It's not difficult to unscramble the 2014 Detroit Tigers. They're a good hitting club with a big-name rotation and a horrible bullpen (4.37 ERA). You love watching them hit. You flinch when they try to close out games.*
Okay, they're working on that last part.
General Manager Dave Dombrowski knew he needed additions for the back end, so he made a splashy trade Wednesday evening. The Tigers shipped two promising young pitchers, Jake Thompson and Corey Knebel, to Texas. In return, Detroit acquired veteran reliever Joakim Soria. The deal becomes official when all three players pass their physicals.*
It's a logical win-now move for the Tigers, adding a shutdown reliever in Soria (2.70 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 10.5 K/BB, 17-for-19 on saves). His fantasy owners might be less than thrilled, however. Dombrowski told Jason Beck of MLB.com that Joe Nathan will remain the Detroit closer.
Nathan's terrible season (5.89 ERA, 1.53 WHIP) had a lot to do with Detroit making this deal, though the club has also struggled to find outs in the seventh inning. Nathan somehow has 20 saves in 25 chances, outlining how misleading the stat can be. The Soria move makes it clear to everyone - Nathan's working on a short leash. I wouldn't drop either Detroit reliever right now; let's give this situation some time to breathe, see where it goes.
The Rangers have some options with respect to their Soria replacement, but it looks like they're going to play the experience card. Neftali Feliz, who just returned to the big club this month, is the first man up. "We'll give him a shot, he is the only one with [closer] experience," Rangers manager Ron Washington told MLB.com. "It will show if he can or he can't."

If Feliz encounters any problems - remember, he had Tommy John surgery in 2012 and has just 15 MLB innings since - Shawn Tolleson and Neal Cotts become relievers of interest. Tolleson has the better numbers of that pair (3.28/1.14) and is right-handed, but Cotts (3.35/1.40) has been working in heavier leverage roles. Cotts is also getting mentioned in trade rumors; contenders are always looking for another lefty.
Bottom line, it looks like we're playing the waiting game in Detroit, and it looks like we're adding Feliz (20 percent) where we can. If you need to go deeper, Tolleson (one percent) and Cotts (three percent) are widely available.
There's your opener, save chasers. We'll have more CT nuggets later in the morning.*