Insider: Money still a big factor as Tigers approach trade deadline

Today in the Detroit Tigers and trade deadline talks: Money.

And no matter which way you look at it, money remains the biggest factor influencing the team and their trade plans.

General manager Al Avila has been up front about the Tigers' desire to scale back payroll. But in nearly every next breath, he’s said the front office is under no mandate from ownership to cut finances at the expense of acquiring top prospects.

But such is the situation they are currently stuck in, less than a week away from the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. According to multiple persons with knowledge of their talks, the Tigers have set a high asking prices on their available players and have yet to show a willingness to eat a substantial enough sum of salary for talks to gain serious traction.

As of this evening, nothing was imminent on the trade front.

Perhaps no player embodies the Tigers’ predicament better than Justin Verlander.

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Verlander is owed roughly $70 million over the next two seasons, the biggest hurdle in making a move. The team is certainly interested in trading him, but doesn’t appear interested in doing so at any sort of a discounted rate in terms of prospect return.

They would be willing to eat the remaining money – about $12 million – on Verlander’s contract this season, but no more. Their stance is not wrong: At his best, Verlander is a premium pitcher, one who just last season finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting. He is a face of the franchise player, perhaps a future Hall of Famer, and the optics of trading such a player for either an underwhelming prospect return or by paying a sizable sum will not sit well with the fan base.

The general consensus among executives is the Tigers will need to cover nearly half of Verlander’s salary to make things work. Even then, there are only a few true suitors for his services: On paper, the Dodgers, Cubs and Astros appear to be those teams.

But the Dodgers would be severely penalized by surpassing the current collective bargaining agreement’s luxury tax limits if they added Verlander, who is due to receive $28 million in each of the next two seasons. And their top target remains Rangers right-hander Yu Darvish, a rental player who's a free agent at season's end.

The Cubs had a scout watching Verlander for a third time on Monday night, but some within the organization believe their time to acquire him has passed: They traded a boatload of prospects for left-hander Jose Quintana two weeks ago. They were represented again tonight at Comerica Park and have also expressed interest in lefty reliever Justin Wilson and catcher Alex Avila.

The Astros have long been interested in Wilson and have kicked the tires on Verlander, but seem content with their starting rotation and so far have balked at the Tigers’ asking prices.

There is also the issue of where Verlander stands on the trade market: He appears to be third in line, behind Darvish and Athletics righty Sonny Gray, in terms of available front-line starters. Gray is under team control for two more seasons.

But if anything’s clear, it’s that the Tigers are serious about shedding some of their payroll. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, they have discussed pairing some of their expensive players together in trade packages.

While that could indicate they are more interested in lowering payroll than adding prospects, it also could show their willingness to get creative in adding the best possible prospects.

Second baseman Ian Kinsler would be a logical player to dangle in those talks: Though Kinsler is having a down season offensively, he was a Gold Glove defender last season and his contract includes an affordable option next season at between $10-12 million, depending on performance clauses.

Though time is ticking on the non-waiver deadline, it’s still too early to predict how it will shake out. Traditionally, as the deadline nears, teams become more aggressive in trying to upgrade. The high asking prices the Tigers seek right now could lower.

But with all of the factors that go into this crucial deadline for the team, the biggest remains money.

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