Tigers won't lose all free agents

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Tigers Insider
Tigers won't lose all free agents
Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

They have all but held goodbye parties for some of the departing Tigers.

Fernando Rodney is almost certain to be moving to a new team, likely a National League club (Philadelphia?) for a rich multiyear deal, as the 32-year-old right-hander prepares to drink in free agency's delights.

Brandon Lyon, too, looks as if he wants to shop around and perhaps consider a Sunbelt team as another member of the Tigers' valuable back-end relief corps takes his chances this autumn on the free-agent market.

Then there's Placido Polanco, whose glove and second-half hitting put him in majestic shape to coax a two-year or longer deal for considerable cold cash as the gifted second baseman today celebrates his 34th birthday and his impending free agency.

So, the Tigers simply watch three important players head off into the sunset, with no recourse, or no compensation?

Not by a long shot.

The Tigers may well try to sign one of the three.

What's your type?

Lyon, who is 30, is two years younger than Rodney and four years younger than Polanco, which would make him a candidate for a two-year offer.

The Tigers also will offer them arbitration, which could prove to be valuable in a couple ways.

Free agents who are offered arbitration and turn it down to sign elsewhere earn their departing team at least one extra pick in the next year's draft, depending upon whether they are Type A or Type B free agents.

Type A players are those who finish in the top 20 percent of players at their position in overall numbers the previous two seasons. Type B are those in the top 40 percent.

Type A players who are signed by another club gain the losing club two picks: the signing team's first-round pick (or second-rounder if the signing team had a 2009 win-loss record in the bottom half of the 30 clubs) and a so-called "sandwich" pick between the first and second rounds.

Teams that lose Type B free agents do not receive a pick from the signing club, but are at least awarded a sandwich-round selection, which means they'll get a choice generally somewhere between the 30th and 60th picks.
Picking early, often?

Polanco sneaked into Type A status, according to tentative numbers-crunching done by Eddie Bajek, who does his work for MLBtraderumors.com.

Lyon and Rodney are Type B free agents.

The situation is different for other Tigers free agents.

• Jarrod Washburn, who didn't make the cut for Type A or Type B, will not be offered arbitration or re-signed.

• Aubrey Huff, a Type B free agent, will not be offered arbitration. He didn't hit after the Tigers acquired him, and they never would risk arbitration on a player who made $8 million in 2009.

• Adam Everett is neither Type A nor B, but is expected to re-sign with the Tigers, who have a definite interest in bringing him back. Everett is believed to have a mutual desire to return.

So, at the most, the Tigers could have six of the first 80 or so picks, which is an invitation David Chadd, the Tigers scouting director, will happily accept.

By the numbers

245 Doubles the Tigers hit, last in the American League
183 Home runs the Tigers hit, seventh in the AL

4.29 Tigers' ERA, fifth in the AL

The A list

Eddie Bajek, who writes the baseball blog tigers-thoughts.blogspot.com, projects Type A and Type B free agents. This is his tentative list of Type A free agents:

• Bobby Abreu, Jason Bay, Rafael Betancourt, Orlando Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Mark DeRosa, Octavio Dotel, Jermaine Dye, Brian Giles, Mike Gonzalez

• John Grabow, Kevin Gregg, Vladimir Guerrero, LaTroy Hawkins, Matt Holliday, Orlando Hudson, John Lackey, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, Bengie Molina

• Darren Oliver, Placido Polanco, Manny Ramirez, Marco Scutaro, Rafael Soriano, Miguel Tejada, Jose Valverde, Billy Wagner, Randy Wolf

Final statistics

Hitting	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	Avg.
Cabrera	160	611	96	198	34	0	34	103	68	107	6	2	.324
Ordonez	131	465	54	144	24	2	9	50	51	65	3	1	.310
Raburn	113	261	44	76	11	2	16	45	26	60	5	4	.291
Polanco	153	618	82	176	31	4	10	72	36	46	7	2	.285
Santiago	93	262	29	70	6	2	7	35	17	57	1	2	.267
Thames	87	258	33	65	11	1	13	36	29	72	0	2	.252
Granderson	160	631	91	157	23	8	30	71	72	141	20	6	.249
Guillen	81	277	36	67	10	3	11	41	39	56	1	3	.242
Huff	150	536	59	129	30	1	15	85	51	87	0	6	.241
Thomas	102	275	46	66	13	3	7	39	33	77	3	0	.240
Everett	118	345	43	82	21	0	3	44	22	61	5	2	.238
Inge	161	562	71	129	16	1	27	84	54	170	2	5	.230
Laird	135	413	49	93	23	2	4	33	40	68	5	0	.225

* minimum 100 at-bats

Pitching	W-L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
Verlander	19-9	3.45	35	35	0	240.0	219	99	92	20	63	269
Porcello	14-9	3.96	31	31	0	170.2	176	81	75	23	52	89
Jackson	13-9	3.62	33	33	0	214.0	200	93	86	27	70	161
Washburn	9-9	3.78	28	28	0	176.0	160	77	74	23	49	100
Miner	7-5	4.29	51	5	1	92.1	101	49	44	11	45	62
Galarraga	6-10	5.64	29	25	0	143.2	158	93	90	24	67	95
Lyon	6-5	2.86	65	0	3	78.2	56	25	25	7	31	57
Seay	6-3	4.25	67	0	0	48.2	46	23	23	3	17	37
Zumaya	3-3	4.94	29	0	1	31.0	34	18	17	5	22	30
Robertson	2-3	5.44	28	6	0	49.2	59	33	30	4	28	35
Rodney	2-5	4.40	73	0	37	75.2	70	38	37	8	41	61
Bonine	1-1	4.46	10	4	0	34.1	40	19	17	7	12	19
Ni	0-0	2.61	36	0	0	31.0	20	9	9	3	11	21
Perry	0-1	3.79	53	0	0	61.2	56	30	26	7	38	60

* minimum 10 games played