The Tigers are going with Ivan Rodriguez as their catcher for another year.  Look for my commentary tonight.

***UPDATE***

The Tigers picked up their option on Pudge today at a net cost of $10 million.  He’ll make $13 million but the buyout was $3 million so the Tigers would have been on the hook regardless.

At the plate, Pudge had one of his worst seasons in his career.  His EQA was a pedestrian .237 and while his lifetime EQA is just .270 because of his disdain for walks, the .237 was the lowest of his career since his rookie season was back in 1991.  His defense was there though with ten fielding runs above average or, if you’re into Win Shares, he earned 7.2 of them on defense and that was good for fourth place in the American League.

What it basically came down to was, a mediocre Pudge is still better then a lot of other options.  There’s no great free agent catchers out there and you a team like the Mets would have been all over him.  Yeah, we’ll probably be overpaying him but it’ll probably be worth more then having a less expensive, yet ineffective platoon between Mike Rabello and Vance Wilson.

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