Alex Avila was fine with his dad trading him, but his mom was not

Alex Avila was traded from the Tigers to the Cubs on Monday before the nonwaiver trade deadline cutoff. Which would seem like a completely normal thing to happen before the deadline if his father weren’t the Tigers GM.

So yes, Al Avila traded his son Alex to another team. Which might be rougher for either of those two men if the Cubs weren’t currently contending in the National League while the Tigers ... are not doing the same thing in the AL.

The senior Avila even made sure to let his son know that he would probably be traded, so Alex brought two suitcases on the team’s New York road trip and didn’t bother unpacking right away.

With that consideration taken care of, and Alex Avila getting to catch for a team that could make a deep playoff run, everything should be fine in the family, right? Well, maybe not.

On Tuesday, Avila said that his mom was more upset than anyone about the trade because now she won’t be able to visit with her grandchildren as often.

Which is a completely reasonable complaint because separating a grandmother from her granddaughters, both of whom are under 5 years old, is an extremely rough sell.

This might not exactly be an “Al has to sleep on the couch for a bit” level upset, since Chicago to Detroit isn’t that insane of a drive. But he might want to grab a bottle of wine or two on his way back from the airport when the Tigers get back to town next week.

At least he didn’t trade his son to a West Coast club!