Tigers roll the dice on Benoit

Today the Tigers addressed one of their off-season needs when they went out and signed right handed middle reliever Joaquin Benoit (33) to a three year $16.5 million dollar contract. In addition to this, Benoit will make about $5.5 million annually and have the opportunity to earn an additional $1 million each year in incentives.
Coming out of the pen this season, Benoit was lights out for the Rays. He had a 1.34 ERA in 63 games, allowing just 30 hits and 11 walks in 60 1/3 innings, striking out 75. Benoit is also expected to fall into the setup role that was vacated by lefty Phil Coke who is by all indications heading to the rotation. This also gives the team some insurance for Ryan Perry who has been inconsistent so far in his young career and Joel Zumaya who hasn’t had a full healthy season since 2006. This also may give the Tigers an option for a closer if they choose not to re-sign Jose Valverde after next season.
The deal however doesn’t come without concerns.
First, the $16.5 million dollar contract is the most lucrative for a relief pitcher since the Chicago White Sox gave Scott Linebrink a $19 million dollar contract over 4 years back in 2008. So far for the White Sox Linebrink has been quite a disappointment. In the past two seasons, he has sported an ERA over 4.00 and a WHIP well over 1.00.
Now I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen to Benoit BUT prior to the 2009 season (in which he missed all of due to shoulder surgery) he was very ineffective for the Texas Rangers. In 2008 he had an ERA right at 5.00 and has had an ERA above 5.00 in a total of 6 seasons since his debut in 2001.
Then there is the contract itself. The Tigers in Dave Dombrowski’s tenure as GM have dished out their fair share of bad contracts. I hate to remind Tigers fans of the contracts given to Nate Robertson, Jeremy Bonderman, Gary Sheffield and Brandon Inge all given after one very good year for the team (I guess you could exclude Sheffield from that list). All of those contracts also came back to haunt the Tigers in the past couple of years when they were in need to bring in new fresh talent.
One can also wonder how much this will affect the way they approach other free agents during the off-season. Does this lucrative offer give fans an indication on how aggressive the team will be when pursing other more sought after free agents like Carl Crawford, Victor Martinez, Adam Dunn and Jayson Werth? Or is it going to limit them in their pursuit of the big name players looking for new teams?
The Tigers also have quite a few positions that they need to fill. For instance what is going to happen at second base? Are they going with internal options or are they going to try and sign a free agent? What about the corner outfield positions or the possibility that they still may need a starting pitcher to insert into the rotation?
Tigers fans everywhere are hoping that this signing will pay off, but right now it is still full of questions and uncertainty.
Source: Mlive.com, Detroit Free Press, Baseball-Reference.com