Tigers' Dombrowski on Price trade: 'We're rebooting, not rebuilding'

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General manager Dave Dombrowski insists that the Detroit Tigers - who sit fourth in the American League Central, 12 1/2 games back of the Kansas City Royals - are not blowing up the team after trading David Price to the Toronto Blue Jays.

"Like I said, we're rebooting, not rebuilding," Dombrowski told reporters. "We have a good core club, we feel going forward, with some real foundation players. And so, if you can get players who are close to the big leagues and ready to contribute, you can go into next season and identify on the free-agent and trade markets what you want to pursue to still be real good."

Detroit acquired three young left-handed pitchers for their ace on Thursday in Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd, and Jairo Labourt, which Dombrowski said was the best package offered from a number of teams.

"We heard from seven or eight clubs," Dombrowski said. "We were up until about 2 in the morning, and there were a lot of phone calls made during that time. We had our guys up there, and we discussed a lot of different things - clubs making offers, clubs telling us who they may not include in deals, which makes a big difference, us asking about individuals, coming up with different ideas, and then some organizations maybe not being as deep as others."

Norris was the prized piece in the deal. The second-round selection of the 2011 draft was the No.1 prospect in the Blue Jays' farm system and began the year in Toronto's rotation before landing with Triple-A Buffalo.

His numbers haven't been impressive this season in the minors, posting a 3-10 record with an ERA of 4.27 and WHIP of 1.51 in 16 starts, but the statline wasn't enough to dissuade Dombrowki from making a deal.

"He's a premium pitching prospect," said the GM. "One of the best young pitching prospects at the big league level. He's a four-pitch guy, but he's got an above-average fastball. He's got a real good feel on the mound. We like him a lot."