GM Dave Dombrowski quickly moved this offseason to improve the offense, signing one of the premier hitters available in Victor Martinez, and moved to solidify the pitching staff by adding Joaquin Benoit in what surprisingly was only the second most expensive setup-man contract handed out this offseason.
Good Decisions:
Signing Magglio Ordoñez (1 year, $10 million):
Magglio is a fan favorite in Motown, and there was no question in my mind that he was coming back, as I detailed in my first blog post:
I got the cost right per year, but the Tigers managed to get Magglio for a one-year deal since he struggled with injuries last year, which is even better for them. If he produces a statline similar to the above, he'll probably be about a 4 WAR player, and will easily earn that $10 million contract.
Signing Jhonny Peralta and Brandon Inge (2 years, $11.25 million and 2 years, $11.5 million)
Detroit's always been a loyal team to its players, and for that reason, I was not surprised in the least that Jhonny Peralta and Brandon Inge will be manning the left side of the infield for the next two seasons. Inge is a great fielder and Peralta not so much, so Inge's range slightly helps make up for Peralta's lack of it. While Inge's fielding skills and batting skills are declining, he still is a decent enough player that he'll earn his payday, even while suffering at the plate. Jhonny Peralta had a down year the past two years, and may have simply lost his power at the plate, as his SLG% dropped below .400 over the past two seasons. If Peralta can rediscover the gaps in Comerica Park, hitting a lot of doubles, and slam out 10-15 HRs, his bat should be enough to make up for his defense, making him a worthy choice at SS.
Signing Joaquin Benoit (3 years, $16.5 million):
Yet another fireballing bullpen pitcher will be joining the Tigers this season, this time it's Joaquin Benoit, coming off a career- best season with the Tampa Bay Rays. Last year he struck out more than a batter an inning (11.19 K/9) while pitching to a 1.34 ERA (2.43 FIP) in 60.1 innings. As a result of his mastery on the mound, Benoit left over 95% of batters on base to end innings. The MLB average for Left On Base % (LOB%) usually hovers around 70%, and Benoit has never posted a LOB% higher than 78.1% prior. This means we can expect to see some regression from Benoit, probably to around a 3 ERA over the season, which is still extremely useful. He's struggled with injury, missing all of 2009 due to injury, but came back better than ever in 2010, with the same velocity and stuff.
If Benoit can remain healthy for the duration of the deal, even as a reliever, he'll earn 1.5-2 WAR a season, making him well worth the money spent.
The Jury's Still Out On:
Signing Victor Martinez as the primary DH (4 years, $50 million
Victor Martinez is no doubt a phenomenal hitter, and a great addition to the Tigers lineup. However, his signing and accompanying pricetag are concerning from a value perspective.
In V-Mart's career thus far, he's performed abysmally at Comerica Park, hitting .225/.321/.349 in 169 at bats. Martinez readily admits that he's not a power hitter, and won't hit more than twenty, but seems to think his skill set can translate to Comerica and attributes his lack of success to the Tigers pitching:
Martinez is quick to credit Detroit’s pitchers for that—and now he won’t have to face them anymore. As for the ballpark’s effect on his home run total, he’ll just try to hit the ball to the gaps and see what happens.“I say myself, I’m not a home run hitter. I hit my 20, but I’m more a line drive hitter,” Martinez said. “I might hit some triples. Watch out.”
| Year 5 | G | R | HR | RBI | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 147 | 73 | 20 | 80 | .305 | .378 | .475 | .853 | 130 |
| 2006 | 153 | 82 | 16 | 93 | .316 | .391 | .465 | .856 | 122 |
| 2007 | 147 | 78 | 25 | 114 | .301 | .374 | .505 | .879 | 129 |
| 2009 | 155 | 88 | 23 | 108 | .303 | .381 | .480 | .861 | 126 |
| 2010 | 127 | 64 | 20 | 79 | .302 | .351 | .493 | .844 | 122 |
| 162 Game Avg. | 162 | 82 | 21 | 103 | .300 | .369 | .469 | .838 | 121 |
As we can see, Martinez has consistently posted strong OPS+ numbers (again remembering 100 is league average), and is one of the more consistent hitters in baseball. I omitted 2008 as V-Mart struggled dealing with injuries that season and it was an aberration from his career to date.
The best situation to compare V-Mart's to is probably Jorge Posada. Both are primary DHs but will end up catching 50+ games to take the load off of the young prospects at catcher. Fangraphs.com adds/subtracts runs from a players Runs Above Replacement (RAR) rating based on where they played, and that number of RAR will almost directly correspond to the player's WAR. Generally if a player is 10 runs above average, they have a WAR of approximately 1, meaning they contributed one win for their team more than a replacement-level player would have done.
Martinez has produced two straight 4.0 WAR seasons, and hopefully he can maintain that level for the first two years of the contract. However, as a DH, he simply isn't as valuable as if he were a catcher, so if he declines in the back end of the contract, this deal will seem iffy.
We'll see what happens, if I had to choose either way, I still like the deal, but I really wish the Tigers would have paid $6 million more and gotten Adam Dunn to be our primary DH.
Best Bargain: Brad Penny (1 year, $3 million):
The Tigers' back end of the rotation was deplorable last year and they attempted to address it this year, by moving Phil Coke to the rotation, as well as bringing Brad Penny on board. Penny made the All Star Team in 2006 and 2007, and struggled throughout 2008 and '09. In 2010, Penny went to St. Louis to work with the pitching mastermind, Dave Duncan, and added a deadly splitter to his repertoire that was one of the best itches in baseball prior to Penny missing the rest of the season with injury.
Dave Duncan preaches forcing ground balls to his pitchers, and Wainwright, Carpenter, and Joel Pineiro all did that quite well last season, and Penny subscribed to the same formula for success. He induced groundballs 52.8% of the time, and reduced the amount of walks he handed out per nine innings, as well as HRs surrendered per nine innings.
If Penny produces like he did last season in his short season with a 3.23 ERA (3.40 FIP), the Tigers will be ecstatic. Even if he falls off to about a 4.00 ERA or those whereabouts, that would be just fine for a 4th or 5th starter, which is all Penny is expected to be this year. He does have to stay healthy, which he's always struggled with, but overall this is a great signing here by the Tigers, that at worst, backfires for a loss of $3 million.
Grade: B+
The Tigers were aggressive this offseason and knew they wanted Victor Martinez from the start. He adds more Venezuelan influence to the lockerroom, creating even more chemistry within the Venezuelan group of hitters (Magglio, Guillen, Miguel Cabrera). He solidifies the middle of the lineup, and while I would have preferred Adam Dunn, V-Mart is a fine consolation prize, and hopefully can help Alex Avila improve as well. Brad Penny was a great bargain bin signing and a marked improvement over Armando Galaragga, and Joaquin Benoit gives the Tigers a reliable set-up man. Dombrowski isn't prepared to count on Zumaya and/or Perry to be a consistent 8th inning option, but Benoit can. The Tigers' bullpen is now deeper and hopefully can perform the way it did in the first half of 2010. Lastly, the Tigers brought back Inge and Peralta on 2-year deals, mostly due to lack of alternatives at their positions.
I still think V-Mart needs to be playing catcher more often than 2-3 times a week, and that Adam Dunn was a better option to sign. However, that being the only "drawback" that I see in free agency, the Tigers get a solid B+, and helped themselves out quite a bit this offseason.
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