Tigers Acquire Cabrera, Willis

Santana May Be Dealt to Red Sox

NASHVILLE, Dec. 4 -- A day and a half of paralyzing inertia at baseball's winter meetings gave way Tuesday evening to the juiciest sort of blockbuster trade, when the Detroit Tigers reached a preliminary agreement to acquire star third baseman Miguel Cabrera and talented left-hander Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins for six players, most of them prospects -- a deal that would make the Tigers instant contenders in the top-heavy American League, but at a steep cost in young talent.

There also were rumblings that another mega-deal could be coming soon, as the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins continued to work out details of a four- or five-for-one trade that would send Twins ace Johan Santana to Boston, a deal that could include Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury with various combinations of young pitchers.

News of the Tigers-Marlins trade -- which won't become final until the involved players pass physicals -- blazed through the lobby of the sprawling Opryland Resort early Tuesday evening, with rival executives, agents and reporters alike scrambling to learn the names of the six youngsters heading from Detroit to Florida.

Those players turned out to be outfielder Cameron Maybin and left-hander Andrew Miller, the top prospects in the Tigers' farm system a year ago, plus catcher Mike Rabelo and right-handed pitching prospects Eulogio De La Cruz, Dallas Trahern and Burke Badenhop.

The Marlins, feeling they could not afford to keep Cabrera and Willis as they approach free agency after the 2009 season, had discussed separate trades with other teams for each player, including intense talks with the Los Angeles Angels regarding Cabrera. But the Tigers swooped in under the radar this week, with the talks moving quickly once the Tigers reluctantly agreed to part with both Maybin and Miller.

Of the top eight prospects in the Tigers' organization at the start of the 2007 season, as rated by industry bible Baseball America, the team now has traded away six of them in separate deals for Cabrera and Willis, plus shortstop Edgar Renteria, whom they acquired from Atlanta in late October. Of the losses, the most painful clearly is Maybin, a 20-year-old phenom whom the Tigers had indicated was untouchable in earlier discussions with other teams.

But the Tigers' resulting big league roster now is as deep and powerful as any in baseball, featuring a lineup anchored by Cabrera, a 24-year-old slugger with Pujolsian ability, as well as outfielders Magglio Ordo¿ez, Curtis Granderson and Gary Sheffield, and first baseman Carlos Guillen; plus a starting rotation featuring not only Willis, a 25-year-old who has averaged nearly 14 wins and 205 innings per year in his first five seasons, but also 2006 rookie of the year Justin Verlander.

In a sense, then, the Red Sox' potential trade for Santana -- a two-time Cy Young winner in Minnesota who would still need to agree on a contract extension with his new team (no sure thing, that) before any deal would become official -- can be seen as their attempt merely to keep pace with the Tigers for supremacy in the AL.

On the surface, the Red Sox hardly seem to have a need for Santana, given a rotation already headed by Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling, Daisuke Matsuzaka, plus youngster Clay Buchholz. And at least one cynical lobby-lurker Tuesday predicted the Red Sox would fail to reach an extension agreement with Santana after the trade terms are completed, thus avoiding the expenditure but achieving the parallel goal of keeping Santana away from the Yankees.

As for the Yankees, after weeks of angling and poking, they pronounced themselves out of the Santana sweepstakes Tuesday. Though the Yankees have a dubious track record with such pronouncements (see: Rodriguez, Alex), their move to back off of Santana was made easier by their re-signing of veteran lefty Andy Pettitte on Monday, after Pettitte decided to put off retirement to return to the Bronx.

"We needed Andy," Joe Girardi, the Yankees' new manager, said Tuesday. "We needed his presence."

Notes: At the end of the day Tuesday, the Baltimore Orioles appeared no closer to trading either shortstop Miguel Tejada or ace left-hander Erik Bedard, with team president Andy MacPhail describing as "inaccurate" media reports that he was close to consummating various deals for Bedard.

The San Francisco Giants at one point were exchanging proposals with the Orioles regarding Tejada, but they eventually turned their attention to a possible deal with the Toronto Blue Jays that would send rookie right-hander Tim Lincecum to Toronto for outfielder Alex Rios. Rios previously had been mentioned in a potential deal with the Orioles for Bedard. . . . The Kansas City Royals signed former Washington Nationals outfielder Jose Guillen to a three-year, $36 million contract.

Guillen has been linked by the San Francisco Chronicle to a federal investigation into an alleged steroid and HGH distribution ring that was run out of a Florida anti-aging clinic.