Detroit Tigers Get Their Man, Sign Victor Martinez

The first big time free agent domino fell on Tuesday.

The Detroit Tigers, who are spending money this winter Antoine Walker in his heyday, signed C/1B Victor Martinez to a four-year, $50 million contract. Martinez or VMart as the cool kids say, spent the last year and a half in a Boston Red Sox uniform.

VMart is a big get for the Tigers

I thought it was pretty obvious from the beginning of the offseason that Martinez would sign with the Tigers. I had Martinez to the Tigers as the “Perfect Match Most Likely To Happen” in my free agent primer.

Martinez to the Tigers makes sense for a couple of reasons.

First, the Tigers really needed a left-handed power bat to compliment Miguel Cabrera. Only Brennan Boesch and Johnny Damon represented any offense from the left side of the plate for the Tigers last season. Both of those guys don’t equal what Martinez can do at the plate.

Martinez is a beast, who is kind of underrated in my opinion.

Martinez is a career .300/.369/.469 hitter, who averages about 20 HR’s a season. Hitters like him don’t grow on trees and yet he is never mentioned when talking about the best hitters in the American League. He is a legit switch-hitter and he should fit nicely in the No. 3 or 4 spot in the Tigers’ lineup in 2011.

I think the reason he doesn’t get mentioned with the best hitters in the AL is because A. His defense is so bad it takes away from his offensive accomplishments and B. Since he has spent the majority of his career behind the plate, he only averages about 140 games played a year.

Part B will change in Detroit.

Though VMart has spent the majority of his career as a catcher and has recently played first on occasion, it is believed the Tigers will use him as a DH in 2011 and beyond. This is a smart move.

I have seen VMart catch the last year and a half on a regular basis. The bottom line is the guy is below average Major League catcher and that is being generous. I will say VMart did get better throughout the season last year in Boston, but him getting better still isn’t good enough to be a serviceable catcher on a day in and day out basis.

By putting VMart at the DH spot, it will allow him, barring injury of course to potentially play in 150 plus games. VMart playing 150 plus games should produce a .300 average and 25-30 HR’s.

Plus VMart is 32-years-old. Putting him in the DH spot should preserve him so he is not complete dead weight in year four of the contract. If you take a look at some of his metrics like K Percentage, BB Percentage, and BABIP, there is nothing that stands out at me that would make me think he won’t perform for the entire length of his contract.

Now some will ask is $12.5 per year too much to spend on a guy who will just DH for the next four years? I think it’s a legit question, but I think the deal is a fair one.

VMart will play some first and he will catch a bit. That’s a guy who can do three things for the Tigers. If he continues to produce at a 3.8 oWAR (Offensive Wins Above Replacement), then $12.5 million is fair deal for the Tigers.

Martinez joins Jhonny Peralta, Brandon Inge, and Joaquin Benoit as players the Tigers have signed this offseason.

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