Eddie Bonine elected free agency and Jay Sborz, Max St. Pierre and Jeff Frazier will follow him to the open market this Saturday, according to the Tigers (on Twitter). Detroit outrighted the four players to Triple-A to create roster space.
Bonine pitched to a 4.63 ERA in 68 innings for the Tigers this year. The 29-year-old right-hander struck out 3.4 batters per nine and walked 2.9 per nine in his third big league season.
Sborz, 25, appeared in one game for the Tigers this year, but has spent most of his pro career in the minors. The right-hander has a 4.31 ERA and more than one strikeout per frame in 296 2/3 minor league innings pitched.
St. Pierre, a 14-year minor league veteran from Quebec, finally made his big league debut this year. He didn't do much in nine big league plate appearances, but the 30-year-old catcher did post a .274/.353/.479 line in the upper minors this year.
Frazier, 28, also made his big league debut in 2010. The 2004 third rounder batted .256/.306/.493 at Triple A with 25 homers while playing first base and both corner outfield positions.
Seems like Bonine could be useful to an NL club as a long relief/spot starter guy. The other 3 seem like they’ll find homes on minor league clubs.
Now that I’ve added something half-intelligent to the discussion…can we PLEASE talk about the glorious return of the McRib? :)
the McRib is unbelievable, nuff said, it should never have left
Sad to see Eddie go, he was pretty useful cleaning up after the Dtrain and other various starters who couldn’t go longer than 2 innings. Can’t wait to go get a couple McRibs for lunch tomorrow.
In regards to free agents that actually matter to the Tigers this offseason….Carl Crawford would be ideal in every way, but I doubt he’s willing to come to Detroit.Jhonny Peralta seems like a good fit, as he’s comfortable with the club and is arguably the best available short stop outside Jeter. Jason Bartlett is a long shot at this pointVictor Martinez is a great fit for the Tigers this offseason. They can offer him more money than anyone else He would provide a good power, middle-of-the-order switch-hitting presence to match with fellow Venezuelans Miguel Cabrera, Magglio who has a good chance to be resigned, and Carlos Guillen. He’s great friends with Peralta, who they are also likely to resign at SS, and they could pretty much 50-50 split him catching with Avila, and DH him on the days he doesn’t catch. On the days he does catch, they could play Guillen or Magglio at DH. As a side note, he and Peralta are great friends with Cliff Lee, even though that still may not be enough to get Lee from the Yankees.Cliff Lee reminds me of Kenny Rogers in a way. I could see the Tigers overpaying and signing him until he’s 40 just so that they can outbid anyone else get him for a few good years, and hope for some serviceable years after that. That’s kinda how the Tigers get players to come to Detroit (see Gary Sheffield and Magglio Ordonez) Imagine how great a rotation would be of
Cliff Lee
Justin Verlander
Max Scherzer
Rick Porcello
Armando Gallaraga/Jacob Turner/Andrew Oliver
Magglio, at the right price, is a fine signing to fill RF but they already have a slow, DH type player in Guillen who plays mediocre 2b. They have a stable core of corner OFs in Boesch, Raburn, Strieby, and Casper Wells, so they have all the bargaining power. Resigning him would be more of a formality to keep the Venezuelan core of MCab Guillen and Magglio in tact.
After that, they need to just see what they can get with Boesch, Raburn, Ryan Strieby, Sizemore, Rhymes, Casper Wells. At least one of them is bound to step up, and Boesch and Raburn both have shown their potential. I can’t wait for Strieby to get here if Magglio doesn’t come back.
Giving Cliff Lee a 9 year contract would be a mistake.
Giving any pitcher a 9 year contract would be a mistake.
i didn’t say he was worth a nine year contract. But if the Tigers were by some miracle able to land him, it would only be because they overpaid for him.
I agree 100% that pitchers should not merit long-term contracts, especially in their 30s, but if a team is trying to compete with the yankees for a player, they are forced to overpay. Even though Cliff Lee wouldn’t be worth it all 9 years, it would be worth it if they won a world series or 2 with MCab, Verlander, and Lee in their prime
i didn’t say he was worth a nine year contract. But if the Tigers were by some miracle able to land him, it would only be because they overpaid for him.
I agree 100% that pitchers should not merit long-term contracts, especially in their 30s, but if a team is trying to compete with the yankees for a player, they are forced to overpay. Even though Cliff Lee wouldn’t be worth it all 9 years, it would be worth it if they won a world series or 2 with MCab, Verlander, and Lee in their prime
They don’t need a top starter-they already have 2(and possibly 1 more in the minors). Lee would be a poor use of all that money they have. If they do go get a pitcher, they need someone to fill out the back end of that rotation.
I agree, I think Turner has the potential to be Cliff Lee and should not be traded period. They also have some great young arms in Oliver, Crosby, Furbush, and even Schelereth.I was just saying, if they could get him at market value because of his friendship with VMart and Peralta, i’d love to have him aboard. But I know the Tigers would never get him for market value, especially with Texas and New York both being higher on his list.I definitely think VMart is coming to Detroit though, Magglio will resign, and they will make plays for Carl Crawford and Adam Dunn, but most likely unsuccesful ones, given Dunn’s lack of desire to DH, and CC’s lack of desire to play in Detroit and multiple suitors. Just because they have all this money to spend this offseason, doesn’t mean they have to spend it all.
If I were DD, with the exception of signing VMart, I would wait until next offseason to really spend big, seeing the likes of Fielder, or Pujols or A-Gonz to play 1b and move Cabrera to DH, in addition to the possibilities of Jimmy Rollins or Jose Reyes to play SS
Agreed. They have some awesome young arms and I think that Oliver is a starter next year. Having said that, we can remove a starter from the “needs” list. I believe Oliver could be rookie of the year next season, seeing how Detroit has be getting MONSTER production from one or more rookies the last few years. It just seems to be the style.
I do agree they sign vmart and mags. If they get those 2 if would effectively make Dunn useless to them. That gives them the rest of that money to pursue Crawford and probably a reliever or two, especially if they move coke to the rotation. In my mind, Crawford makes PERFECT sense for Detroit an I know he is DD’s object of desire so I don’t see him not coming to Detroit. He and Jackson would make that lineup blazing fast and with the size of comerica, he and Jackson would be like two prizes thoroughbreds out in that outfield.
I’d love to have Carl Crawford but I heard he’s pretty much guaranteed to go to the Angels. It’s hard to get the BEST free agents to come to detroit, when there are many other suitors. Even if he doesn’t come though, Detroit has PLENTY of OFs, both prospects and players. Ryan Rayburn could hit 25 homers if he had full-time ABs, he proved last year and they could rotate him and Carlos Guillen at 2b and LF.Casper Wells showed what he could do with 93 ABs, 4 homers, .323 BA, and great defense in the OF.Ryan Strieby, though he had a rough season at AAA last year, has great power and good eye.And let’s not forget about Brennan Boesch, who showed that he could be an elite player in the first half, but needs some touchups on his mechanics.With Inge and Peralta(most likely) coming back at 3b and SS, the main question is at C, DH, and RF, all positions they need power from. Bringing back Magglio and VMart solves those problems. Even Alex Avila at C could provide some Power. Both Avila and Vmart could produce 30 Homers combined, with Avila playing on Vmart’s offdays. VMart, Peralta, and a healthy Magglio and Inge add enough power by themselves to boost Detroits Hmrs and Batting Average into the Top 5-10 in the league and in their stadium and with their pitching, thats good enough to make a race at the pennant, defense aside. One thing worth noting is that Peralta and VMart’s defense will NOT be as good as Gerald Laird and Will Rhymes. If they could bring back Laird and have him as more of a defensive replacement, that would be ideal.
Hopefully pierre and bonine can find gigs for more time elsewhere, but the other two will land minor league deals at best.
I’m surprised at Bonine being let go. I’d sooner have let go of Fu Te Ni, Brad Thomas, Audy Ciriaco, or Brent Dlugach. Those guys are all still on the bubble, due to be removed at some point.
Next, the Tigers will have to activate or release the players from the 60 day DL. Zumaya will be activated, Miner will be activated or DFA’ed, and Seay will become a free agent.
Then, the free agents depart and they’ll make room for some young guys to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. DD will continue his delusions about Cale Iorg, add him and Nunez, Villareal, maybe Zach Simons or Duane Below, maybe Charlie Furbush to the 40 man roster.
Dlugach got traded