Hot on the trail of a number of middle infielders at the moment, the Detroit Tigers are reportedly trying quite hard to acquire Chicago Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney according to ESPN.com's Jim Bowden ($).
The Tigers made an inquiry about Barney several weeks ago, so it's clear that the two teams are at the very least trying to work something out after it appeared things had broken down. Barney is still just 26 years old and remains under contract through the 2016 campaign, and would offer both an offensive and defensive upgrade for the Tigers if he came to Motown.
Although he owns a rather pedestrian .309 on-base percentage for his career, Barney looks to be slowly developing a bit of power from the plate, and has increased his slugging percentage in each of his three big league seasons. While he might not offer the same time of impact right now as a player like Marco Scutaro or Omar Infante likely would, Barney could still be a valuable deadline addition if the price is right for general manager Dave Dombrowski.
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