From Jon Morosi, who knows the Tigers well:
MLB Trade Rumors: Tigers Interested In Carlos Beltran
Tigers do have interest in Carlos Beltran, source confirms, but team's current focus is trading for a starting pitcher.
Every team with a hole in the outfield should have interest in Beltran, who very quietly has been one of the National League’s five best outfielders this season. And like a lot of American League clubs, the Tigers have gotten very little production from their left fielders this season.*
* The American League's best left fielder in 2011? Kansas City's Alex Gordon, who should have been an All-Star. Most teams haven't even had a regular left fielder at all.
That said, the Tigers do have a number of players who can play left field, sort of. And Jim Leyland's probably got a better chance of cobbling together an effective squad of left fielders from the material at hand, than of finding a good starting pitcher to complement Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. If the Tigers can't acquire a good starter, they might well "settle" for an outfielder. But that probably shouldn't be their first priority.
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