Henning: Tigers strike out on deals; tough decisions still on deck

National Harbor, Md. – Ideally, the Detroit Tigers had hoped to be the past week’s version of the White Sox.

There would have been multiple trades. Payroll deflation. Oodles of youth heading into a system starved for skilled kids.

And the Tigers would have danced through Reagan National’s concourse Thursday en route to flights home and to a happy wrap-up of baseball’s Winter Meetings.

They instead headed back to Detroit with as much work ahead as they faced Sunday when they checked into the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center for what amounted to four days of conversations and little else.

The Tigers are still too heavy in 2017 salary obligations – well over $200 million and facing perhaps upwards of $10 million in luxury-tax fines for the coming season.

Worse, they learned there is even less market than most big-league analysts imagined for expensive, aging players, even when they’re named Justin Verlander, or Ian Kinsler. There is no hearty appetite for a younger, less costly star such as J.D. Martinez – not when outfielders and right-handed hitters galore are being stacked and largely ignored in baseball’s store aisles.

“I can’t say we’re frustrated, or disappointed – the market is what it is,” Tigers general manager Al Avila said after three full days of dialogue with front-office rivals had produced, essentially, zilch. “I can’t say it’s surprising. Teams are looking at payrolls and making moves as best as they see fit.”

The Tigers, as Avila reminded media, aren’t finished. This year’s offseason flesh-fair looks as if it will run later, well into January or even February, than in past years.

The Tigers could yet move one of their higher-profile people. More likely, they’ll make somewhat smaller deals, perhaps involving two players other teams have been chasing: left-handed reliever Justin Wilson, as well as shortstop Jose Iglesias.

Tigers grab LH reliever Daniel Stumpf in Rule 5 draft

Wilson is somewhat expendable as long as the Tigers get a pair of attractive pieces – or one strong prospect – in return. They have Kyle Ryan and Blaine Hardy as left-handers and Thursday added another potential handyman in Daniel Stumpf, who was snatched from the Royals in baseball’s Rule 5 draft.

Iglesias is a plausible trade chip when the Tigers would replace him in 2017 with Dixon Machado, 24, who is out of minor-league options and whose defense is superb. Machado wouldn’t easily match Iglesias’ 2016 batting average of .255. But Iglesias’ .643 OPS would conceivably be within reach for Machado, who had a .705 OPS in 131 games at Triple A Toledo. He also had four more extra-base hits in 2016 than Iglesias managed with the Tigers.

Avila has other shopping-list priorities that remain unresolved.

The Tigers want an affordable option in center field, apart from Tyler Collins, as they buy time for the man they believe in short time could be their everyday player there: JaCoby Jones.

They need a backup catcher and are looking at price-friendly choices there, which might include one-time regular Alex Avila.

But their over-arching mission, which didn’t come close to being accomplished during baseball’s prime time for trading, is to prune payroll and get fresh talent into a system exhausted by too many past prospects trades, too many forfeited draft picks, and opting for far too many long and expensive contracts.

It’s something of a mess created by earlier appetites and realities that now become Avila’s responsibility.

He is taking a high-road approach. Avila spent much of the week insisting the Tigers would, if nothing dramatic happens, be happy to carry a competitive roster and starting rotation into 2017 and take their chances on winning a Central Division title.

It’s not necessarily a fantasy. The Tigers will have a starting rotation that probably centers on Verlander, Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris, Jordan Zimmermann, and perhaps Matt Boyd, unless Anibal Sanchez pitches reassuringly during spring camp.

Their bullpen closer is the trustworthy Francisco Rodriguez. Rookie right-hander Joe Jimenez likely will be part of the late-inning mix rather early in 2017 in tandem with the restored flame-thrower, Bruce Rondon, who will be joined by dependable right-hander Alex Wilson.

Miguel Cabrera. Victor Martinez. Kinsler. Nick Castellanos. Justin Upton. J.D. Martinez. All will be lineup staples, as will be catcher James McCann, whose sore ankle has healed and who could develop into a neat hitter in the bottom-third of manager Brad Ausmus’ lineup.

Another reality could just as easily evolve in 2017: July’s trade deadline.

The Tigers could very well learn in seven months that a fringe playoff team would be better off taking advantage of a market warmer and richer than they confronted in December.

At that time, deals unattainable during an offseason when teams were watching dollars and contract years particularly closely might become doable, as the Tigers learned at 2015’s summer sale when David Price and Yoenis Cespedes were gobbled up for big returns.

So many decisions await Avila, not only in the next two months, but during spring camp when players and option expirations beyond Machado will enter the picture.

Steven Moya, likewise, can’t be returned to the minors in 2017 minus a ride on the waiver wire. He would be lost, almost certainly, to another club. But where does he play when the Tigers can’t find a proper suitor for J.D. Martinez? As a fourth outfielder? Not easily – not when his defense is no plus and when a young hitter, 25, needs to play regularly for that left-handed power to become an asset.

Collins is out of options, although he appears safe, either as a part-time starter in center, or as a left-handed-hitting outfield choice off the bench.

No more kid gloves for Fulmer, Norris, Boyd: 200 innings

Avila has ample cash leaving the Tigers payroll in coming years, beginning next autumn when Anibal Sanchez ($16 million, or $5 million buyout), Mike Pelfrey ($8 million), and K-Rod ($6 million) can be jettisoned. A bunch more is lopped in 2018 when Victor Martinez ($18 million) and Ian Kinsler ($12 million) presumably depart.

The problem is that Detroit’s immediate needs are not only financial. They’re competitive. The Tigers had relied on spinning off expensive, high-caliber players (Kinsler, J.D. Martinez, Verlander if necessary, etc.) for that badly needed injection of new blood.

Young players, either as solid prospects or as big-league ready roster pieces, were to help the Tigers stay afloat during years (2018 into the next decade) that otherwise could turn into a hard-labor rebuilding project if Detroit can’t make deals Avila desperately wants to pull off.

A general manager only 16 months on the job is staying upbeat. But he also understands reality.

“We had a sneaking suspicion this could happen,” he said Wednesday evening as the Tigers assessed a market that had turned upside down on them. “This all has to do with timing.”

And calendars.

For the Tigers, a single month could be worth targeting: July. If necessary trades can’t be made then, or in the interim, baseball in Detroit will be on the verge of change. Change that could require a few years of patience and pain on the part of Tigers followers who already miss the good old days.

lynn.henning@detroitnews.com

Twitter @Lynn_Henning