OT: Detroit Tigers Sign FA SP Jordan Zimmermann (5 yrs. for $110M)

Submitted by jcouz on
First reported by CBS and now all over. Avila is not sitting back so far this offseason.

ckersh74

November 29th, 2015 at 1:02 PM ^

$22 mil/season. 

If Norris is healthy, our rotation looksl like Verlander-Sanchez-Zimmerman-Norris-#5 guy. Much better. 

I still think we need two more bullpen arms and a left fielder. 

ckersh74

November 29th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^

True. 

But at the same time, it's a 5-year deal instead of a 7-10 year monster deal like some of these guys are going to get that will take some of these pitchers to the brink of their 40th birthday. Zimmerman will be 34 at the end of this deal. I can live with that. 

dbjack

November 29th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^

I know we don't have the money without a tax but I'm not excited about Zimmermann.  His 3.66 era in the N.L. will translate to about 4.00 in the A.L.  Bite the bullet Al and Illitch and bring in an ace.

ThirdVanGundy

November 29th, 2015 at 1:17 PM ^

But this is a scary contract. He's already 29 so he's not going to get any better. I wouldn't doubt Illitch gives away two more huge contracts before this off season is done. I like what he's doing, but I just don't know if it will work. We need to start rebuilding ASAP.

umchicago

November 29th, 2015 at 5:12 PM ^

why now?  the tigers have several untradeable contracts now with several of their better players - cabrera, vmart, kinsler, verlander and sanchez.  add in a few very good young players like JDmart, iglesius and mccann, that is a great core of players, if they can be more healthy.

as far as rebuilding - the tigers just traded for 4 solid propects last fall.  the signing of zimmerman buys the tigers at least two more years of contention.

Zoltanrules

November 29th, 2015 at 4:14 PM ^

Still REALLY need help in the bullpen, but this is a solid and reasonable move (in today's market).

Too many solid pieces on this Tigers' roster when healthy to go into rebuild mode (unless you listen to too much sports radio).

ckersh74

November 29th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^

The only problem with Fister is, he hasn't shown the ability to stay healthy. He's only topped 180 innings twice in his six full years in the majors, and he's only been over 30 starts twice. 

If you can tell me that he's going to be healthy and will hold up for a full season, then I'll get my keys and we can go get him. But I think it's going to take more than a 3-year, $21 million deal to bring Fister back here, and I'm not willing to go there, given his injury history. 

BlueInClearwater

November 29th, 2015 at 6:37 PM ^

Most projections have him taking a one-year deal worth around $8-10 million to rebuild his value after a horrible year in which his fastball averaged about 86 mph. Unless he hated his time here and has a horrible negative bias towards Detroit, you could have him for way less than a 3/21. I personally don't think he'll ever be even close to his heyday with the Tigers the rest of his career and don't want him unless it's for like 1/5 considering the Tigers only have about $12 million of annual value left to sign at least one more bullpen arm, a fifth starter/innings eater, and possibly another outfielder. Fister is damaged goods at this point that soft tosses his fastballs nowadays in comparison to most all major league pitchers.

BlueInClearwater

November 29th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^

He's worth a flier to eat up innings at the back end of the rotation for 1 year and $5 million and if it went any higher than that I wouldn't consider him. He walks a ridiculously low amount of batters so he qualifies as a control pitcher but still...86 mph fastball. If we get him super cheap fine but I doubt he doesn't get an offer higher than that from someone so it's probably a moot point. You implied it would take more than 3 years and $27 million to get him and after the year he just had that's absolutely nuts was my point.

L'Carpetron Do…

November 29th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^

I'm a Nats fan and ZImmerman has been great to have out there the last few years.  He's very overlooked and underrated.  Reliable and a fan favorite.  Nats are gonna miss him.  Good pick up by the TIgers...

Rodriguesqe

November 29th, 2015 at 1:54 PM ^

This was the guy everyone at blessyouboys thought tigers should go after.

Baseball money is crazy so 5 /120 in 2015 isn't as bad as it sounds, relatively speaking. Going rate is ~ 7 million per WAR. His WAR in last 5 years has been about 2 / year. But also consider we got him for all of his prime but don't have to pay him big money for his declining years. 

It looks good on paper to me.

HarbaughToKolesar85

November 29th, 2015 at 2:50 PM ^

This is a good pickup for the Tigers. Maybin is actually a solid left fielder. He's not great but the only great one on the market is Cespedes and clearly the Tigers didn't want to go there. I agree with the general consensus that we still need to pick up a couple of bullpen arms. Don't overlook the K-rod acquisition. That might also prove to be valuable because he could become a mentor to Rondon as a fiery Spanish speaking reliever who's transitioned from a fireballer to a pitcher.

BlueInClearwater

November 29th, 2015 at 6:53 PM ^

in left field his entire 9+ year major league career, so we don't really know anything regarding his defensive value in left. Rajai Davis is also a perfect example with advanced defensive stats that shows that you can be a lot better center fielder because of speed than a left fielder, which he has been markedly worse at during his time with the Tigers the last couple of years. I do think there's a chance Maybin can play left at replacement defensive level, but "good" may be an overstatement.

Edit: Sorry, swap "solid" out for "good".

umchicago

November 29th, 2015 at 5:00 PM ^

i really didn't think they would pay that much for a pitcher.  i was hoping for a scott kazmir (likely less than $50 mil) and a chris young type for #5 starter (a band aid for a year or two).

they obviously still need a lefty out of the pen.  and i also think they need a lefty bat with some pop that can maybe play a little LF and 1B,