One of the few issues that the Detroit Tigers have right now is a somewhat thin starting pitching staff, especially lacking in left handed hurlers. They've been rumored to be looking for someone, along with two of their division rivals, Cleveland and Chicago. Ryan Dempster has been a name thrown around quite a lot, but there are other targets as well for Detroit.
FOX Sports' Jon Paul Morosi suggested in a Wednesday article that the Tigers -- along with the other two teams looking for starters in the AL Central -- could be interested in picking up Francisco Liriano from the Minnesota Twins to solve that problem.
Liriano returned to the Twins’ rotation May 30 after a brief spell in the bullpen; his 2.83 ERA since then is among the top 15 for major-league starters during that span, according to STATS LLC. Liriano, 28, would have particular appeal to the Tigers and Indians, who lack a left-handed starter in their rotations. (The White Sox have two, Sale and Quintana.)
Liriano hasn't had a great season overall -- in fact, he hasn't been a top tier pitcher since his solid rookie campaign in 2006 -- but tends to have great flashes of brilliance, especially in the past six games. So far on the season he has gone 3-8 but has had some good moments on the last place Twins. His last start in particular saw him strike out 15 Athletics players but still get tagged with the loss.
With the powerful Tigers offense behind him, he could have a shot at getting back on track. There's no actual reports that the Tigers are looking at him out yet, but it would certainly make an intriguing match.
For more on the Detroit Tigers, check out Bless You Boys. You can also head over to SB Nation's main MLB hub at Baseball Nation, or watch SB Nation's YouTube channel: