willis for five prospects in one of the biggest blockbuster moves of the winter.
Willis has been a total disaster for the Tigers. On Monday, the former Kane County Cougar failed to make it out of the second inning. He gave up eight runs on five hits, with five walks, in an 8-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians.
Willis, coming off a hyperextended knee, has walked 21 batters in 11 1/3 innings this season. On Tuesday, Detroit sent him back to the minors.
Not just triple-A either. They sent him all the way down to Class A Lakeland. Yikes!
The real bad news for the Tigers is this: After they acquired Willis, they gave him a three-year extension worth $29 million. Now, they are stuck with a pitcher who can't get the ball over the plate. That Class A pitching coach has a lot of work ahead of him trying to fix the "D-Train."
Thank goodness the Sox didn't get stuck with this guy in an effort to acquire Cabrera.
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