Tigers Sign Jose Valverde

The Tigers reportedly reached agreement with former Astros closer Jose Valverde on a two-year $14 million, with an option for a third year at $9 million.  It’s a deal that leaves me scratching my head, at least considering the Tigers’ other big move this off-season: the trade-away of Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson for youngsters.

I have nothing against Valverde.  He’s still relatively close to his prime at age 30 in 2010, and he’s been a solid closer with a closer’s stuff the last few seasons.  It’s just that he got a big contract fora relief pitcher in the current free agent market, and he’s going to cost the Tigers the 19th pick in the 2010 Draft.

In fact, it’s a pretty good deal for the Astros.  They may have lost Valverde, but they are currently projected to get the 19th and 34th picks in the 2010 Draft, because Valverde was a Type-A free agent offered arbitration.  The odds are pretty good they’ll get at least one solid major league player out of those two picks.

Meanwhile, the Tigers are giving up a No. 19 pick after trading away two core players from the 2009 squad.  They had some defections from their bullpen they had to replace, but as a team that isn’t likely to be a strong pennant contender in 2010, given the loss of Granderson and Jackson and the fact that they were a .500 team in the second half of 2009 (they were 38-38 after the All-Star Break), I don’t really understand giving up the draft pick.

Teams are usually trying to gear up for a pennant run or they are in rebuilding mode.  The Tigers two big moves discussed herein run at cross purposes;  and it suggests that they were either acting in desperation after the loss of Brandon Lyon and Fernando Rodney and thus overpaid, they’re tying to convince their fans that they’re still serious about winning in 2010, despite the prior trade, or they are simply churning players around trying to get better chemistry in their clubhouse.

Neither of the first two possibilities suggests that the Tigers have much of an idea what they’re doing.  The problem with the third possibility is that the player on their team who really needs a kick in the pants is Miguel Cabrera, and I’m not quite sure how shuffling around a bunch of other ballplayers on your roster is going to do that.

At least you can say this much for the Tigers and this deal: Valverde will probably be an improvement over either Lyon or Rodney.