- Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, a target of the Tigers among many teams signed a four-year contract Monday with the Oakland Athletics worth an estimated $36 million dollars. Cespedes will make around $9 million a season making him the highest paid player on the Oakland roster ahead of Coco Crisp. Cespedes will also take over the center field position from Crisp who will move to left field. Prior to Monday it was believed that the Miami Marlins were the front-runners for Cespedes after meeting with him a few days earlier.
- Despite the interest in Cespedes, Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski said that he nor anyone from the Tigers organization met with the Cuban outfielder when he visited Miami last week. In fact it seems like the only team present during his visit to Miami were the Miami Marlins. Pretty interesting Cespedes wasn’t attracting more attention when he was finally cleared to visit the United States after all the buzz he was generating leading up to his meeting with the Marlins.
- In a somewhat surprising news, Tigers third baseman was named the top third baseman heading into the 2012 season according to the MLB Networks Top 10 Right Now. The program combined statistical analytics and scouting to come to their conclusion which again was surprising considering the somewhat unknown factor Cabrera presents at third.
Here is a full list of the top third baseman heading into 2012 (via Mlive.com)
1. Miguel Cabrera — Detroit Tigers
2. Evan Longoria — Tampa Bay Devil Rays
3. Kevin Youkilis — Boston Red Sox
4. Adrian Beltre — Texas Rangers
5. Ryan Zimmerman — Washington Nationals
6. Brett Lawrie — Toronto Blue Jays
7. Pablo Sandoval — San Francisco Giants
8. Alex Rodriguez — New York Yankees
9. Hanley Ramirez — Miami Marlins
10. David Wright — New York Mets - Trucks packed with Tigers equipment and front office material departed Comerica Park Monday afternoon around 2PM ET en route to Lakeland, Florida for Spring Training. Pitcher and catchers are to report this upcoming Sunday with the rest of the roster set to report on February 23rd.
Ref: Detroit News, Mlive.com
