(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-07 10:47

NEW YORK - Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland is looking forward to adding Miguel Cabrera to his lineup but said the measure of the success of the blockbuster deal with the Florida Marlins would be pitcher Dontrelle Willis.

"I think that's really the key," Leyland told ESPN radio on Thursday.

"We've got a young superstar in Cabrera. I think if we can get Willis back to his form of a couple of years ago, I think that makes it a great deal."

The Tigers traded six young players headed by outfielder Cameron Maybin and pitcher Andrew Miller to Florida on Tuesday for slugging third baseman Cabrera and Willis in the biggest swap of Major League Baseball's winter meetings in Nashville.

Cabrera, 24, belted 34 homers, drove in 114 runs and batted .320 last season in his fifth year in the major leagues.

Willis, who won 14 games as a rookie for the 2003 World Series champion Marlins and won 22 games for Florida in 2005, slumped last year to a 10-15 record with a bloated earned run average of 5.17.

SOLID STARTERS

The 25-year-old joins a 2008 rotation including Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Kenny Rogers.

"That really solidifies our rotation," said Leyland, who steered the Tigers into the 2006 World Series. "I think we have five solid starters.

"The only question I have about Willis is if he's healthy. If he's healthy then certainly this is something you take a shot at and all indications are he's perfectly fine."

Detroit was loaded with offense even before adding Cabrera to the middle of a lineup also featuring Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield and Carlos Guillen.

Leyland, who managed Florida to a World Series title in 1997, said it takes more than offense to triumph at the Fall Classic.

"You have to pitch," he said. "You can hit until the cows come home but when it's all said and done, if you don't pitch you're not going to be there."