The One Hitter…..Claim Justin Verlander

Justin Verlander posted on Twitter right after the trade deadline about how he was still in the Detroit’s locker room.  This is nice and it let’s his fans know he’s happy to be there, but we all know that with his massive contract, the Tigers will put him on the waiver wire and hope he gets through.  If he does, he’ll be available to be traded.  The Sox should not allow that to happen.

There are three possible outcomes from claiming Verlander:

1. The Sox trade Courtney Hawkins for Justin Verlander.
2. The Tigers let the Sox eat his contract.
3. The Tigers revoke Verlander’s waivers and keep him.

One and two are basically the same thing and are very unlikely.  If Detroit felt compelled to dump his salary, they would have traded him for anything before the deadline.  So they are looking to either keep him or sell high.  But even if they did, the Sox now have a minimized payroll that could absorb his monster contract.  They could then trade him in the off-season or next deadline.

Three is the likely scenario and is important if the Sox want to move Miguel Gonzalez or Derek Holland.  You can’t allow Verlander to be in the August market.  By doing this, you block that from occurring.

This is an extreme example, but with the Sox horrible record, they have only the Phils and Giants ahead of them on the waiver wire.  This means they can claim a number of guys passing through.  They also have room on their 40 man to do it.  So you may see Hahn try to grab some guys that could provide offseason trade value like Ervin Santana or Jeff Samardzija or that guy we all wanted in free agency: Justin Upton.

-Chorizy-E