Going into the 2011 off-season, the Tigers will have five player who will be arbitration eligible. Those players include…
- First time: Rick Porcello, Max Scherzer, Phil Coke, Don Kelly
- Second time: None
- Third time: Delmon Young
Tim Dierkes of MLBTradeRumors.com takes a look at what he believes the Tigers will do with these five players when it comes to offering them arbitration.
According to Dierkes, he can see the Tigers offer all five players arbitration with each of them getting some salary bump in 2012. Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer could see first-time salaries in the $4 million dollar range while he projects Don Kelly to get $700 thousand with Phil Coke projected to get $1.4 million.
Dierkes goes on to say that Delmon Youngs 7 home runs, 49 RBIs and 39 runs this season so far could lead to a small raise. This could be in the $725 thousand dollar range bumping his salary up to $6.1 million in 2012 which he believes the Tigers could take a chance on depending on what Young does the rest of the season.
Finally though Dierkes takes a look at Jose Valverde, who isn’t arbitration eligible but does have a team option for 2012. A couple of weeks ago Jon Heyman of SI.com said that it was likely that the Tigers would pick up that option on Vavlerde considering he is 40 for 40 this year in save opportunities. A remarkable number that Valverde will probably never see again. So if the Tigers are to retain all their arbitration eligible players and bring back Jose Valverde for $9 million dollars, the Tigers would have, according to Dierkes, just under $100 million dollars in 2012 commitments. If this is the case Dierkes believes that the Tigers would either have to raise their payroll to 2008-10 levels or trade someone in order to get a prominent free agent or two in the offseason.
Source: MLBTradeRumors.com, SI.com
