Twitter Talk: Trade for relief pitcher Jose Veras leads to several solid questions about Detroit Tigers

The trade the Detroit Tigers made Monday for relief pitcher Jose Veras led to some very good questions about the move on Twitter.

So here's another edition of Twitter Talk, minus the fifth non-baseball question. (I won't waste your time with vague pop culture references and restaurant reviews today.)

Let's get started.

The Tigers have had an opening on their 40-man roster since they designated Jose Valverde for assignment last month. Therefore, the Tigers don't need to open up a spot. Now, if Octavio Dotel (60-day disabled list) comes back or the Tigers want to promote a player not on the 40-man roster (Nick Castellanos or Jeremy Bonderman, for example), they will have to make a move. But no move is necessary now.

I would assume Evan Reed will head back to Triple-A Toledo when the Tigers officially add Veras prior to their game Tuesday night.

Dang. That's a good one. The Tigers could add Downs and send Luke Putkonen to Toledo when Downs is ready, especially now that they are working toward having Al Alburquerque pitch multiple innings. Or they could send Downs to Toledo. That's a good question. Maybe I should have posted an easier one here instead.

Dave Dombrowski will be active. He won't be sitting around the next two days with his feet on his desk playing Candy Crush. But will he make another move? He could, but the Veras trade seems like the one he absolutely needed to get done. I wouldn't be surprised if the Tigers make another move. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't.

That's tough to tell. There are two scenarios: The Astros have a list of more than one player to choose from and haven't settled on which one they want or the player to be named is unable to be traded at this point.

Players cannot be traded for at least one year after signing their first professional contract. Therefore, it's likely that the player to be named later is a 2012 draft pick of the Tigers who cannot be traded yet. It's a similar reason why Chance Ruffin was the player to be named later in the trade that brought Doug Fister to the Tigers in 2011.

He certainly will get more expensive if he finishes the season strong as a closer. Will he price himself out of the Tigers' reach next season? That depends on a lot of things. But the Tigers have several options.

They could re-sign Benoit to close if his contract demands are reasonable. They could sign another closer. They could head to spring training with the idea that Bruce Rondon could be ready. They would have Veras as a backup plan, just like they had Benoit as a backup plan this season. It will be an interesting offseason for the Tigers, who still have work to do in the bullpen and in the middle infield spots.

Never saw any scenario for Valverde's return to the Tigers in any other role but closer. As long as Benoit is pitching well in that role and the Tigers have Veras and Drew Smyly to fill in when needed, I wouldn't expect to see Valverde anytime soon.

Whether or not that signals the end in Toledo, well, that depends on whether the Tigers feel the need to free up that spot. Or whether Valverde has opportunities elsewhere. The Tigers certainly would allow him to pursue opportunities elsewhere if he had them.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/detroit-tigers/~3/gjbCJ1W7th4/twitter_talk_detroit_tigers_do.html

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