The Tigers announced today that they’ve acquired Delmon Young from the Twins for Cole Nelson and a PTBNL. Young is the big piece of the deal, but how much does he really improve the Tigers? It’s believed that Young will be taking some playing time from Magglio Ordonez in right field. This is a good move. Ordonez has a .575 OPS this season. In August, he’s at .366. He looks completely done as a player at this point in time.
But what about Young? Is he really going to be a big upgrade over Ordonez? Just based on how terrible Ordonez has been, you have to think he would be. Neither player has much of a platoon split this year, and both are more effective against lefties, so there’s not much to be gained from platooning them. Young has been nearly as bad as Ordonez, with a .662 OPS on the season, but as of late, he’s heating up: Young’s August OPS is .865 after a .754 mark in June and a .744 mark in July.
Young isn’t going to guarantee a division win for the Tigers. He’s not going to be the breaking point for Detroit in holding off the Indians. But he does add a nice little piece to their team that will help down the stretch.
