Dombrowski: Tigers not in active pursuit of Scherzer

SAN DIEGO -- Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski isn't sure how many times he'll have to talk about Max Scherzer.

"But you know," he said, "it keeps coming up."

And it came up again today, the final day of the MLB winter meetings, after the Tigers went out with a flurry by announcing two trades in the span of an hour.

In those trades, they replaced Rick Porcello with Alfredo Simon in their starting rotation.

But in the news conference that followed, Dombrowski couldn't sneak out of San Diego without answering yet another question about the team's interest in the foremost pitcher on the free agent market.

"Does the pursuit of Max Scherzer remain out of the picture?" he was asked.

And for the third time in a week, Dombrowski said this: "Our situation with him has not changed whatsoever."

Simon, Dombrowski said, will slot into the rotation. The rotation, he said, is basically set at this time.

"However you want to put them, with (David) Price and (Justin) Verlander and (Anibal) Sanchez and (Shane) Greene ... we like that rotation," he said. "We like it a lot."

But they also like Scherzer.

Dombrowski made no question of that -- "We love Max," he said -- but despite denying reported interest in retaining the righty on Tuesday, and with agent Scott Boras conveying interest on Scherzer's part to remain in Detroit on Wednesday, the Tigers' president and general manager still didn't close the case today.

"I guess anything can happen," he said. "But we're not in active pursuit of the situation at this point."

Scherzer, 30, went 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA and 252 strikeouts in 220 1/3 innings this past season. He won the American League Cy Young the season before that.

He is looking for a sum significantly higher than the seven-year, $160-million deal the Tigers offered him last spring. (That contract offer included his final season of arbitration, in which he earned $15.5 million.)

"Our guys get tired of me saying it," Dombrowski said, "but really, we were in a spot where we were the sole club that could sign him last spring. It didn't work. I don't think our odds improve when there's 29 other clubs that could potentially try to sign him."

Other things transpired, he said. They traded for Price to fill the co-ace role. They traded for Greene last week and for Simon today.

But owner Mike Ilitch still has some $20 bills in his pocket, he likes to say, and until Scherzer signs with another team, the question won't go away.

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.