The biggest what-ifs in MLB this past decade

What if one player found himself in a completely different situation than today's reality tells us?

What if said player was Mike Trout, who was selected by the Los Angeles Angels with the pick they received from the New York Yankees in the Mark Teixeira free agent signing?

That's one of the biggest what-ifs around the Major League Baseball world over the past decade.

Detroit Tigers select Clayton Kershaw over Andrew Miller in 2006 MLB Draft

This scenario would have potentially set up a Detroit rotation that included Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander during the team's title-chasing seasons from 2011-14.

Think about it this way. The Tigers won 95 games in 2011. That season saw Verlander, Scherzer and Doug Fister combine for a 47-15 record. It also saw Kershaw win the National League Cy Young with a 21-5 record and a 2.28 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Needless to say, Detroit likely would have found a way to defeat the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series that October. Instead, it fell in six games with the Rangers scoring 34 runs in their four wins.

More than any other sport, the MLB draft is a crapshoot. Detroit decided on a pitcher in Andrew Miller with the sixth pick in the 2006 draft. Miller was better known to the scouting community — a clear indication that the selection wasn't necessarily a major surprise.

Miller was dealt to the then Florida Marlins with a package of prospects for Miguel Cabrera two years later. It doesn't take a genius to realize that this trade worked out well for Detroit.

In a world where Miller — the actual centerpiece of the Cabrera deal for Florida — wasn't traded, would the Tigers have been able to acquire a player many perceive to be the best pure hitter in the game? Would that stellar rotation have been put to good use without the services of Cabrera?

The what-ifs come to define these types of blockbuster deals. It also makes us wonder where Cabrera might have ended up and whether that would have changed the entire dynamic of the Majors for years to come.

We then have to wonder if the Dodgers would be coming off three consecutive NL West titles if they hadn't selected Kershaw.

Including Miller, the likes of Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer were selected in the top 11 of the 2006 draft. Not bad consolation prizes. But most definitely not Clayton Kershaw.

San Francisco Giants don't select Buster Posey No. 5 overall in 2008 MLB Draft

We could look at each draft around the baseball world and pull up at least a half dozen what-ifs. Though, very few have the trickle-down effect of the Giants selecting Posey No. 5 overall in 2008.

San Francisco was in the midst of a season that saw starting catcher Bengie Molina put up 16 homers and 95 RBIs while nearly boasting a .300 average. Though, at 33 years old, he didn't have a long-term future with a team that had lacked prospects at that position for years.

There were three catchers mixed together atop the 2008 draft. The Florida Marlins ended up selecting high schooler Kyle Skipworth sixth overall. Meanwhile, Stanford product Jason Castro went to the Houston Astros with the 10th pick.

What if San Francisco had decided to go with the local prospect rather than a player in Posey who more than made a name for himself at Florida State?

First off, it's highly likely that the Marlins would have picked up Posey over Castro with the sixth pick, giving the team another top-end prospect.

As it relates to whom the Giants passed up on to nab Posey, Skipworth played four games with the Marlins in 2013 and hasn't even seen the Majors since. He spent time between Double-A and Triple-A in the Reds system last season.

Castro has made a decent career of it with the Astros, hitting double-digit homers in each of the past three seasons while earning an All-Star appearance in 2013. Still, he doesn't compare in any way to the impact Posey has made with the Giants.

In the six years since Posey became a full-time member of the Giants, they have earned three World Series titles. He earned the National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2010 and has been named to the league's All-Star team three times, earning the MVP award in 2012 — the same year that saw him win the batting title.

That's a career's worth of hardware for a player who's just 28 years old heading into the 2016 season. It's relatively easy to conclude that the Giants wouldn't be in the midst of a dynasty if they had decided on either of those two aforementioned catchers instead of Posey.

New York Yankees don't sign Mark Teixeira

There are so many layers to this. Since signing an eight-year, $180 million contract with the Yankees back in December 2008, Teixeira has put up nearly 200 homers with 578 RBIs and two All-Star appearances.

All said, the first baseman has not been an outright bust in pinstripes. With that said, he has missed 276 games to injury over the past four seasons. The 35-year-old Teixeira is also hitting just .253 in a Yankees uniform compared to a batting average of well over .300 in the six seasons prior to his arrival in New York.

By signing Teixeira away from the Los Angeles Angels, the Yankees gave up their first-round pick in 2009. That pick was used on Mike Trout.

OK, that's where it gets interesting. What if the Yankees had not signed their current first baseman? Does this mean the team might have decided on adding a young power bat in Trout who was highly regarded coming out of a high school in New Jersey? That would have been a strong likelihood.

Now imagine the Yankees fielding a team with Trout playing center. Not only would that have given the team one of the best young players in baseball, but it likely would have meant the Yankees avoiding Jacoby Ellsbury in free agency prior to the 2014 season, money that could have been used on another top-end free agent.

Of course, this could go on for a while. What if the three teams that selected outfielders prior to the Angels picking up Trout had decided on the then high school phenom? But that could be a long-winded column in and of itself.

New York Mets trade for Carlos Gomez goes through

You likely already know the story here. Reports leading up to the trade deadline this past July indicated that Gomez was on his way to the Mets. This deal was so close to happening that Mets infielder Wilmer Flores was seen in tears on the field assuming he had been dealt.

Instead of working out that deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York was able to add Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers in a last-second deal.

All Cespedes did after being sent to New York was hit .287 with 17 homers and 44 RBIs in just 57 games. His presence on the team enabled the Mets to pull away from the competition and win the NL East in a surprising manner.

While Cespedes would go on to hit just .222 with two homers and eight RBIs in the playoffs, his presence in the Mets lineup was one of the primary reasons the team earned a surprising trip to the World Series.

As it relates to Gomez, he was eventually traded to the Houston Astros after the Mets deal fell through. Houston did go on to earn a playoff spot, but he hit just .242 with four homers and 13 RBIs in 41 games with Houston before accumulating four hits in just 15 postseason at-bats.

Seattle Mariners don't trade for Erik Bedard

Here's a really good one for you Mariners fans in the Pacific Northwest. Adam Jones, a former first-round pick of the Mariners in 2006, played in only 73 games with the team before he was sent with four other prospects for then Baltimore Orioles ace Erik Bedard.

Bedard was coming off a 13-win 2007 season with the Orioles that saw him finish fifth in the Cy Young voting. However, yielding your top prospect for a player who averaged just 10 wins in his first four seasons seemed a bit steep.

Bedard ended up pitching parts of three seasons with the Mariners, posting a 15-14 record in what was an injury-plagued tenure.

Meanwhile, Jones has morphed into a five-tool player. He's earned five All-Star appearances in eight seasons with the team, including four consecutive trips to the Midsummer Classic. He's also won four Gold Glove awards during this span.

Also going to Baltimore in this deal were Chris Tillman and George Sherrill, among others. Tillman has won 40 games over the past three seasons (15 more than Bedard did in his three years with the Mariners), while earning an All-Star appearance in 2013.

Meanwhile, Sherrill is out of baseball. Though, that didn't come before he earned an All-Star appearance for Baltimore in 2008.

We really do have to wonder what would have happened if the Mariners had not traded Jones. This past season alone, starting center fielder Austin Jackson hit just eight homers with 38 RBI for the Mariners.

He's the latest in a long line of center fielders who have attempted to man that position since the trade of Jones. That list includes the likes of James Jones, Michael Saunders, Franklin Gutierrez and Jeremy Reed. Yeah, not exactly players who compare favorably to Jones.

For the Orioles, this trade started a relatively lengthy process back to contention in the American League East. They have earned to trips to the postseason in the past four years — finishing at .500 or better each season.

With the solid pieces that Seattle has possessed over the past several years, one has to wonder whether the team would have made a World Series run with both Jones and Tillman on the roster.