2011 Tigers Preview: Not too late Edition: Off-season moves
Getting this out _just_ before the home opener.
I purposely did not follow a lot of baseball in the winter or spring this year. Its a different approach then i’ve taken in the past; sometimes myself (and others) are prone to over-analyzing statistics and twisting them into your desired outcome. The easiest example is Joaquin Benoit: Is he an average pitcher who had an outstanding year in 2010 who will regress to the mean, or did he finally put it together to deserve a massive 3 year contract? You can spend all day arguing both sides, and usually the answer is somewhere in the middle.
So let’s look at some of the larger moves Detroit made going into 2011:
Signed:
- Joaqin Benoit (pitcher, 3 years, $16.5m)
- Victor Martinez (hitter / backup catcher/backup 1b, 4 year / $50m)
- Brad Penny (pitcher, 1 year / $3mil)
Retained:
- Magglio Ordonez (OF, 1 year / $10m)
- Brandon Inge (3B, 2 year / $11.5m)
- Jhonny Peralta (SS, 2 year / $11.25m) — pseudo retained after trading for him last year
What’s to see here? I like the Penny move — he’s cheap and doesn’t block anyone. I’m not a huge fan of giving a non-closer a 3 year deal, but Benoit was outstanding in 2010, and a lack of proven (healthy) options may have forced Detroit’s hand. You can easily say “its too long”, but Detroit hasn’t had a problem eating contracts in the past, so if it turns into a 2 year deal, its not my money.
I have an issue with Victor Martinez… I’ve never been a huge fan. Is he the best switch hitting player available so you give him $12+ million / year to not play in the field? Seems aggressive. But my real issue with it is it provides another blocker to some of Detroit’s up and coming talent, namely Ryan Strieby and Brennan Boesch. Detroit appears to have enough solid outfield options in the farm, and Boesch is the worst fielder of all of them. Strieby is already blocked by Miguel Cabrera and his own injury history. In the “you trade prospects for proven players” mantra, maybe this makes sense; Strieby will probably be on the table for a mid-season trade to add to the team. But Martinez will hit, there’s little doubt about that.
Magglio deserved to return to the team, and a one year contract doesn’t hurt anyone. Same with Inge — he is what he is, he’s been around, its nice to reward a few of your players for longevity. Peralta doesn’t do it for me — Inge seems to be slowing down at third and Peralta isn’t a fantastic shortstop. So you have a left side of an infield that has some pop but isn’t exactly lock-down and are average hitters. Danny Worth got a lot of praise in spring training, but Detroit does seem very thin for major league ready talent at third or short after Worth… so I’ll take this as a calculated risk to protect against injuries. If Detroit looks to move Peralta either during the season or after it… or there is an injury to Worth, Inge or Peralta, this move will look even better. Not a fan of the setup, but Detroit might need to see someone step up on the farm.
Here’s my problem with the moves: Detroit has several candidates pushing their way out of the farm team and into the Majors — Danny Worth, Casper Wells, Clete Thomas, Ryan Strieby, Cale Iorg, Scott Sizemore, Andy Dirks — promising, but are they AAAA players or major league-rs? Always a tough question that can’t be played out on paper. But Detroit didn’t make a serious run at an all-star this offseason, such as Carl Crawford. They said he was too expensive:
“We liked him,” Dombrowski said Thursday. “You have to like Carl Crawford. But any preliminary conversations we had … those were the type of dollars we were not prepared to go in that direction.”
I can understand that. But to say that, and then go out and spend ~$27million in 2011 contracts on Magglio, Martinez and Peralta, all of whom are blocking cheaper talent, bothers me. Crawford gets $142 million over 7 years, starting with $14m in 2011 (jumping to 19+ in 2012). Sometimes I wonder about Dombrowski’s ‘build for the future’ and ‘win now’ modes, and how he mixes the two in bizarre ways. This could just be the dreaded ‘Detroit Tax’, where every year is probably inflated, and the deal is one year too long. But I’d rather see Crawford / Austin Jackson / Brennan Boesch across the outfield then Ryan Raburn / Jackson / Magglio.
Is Crawford’s contract expensive? Yes, and there’s a good reason that you don’t put all of your salary into a few players. But Dave Dombrowski split massive contracts into 4 players instead of 2 –not exactly large diversification– with what feels like an overall inferior product. Could they have signed Crawford over Anaheim or Boston? Point Taken.

