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Tigers Target Cabrera, Willis

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A Tribune wire report

Published: December 5, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Detroit Tigers reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday to acquire Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins for a package of six players, an unexpected blockbuster trade that developed quickly at the winter meetings.

In a huge deal that took the spotlight away from Boston's pursuit of Johan Santana, Florida gets lefty Andrew Miller, outfielder Cameron Maybin and four other prospects from the Tigers, a baseball official with knowledge of the talks said on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been finalized.

Willis was on vacation when he heard the news.

"I'm in Mexico right now with my family. I'm kind of busy," he told The Associated Press.

The Marlins also receive catcher Mike Rabelo, formerly of Ridgewood High and the University of Tampa, and right-handers Burke Badenhop, Eulogio De La Cruz and Dallas Trahern. The players involved must pass physicals for the deal to be completed.

"It's very serious, but nothing is finalized yet because some issues need to get worked out," Tigers manager Jim Leyland told the AP.

Florida didn't even approach the Tigers until Tuesday morning. The Marlins told the Tigers they could have the two stars for those six players, then Detroit called back about two hours later and agreed.

Detroit had not been considered a contender for Cabrera or Willis.

"It was kind of like, wow, when I heard. I halfway expected one of them to get traded, but not both in the same deal. So it's a little bit of a shock," Marlins left fielder Josh Willingham said.

Boston, meanwhile, was focused on Santana, the Minnesota Twins' two-time Cy Young Award winner. Finding the price too high, the Yankees ended their efforts to acquire the 28-year-old left-hander.

Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner had set a Monday deadline for an agreement with the Twins.

"A deadline is a deadline. It was pretty much done as of this morning," he said. "He's a fine pitcher, but there's a lot of things that go into this. This isn't fantasy baseball."

Boston had offered the Twins packages built either around pitcher Jon Lester or outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, but not both.

"I know there's a lot of speculation that we're close to something big," Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said. "Until we reach an agreement, then we're not that close."

ROYALS: Power-hitting outfielder Jose Guillen and Kansas City reached an agreement on a $36 million, three-year contract.

The 31-year-outfielder, who played for the Rays from 1999 to 2001, batted .290 with 23 homers and 99 RBIs for the Mariners this year.

BRAVES-CUBS TRADE: Atlanta acquired reliever Will Ohman and infielder Omar Infante from the Cubs for pitcher Jose Ascanio.

TIGERS-ROCKIES TRADE: Denny Bautista was acquired by Detroit from Colorado in a swap of right-handed pitchers. The Rockies received Jose Capellan.

PADRES: NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy and San Diego reached a preliminary agreement on a $52 million, three-year extension through 2012, a deal subject to a physical.

YANKEES: Reached a tentative agreement to trade former Mitchell High pitcher Tyler Clippard to the Nationals for pitcher Jonathan Albaladejo.

LEGAL: Seven media companies, including The Associated Press, filed papers with a federal appeals court in San Francisco in support of Hearst Corp.'s fight to get the names of Major League Baseball players implicated in a steroids investigation.

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