Tigers ink Verlander for 5 years, 80 million

Posted by A. Isaac on February 4th, 2010 at 10:21 am

The Tigers had already lost one face of the organization this year, they weren’t about to lose another. In an off-season which saw them trade away the most popular player in the franchise, Curtis Granderson, the Tigers signed their pitching ace Justin Verlander to a huge deal.

Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers have agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday night because the deal had not been announced. The person said the contract could be completed as soon as Thursday.

Verlander was arbitration eligible and had asked for more than 9 million this coming season. The Tigers countered with an offer of 6.9 million. In hindsight, it looks GM Dave Dombrowski actually made a good move here.

Consider the plethora of bad decisions he’s made lately; the Magglio Ordonez signing, Dontrelle Willis extension, Nate Robertson contract, etc….

To say the least, it wasn’t looking good for Dave. If he would have gotten fired, there wasn’t a fan out there that would have been upset.

Hopefully, this recharges the Tigers for the 2010 season. Because missing out on the playoffs in 2009 after leading the division the entire year was dreadful for both the fans and the organization.

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A. Isaac A. Isaac is the Senior Editor of Guyism.com. You may have seen him before on The World of Isaac or at a local beach showing off his man boobs. His claims to fame include eating 5 cheeseburgers in one minute, having a threesome with two Victoria Secret models, and being a world-class table tennis player. Unfortunately, the validity of some of those claims is under dispute.