The Tigers avoided arbitration by signing one year deals with Nate Robertson, Fernando Rodney, Omar Infante, and Craig Monroe today.
Details and commentary coming later…
UPDATE: Jon Paul Morosi reports the values of the contracts as:
Craig Monroe: $4,775,000
Nate Robertson: $3,260,000
Omar Infante: $1,300,000
Fernando Rodney: $1,050,000
I’ve updated the payroll info to reflect the changes. As it stands now, the Tigers payroll is just a hair under $95 million. That includes 20 members of the projected 25 man roster as well as Andrew Miller. With 5 additional players to be signed to the remaining roster spots, the Tigers are looking at a payroll of $97-98 million.
The spreadsheet is available for download.
As for the deals themselves, they are pretty much what I expected.
Nate Robertson gets a 10% bump over what Mike Maroth made in his first year of arbitration. Given inflation and Robertson’s performance last year this certainly seems acceptable.
If Cameron Maybin wasn’t waiting in the wings, or if Magglio Ordonez and Gary Sheffield weren’t committed to for big money for the next few years, Craig Monroe might have received a multi-year deal. It seems that the Tigers are willing to reward those who survived the bad times. But in Monroe’s case he still proves to be the easiest to move if space needs to be made in the outfield.
Fernando Rodney got what seems like a fair deal for a first time arbitration eligible player who just completed his best season at age 29.
Omar Infante’s deal is the only one that surprises me. I had him pegged for something in the $800K-$900K range. But if this signals the Tigers’ commitment to Infante over certain other back-up infielders then I am all for it.
Players want to be here
Morosi had the following quote from Tigers legal counsel John Westhoff
“Now, here you are, signing players in a free-agent environment, and locking up your own guys long-term. You even see it with the one-year deals. Guys are excited to be here. They want to play for the manager. They think we can win. All those things have helped me do what I do.”
And this of course is the best news of all. It’s similar to the thought I had once the Bonderman extension was inked. The Tiger Tax has been repealed.
It will be interesting to hear what Monroe got….he had pretty good numbers last year
WOW……ESPN is saying Monroe got $4,775,000…pretty good day for Craigers….
Hopefully this just means that Neifi Perez won’t get any time on the field.
The players must be ecstatic over the generous salary hikes. I’m thrilled for Nate.
Hopefully, the Infante deal is a bad omen for Neifi as the backup spots are about the only spring training competition. To back up, but improve upon, sentiments by Mike R, hopefully Neifi won’t get any time on the ROSTER.
I wouldn’t get too excited. Dombrowski/Illitch cut the checks. They may prefer Infante. But Leyland decides who plays. And he seems to prefer “proven (to suck) veteran” Neifi.