Are the Detroit Tigers crazy?
That was my initial reaction at the news that Detroit had re-signed Victor Martinez to a four-year, $68 million contract. As you may or may not know, I grew up as a Tigers fan and have spent the majority of my sportswriting career covering that team in one form or another. So I’ll leave it to your judgment as to whether that makes me partial or objective here.
Looking at this as a presumably objective baseball writer, this signing doesn’t bother me too much. A $5 million raise per season might seem excessive, but his 2014 performance significantly raised his market value. Martinez had the best of his 12 major league seasons, posting a slash average of .335/.409/.565 with a career-high 32 home runs. Aren’t MLB players supposed to be in decline by 35 years old? Instead, Martinez is a finalist for the AL MVP this year.
Perhaps this is the rare player that actually improves with age — or at least sustains a high level of performance. Expecting another 30-homer season with an isolated power number of .230 might be asking too much. But Martinez has been a remarkably consistent player during his career. Dial him up and he’s good for a .300 average, .850 OPS, 20 home runs and 100 RBI.
Additionally, it’s not like Martinez is a player that will eventually have to move to designated hitter because his body is too broken down to play the field. He’s already there. Maybe Martinez will occasionally play first base, but no one is expecting him to be a catcher anymore. Concentrating solely on hitting seems to have made him even better at it.
Perhaps Martinez will suffer a natural decline during the final two years of this contract. But the Tigers will take two productive seasons — especially if it helps the team to a World Series championship.
However, it’s the Tigers fan in me that doesn’t like this deal. Four years for a player who will be 36 years old by opening day? How productive can Martinez be in the third and fourth years of that contract, when he’ll be nearing age 40? And what does this do to Detroit’s future payroll? The Tigers already have $107 million committed to five players in 2017. (That includes $6 million the team has to eat on Prince Fielder’s contract.) Those same five will take up $91 million on the 2018 payroll.
What kind of team will general manager Dave Dombrowski be able to build around that expensive core of players? Or should it just be assumed that Detroit’s player budget will be $200 million or higher by then? Dombrowski might not even be the Tigers’ GM by then (his contract is up in 2015), so maybe he figures this won’t be his problem.
Maybe this isn’t entirely Dombrowski’s problem now. I can hear my fellow Tigers fans’ response to the previous two paragraphs: “What do you care? It’s not your money. It’s Mike Ilitch’s.”
That’s the morbid subplot to virtually every big move the Tigers have made during the past five to eight years. Ilitch wants to win a World Series badly. At 85 years old and in reportedly failing health, he’s ready and willing to spend the money he can’t take with him to get that championship. Sorry, Ilitch kids — Daddy wants a World Series trophy before he goes.
This move has Ilitch’s fingerprints all over it. We don’t know for certain if Dombrowski endorsed going to a fourth year on a contract offer, but he surely made it clear to his boss that Martinez would get that concession elsewhere. The Mariners and Blue Jays were both mentioned as potential suitors for the DH. And the White Sox have been rumored to be interested since before the 2014 season ended.
Obviously, the Tigers wanted to keep Martinez as a second impact bat to pair with Cabrera and keep that window of contention open for another couple of seasons. But if keeping him also sticks it to other AL competitors, then that’s a bonus.
Yet rewarding Martinez for four years of excellence in Detroit (one of which he missed due to a knee injury) and ensuring that he’ll end his career in a Tigers uniform is consistent with Ilitch’s philosophy as an owner. He paid for superstars and awarded thank-you-for-your-service contracts for several players with the Detroit Red Wings. And he’s continued that approach with the Tigers.
Cabrera had two years remaining on his contract when Detroit signed him to an eight-year, $248 million extension. Justin Verlander was two years away from free agency when the Tigers tacked on five years and $140 million to his contract. Even lesser players (but fan favorites) have received a golden handshake from Ilitch. Brandon Inge was basically done as an everyday major league player after the 2010 season, but he got a two-year, $11.5 million extension — presumably for his 10 previous seasons with the team.
So maybe Ilitch just doesn’t care about budget and payroll the way we think he might or should. It was difficult to see the Tigers’ lineup being better without Martinez, though I would argue that it could have allowed Dombrowski to build a more well-rounded roster with some depth. Maybe signing Adam LaRoche to a shorter, cheaper contract would have freed up some money to spend on the relievers we all know the Tigers need. A mid-rotation starter could help too. Oh, and a corner outfield upgrade over Torii Hunter.
But Dombrowski quickly demonstrated that re-signing Martinez was not happening in a vacuum. Hours later, he acquired the defensive center fielder that the team badly needed, getting Anthony Gose from the Blue Jays in exchange for top infield prospect Devon Travis. As he often does, the Tigers GM moved fast on improving his roster, trying to beat the competition for the guys he wants — much like he did when he signed Martinez four years ago, also in November.
I’m still concerned that the Tigers have handcuffed themselves to an aging player who could decline quickly, costing themselves a chance to add the defense and depth that the postseason demonstrated was so important for success. But again, that’s assuming Ilitch is thinking the same way many of us armchair owners and general managers are, and that has never really been the case. Obviously, he’ll look smart if the Tigers get that elusive World Series championship soon.
