The Detroit Tigers were busy on Thursday morning, acquiring Red Sox outfielder Yoenis Cespedes in exchange for starting pitcher Rick Porcello. Boston also traded reliever Alex Wilson and a minor-league pitcher to Detroit in the deal.

On the heels of that deal, the Tigers sent shortstop Eugenio Suarez and pitching prospect Jonathon Crawford to the Cincinnati Reds for starter Alfredo Simon.

As the dust settles on one of the busiest days of the MLB winter meetings, Tigers fans need to ask themselves two questions:

1. “Are the Tigers built to win in 2015 or down the road?”

2. “Are the Tigers a better team with Porcello and Suarez or Cespedes and Simon in 2015?”

The answers are simple. This Tigers team is built to win now, and it has been for quite some time. They entered the offseason with gaping holes in the outfield. As it stands right now, especially on defense, the Tigers are better with J.D. Martinez, Yoenis Cespedes and Anthony Gose than they were in 2014 with Martinez, Jackson and Hunter.

In the casualties of building a contender, teams often roll the dice on the unknown, which the Tigers did by trading away 23 year-old Eugenio Suarez and pitching prospect Jonathan Crawford. The Tigers are putting a lot of stock in a healthy and virtually unproven Jose Iglesias in 2015, as they hope to have found an answer for their everyday shortstop.

The Tigers starting rotation as it stands now, is still one of the best in baseball with Justin Verlander, David Price, Anibal Sanchez, Alfredo Simon and Shane Greene.

Outside of serving up 22 home runs to opposing hitters in 2014 (although, Porcello wasn’t much better with 18), Alfredo Simon and Rick Porcello had nearly identical numbers:

Porcello: 15-13, 3.43 ERA and 1.23 WHIP

Simon: 15-10, 3.44 ERA and 1.20 WHIP

At 33 years of age, Simon is clearly a short-term solution to the Tigers rotation. With six seasons as a decent reliever, this acquisition also gives Dave Dombrowski some flexibility in case he decides (although unlikely) to acquire another starting pitcher and move Simon to the Tigers troublesome bullpen.

With Porcello likely to receive a contract north of $100 million next offseason, the Tigers were looking to get as much possible for a pitcher they had no intention of retaining after this season. They added the bat and outfielder they desperately wanted inYoenis Cespedes, and in turn, had to fill their rotation with the next best option.

Of all these players moving around the Tigers organization during the winter meetings, it’s loss of prospect Jonathon Crawford that fans may want to keep their eyes on the most. In two seasons at Connecticut and West Michigan, Crawford was 8-5 with 106 strikeouts (while only giving up 58 walks), 2.73 ERA and 1.18 WHIP.

The other player given up in the Simon deal, Eugenio Suarez, showed flashes of potential in 2014, but wasn’t enough to retain him with the return of José Iglesias in 2015.

Ultimately, these deals have made the Tigers better in 2015, but beyond that, has raises a lot of eyebrows.

If there’s anything Tigers fans can take away from these trades, it’s that this team still believes it’s a contender and that it is ready to win now.

Although the window is closing, it never hurts to prop it open for one last breeze.

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