Tigers Sign Victor Martinez

Martinez gets $50M from DET

Just as I predicted earlier, the Detroit Tigers have signed catcher Victor Martinez to a 4-year $50M contract. Quite a bit of money (I only predicted 3-yr/$27M), especially when you consider he will do most of his time DH'ing, but he brings a switch-hitting bat which any team would love to have.  The 2010 All-Star hit .302 with 20HR and 79RBI in 127 games for The Red Sox, and is a career .300 hitter in 9 seasons.  Victor is a Type-A free-agent, so the Red Sox will receive Detroit's 19th pick as compensation for losing of their key hitters. 

Tigers Close To Benoit Signing

Benoit might be Detroit's first
free-agent fish in what should
be a large pond for them

UPDATE: The deal is 3-years $16.5M. Amazing how he goes from barely getting a minor-league contract to this much cash, but he earned it 100%.
The Detroit Tigers might have gotten their first signing of what should be a busy offseason for them, as they are close to a multi-year deal with top set-up man Joaquin Benoit.  Benoit had one of the best seasons i've ever seen by a reliever, posting a 1.34 ERA and an absurd 11.2 K/9 in over 60 innings for the Tampa Bay Rays.  Details of the deal are not yet known, but it'll be interesting to see how many years the 33-year old will get.  Benoit had rotator cuff surgery and missed the 2009 season, so durability might be an issue.