November 29th, 2015 at 1:02 PM ^
I know Ilitch wants one before he passes and I respect that, but this seems like yet another terrible contract. It's time to rebuild in my opinion.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:03 PM ^
Make no mistake. The rebuilding will begin once Mr. I is laid to rest. But not a moment before.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:16 PM ^
I don't think this is a terrible contract. 5 years for a 29 year old who doesn't rely heavily on velocity or pure stuff. I think Zimmermann will hold up throughout the contract and pitch well. Verlander, Zim, Sanchez, Norris is a potentially very good top 4.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
Get a no. 4 starter (Fister perhaps?) and a left-handed set up man, and this team is right back in it (assuming we can still get 140-145 games each from Might and V-Mart)
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.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^
As I said...we need a left fielder.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^
Maybin and Collins, buddy.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:05 PM ^
to the starting rotation for Detroit. Now get us some solid bullpen arms, Al !
November 29th, 2015 at 1:06 PM ^
I think it's risky to spend that kind of money on a guy who has already had elbow surgery.
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.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:16 PM ^
I agree. It's a guy with decent stuff at a deal that isn't crazy in this market.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^
The years are why I really like this deal, 5 years is enticing enough to get the player to sign and it's also enough for the Tigers to maximize his remaining value as a starter.
Good off-season so far from Avila.
November 29th, 2015 at 6:49 PM ^
Tommy John surgery is almost a right of passage with starting pitchers.
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.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:20 PM ^
He was bit by the home run ball last year. The previous 4 years he was really good to great. Healthy strikeout rate, low walk rate. I think he'll do well here.
November 29th, 2015 at 2:40 PM ^
Playing in Comerica Park should help the issues with the HR ball.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:12 PM ^
3 moar relievers pls!
November 29th, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^
zimmerman is solid. plus he'll have a natural promotional opportunity with zingermans.
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.
November 29th, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^
Lmao, huge contract? You don't know much about baseball salaries, do you?
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.
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).
November 29th, 2015 at 1:33 PM ^
Bring your buddy Fister for 5-7 million and three years. Get bullpen arms after that.
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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.
November 29th, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^
I think this was one of the reasons dombrowski moved him, so to sign him now would be an interesting move. Perhaps al and Dave bumped heads when it came to him
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.
November 29th, 2015 at 8:09 PM ^
That's not exactly a convincing argument to go and re-acquire him.
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.
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...
November 29th, 2015 at 5:15 PM ^
Feel free to send us Bryce also... :-)
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.
November 29th, 2015 at 4:40 PM ^
Zimmerman WAR has been at least 3 each of the past 5 seasons.
November 29th, 2015 at 2:01 PM ^
According to the news we only lose a second round pick, not our #9 overall pick. Even better.
November 29th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^
I believe that since we finished with a top-10 pick, we do not lose it if we sign top-tier free agents.
November 29th, 2015 at 2:51 PM ^
Baseball picks in the top 15 are protected even for Type A free agent signings.
November 29th, 2015 at 6:40 PM ^
with the inclusion of the qualifying offer and it is just the top 10 that is protected nowadays. The Tigers just barely stunk enough last year to keep their top pick.
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.
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".
November 29th, 2015 at 3:04 PM ^
Good pitcher. That's a lot of money though
November 29th, 2015 at 6:50 PM ^
but this was actually far lower than he was expected to get and is almost being universally applauded by MLB pundits.
November 29th, 2015 at 10:32 PM ^
Good starting pitching on the open market is far from cheap.
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,