Ex-Tigers -- and a few current ones --

Posted: Oct. 3, 2010
Ex-Tigers -- and a few current ones -- still collecting a check from Detroit

Most Tigers fans know the team gets to shed a lot of bad contracts this year. Nate Robertson, Dontrelle Willis and Jeremy Bonderman all come off the books. But the Tigers still have plenty of dead money on the 2011 payroll. Consider:

Gary Sheffield

The Tigers owe Sheffield between $1 million and $2.5 million annually between 2010 and 2019.

Pudge Rodriguez

His five-year contract, signed in 2004, included $8 million in deferred money, plus 1% interest. The Tigers spread the deferred money over three years, from 2010 to 2012. So they owe him in the neighborhood of $2.7 million next year.

Magglio Ordoñez

Even after declining Ordoñez's 2011 option, the Tigers still will owe him $3 million in 2011 and $3 million in 2012.

Edgar Renteria

When the Tigers let Renteria leave in 2008, they had to buy him out for $3 million. That money was deferred, with the bulk of it due in 2011.

Jose Valverde

The Tigers owe closer Valverde $1 million in deferred salary, on top of his $7-million salary for next year.

Now, toss in an estimated $1 million to $2 million in deferred money for various other players. That gives the Tigers roughly $13 million in deferred payments next year. Of course, there is also some deferred money on next year's payroll -- most notably, $2 million of Carlos Guillen's 2011 salary -- but not too much. So the net result is around $11 million in deferred payments next year.


Read more: Ex-Tigers -- and a few current ones -- still collecting a check from Detroit | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20101003/SPORTS02/101003004/1050/SPORTS02/Ex-Tigers----and-a-few-current-ones----still-collecting-a-check-from-Detroit#ixzz11Kvs4mAB