Verlander and Tigers Agree to 5 Year Deal

**CapitalTigers** · 02-03-2010, 08:26 PM

HUGE!

AP source: Tigers, Verlander agree to five-year deal

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By Larry Lage
Associated Press

A person familiar with the negations says the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander have agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity Wednesday night because the deal had not been announced.

Verlander won a career-high 19 games with a career-best 3.45 ERA last season. He is 65-43 with a 3.92 ERA in four full seasons with the Tigers.

The sides agreed to avoid arbitration. When figures were exchanged last month, Verlander asked for $9.5 million for next season and the team offered $6.9 million.

Verlander ended up securing a more lucrative contract than Felix Hernandez. The Seattle Mariners gave Hernandez a $78 million, five-year deal.

Received 02/03/10 07:21 pm ET

Mod Insert - Previous discussion on the rumors.

Tigers/Verlander on the verge?

**CapitalTigers** · 02-03-2010, 08:27 PM

$80,000,000 for 5 years.

**CapitalTigers** · 02-03-2010, 08:30 PM

BTW, I know the Tigers are on the Verge thread has 4 pages. This deserves it's own IMHO.

**JonBenke** · 02-03-2010, 08:31 PM

Ugh-oh, we gave two million more than what King Felix got .... T'ROK will not be happy!

**BigGrandy4528** · 02-03-2010, 08:45 PM

I'm happy with the contract overall as a whole, but I am not cool with the fact that he got more than Hernandez.

Felix Hernandez is 3 years younger and slightly better in every statistical category except wins and winning percentage...

Guess JV has the better agent.

**JonBenke** · 02-03-2010, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by BigGrandy4528

Felix Hernandez is 3 years younger and slightly better in every statistical category except wins and winning percentage.

Correct me if I am wrong, though doesn't Felix also have more IPs on his arm than JV?

**sabretooth** · 02-03-2010, 08:56 PM

I love JV, and I hope to goodness that this deal works out, but I really don't like giving large long-term deals to starting pitchers. Even most of the best ones have too many uncertainties to make it a good gamble, IMHO.

**tigerkid23** · 02-03-2010, 08:59 PM

Great news.

**redshark63** · 02-03-2010, 09:03 PM

Most excellent!

**Oblong** · 02-03-2010, 09:08 PM

I like it. I think it's safe to say that any pitcher has a certain risk due to their job but if you aren't going to give Verlander 5 years then I guess it should be practice to not give any pitcher 5 years. If not him, who else?

I also think it's smart of him to go only 5 years. Not sure if that "wanting a 6th year" was true or not but I think he's better off being a free agent at age 31 instead of 32. He could squeeze one more nice contract into his career wih a decent year after 31.

**Rob from Canton** · 02-03-2010, 09:10 PM

Originally Posted by BigGrandy4528

I'm happy with the contract overall as a whole, but I am not cool with the fact that he got more than Hernandez.

Felix Hernandez is 3 years younger and slightly better in every statistical category except wins and winning percentage...

Guess JV has the better agent.

Personally I dont think it matters. I dont think Hernandez is better than Verlander and at this point whats $2MM matter?

Im very happy to see Verlander locked up for the next 5 seasons and would have been upset to see him go into the season on a one year deal over $2MM. Its not my money so I say give him another $5MM

**Mark The Shark** · 02-03-2010, 09:11 PM

This made my week!

**potthole** · 02-03-2010, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by sabretooth

I love JV, and I hope to goodness that this deal works out, but I really don't like giving large long-term deals to starting pitchers. Even most of the best ones have too many uncertainties to make it a good gamble, IMHO.

Although the point you make is very true, Verlander is young enough that I'd be willing to take the gamble with a five year deal.

Now, when this current contract runs up, I'm not so sure I'd support another five year contract, but I guess we'll have a few years before that point gets tossed around.

**Beat** · 02-03-2010, 09:20 PM

Good deal man!!

**lordstanley** · 02-03-2010, 09:26 PM

Great!!

**apabruce** · 02-03-2010, 09:28 PM

Every long term deal is a gamble, but this deal had to be made. I like it.

**CapitalTigers** · 02-03-2010, 09:32 PM

I love this deal. At the end of the 5 years, he'll be a veteran at 32/33 years old. Great deal.

**tigersrok** · 02-03-2010, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by JonBenke

Ugh-oh, we gave two million more than what King Felix got .... T'ROK will not be happy!

The Tigers are eating all of the risk in this deal. If the reported $80 million is accurate, they gave him his full arbitration value plus $20 million a season for his free agent years. They should have gotten a better deal, given that they were giving him security. Pretty much the only thing I like about the deal is that they didn't give him a sixth year.

But now that the deal is done, let's just hope he stays healthy and doesn't join Bondo, Nate and Dontrelle as pitchers who the Tigers extended only to see them immediately hit the DL.

**cruzer1** · 02-03-2010, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by tigersrok

The Tigers are eating all of the risk in this deal. If the reported $80 million is accurate, they gave him his full arbitration value plus $20 million a season for his free agent years. They should have gotten a better deal, given that they were giving him security. Pretty much the only thing I like about the deal is that they didn't give him a sixth year.

I doubt he would have signed for less. You do realize it takes two to agree, right?

**JonBenke** · 02-03-2010, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by tigersrok

They should have gotten a better deal, given that they were giving him security.

Who says Verlander would have signed for less? What if .. and God, forgive me for assuming DD is a good GM .. but what if this was the best deal?

**Scottwood** · 02-03-2010, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by tigersrok

They should have gotten a better deal, given that they were giving him security.

The discount they should have got for giving him a long term deal was negated by the fact that we also should have awarded him for salary inflation in the coming years. We are basically paying him $4 million per win each year, and that should technically only hold true for this off season. Instead, we get him locked in at that rate for 4 more years. To compensate for that, we didn't get a discount for giving him long term security. The M's did the same thing with King Felix and basically negotiated the same way with him as we did with JV. We overpaid by a little bit, as JV should have got about $2 to $3 million less over the life of the deal then what Hernandez got. But, giving him an extra $1 million a year is basically meaningless and won't ever prevent us from signing another player. Its nothing to even debate over. The contract is signed and he basically got fair market value. The debate is whether we should have signed him to a long term deal and whether he will prove to be worth it.

**Duane B. Sims** · 02-03-2010, 09:49 PM

I'm glad this didn't get to arbitration. I was watching our old pal Sean Casey on "Hot Stove" tonight and he did a great job explaining how, after having gone through arbitration and hearing the team's attorneys rip him to shreds, that he felt personally slighted.

Of course it's not supposed to be personal, but after hearing the team rag on him for hours, Sean said it became personal. I can see where he was coming from. If I had to sit there and listen to my bosses tell me how terrible they thought my work was, I don't think I'd be eager to go the extra mile for them afterward.

So I'm glad this deal got done. As they say, nobody wins in arbitration.

**ToledoTigerFan** · 02-03-2010, 09:50 PM

Verlander is now set for life. As long as he doesn't gamble it away, such as Cecil did.

**john doe** · 02-03-2010, 09:52 PM

A person familiar with the negations says the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander have agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity Wednesday night because the deal had not been announced. Hmm, negations huh, must've been a tough negotiation. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/negations

**Duane B. Sims** · 02-03-2010, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by Scottwood

But, giving him an extra $1 million a year is basically meaningless.

What's sad is that I remember how huge it was when Nolan Ryan became the first million dollar man. Now an "extra" million a year is "meaningless." I'm not saying you're wrong, it's just incredible how things have changed so much in such short time.

**Eric Cioe** · 02-03-2010, 09:57 PM

Originally Posted by ToledoTigerFan

Verlander is now set for life. As long as he doesn't gamble it away, such as Cecil did.

Then all he's got to do is have a kid who is better at baseball than he is, negotiate his first contract, and steal all his money.

**LostInACoinToss23** · 02-03-2010, 10:17 PM

**wingedwheel** · 02-03-2010, 10:24 PM

Awesome!

**baseball3** · 02-03-2010, 10:25 PM

Great news for both sides....I think JV could have gotten much more, but, why be greedy. 5-years he could still be in his prime to break the bank on a 3-year deal somewhere.....

....he's still very young and hasn't hit his peak yet, IMHO.

On the flip side, he could have not signed long term, gone on to free agency in a short while and let another team pay him +100M......gamble is health and time if he did that.

I guess you never really know, but, what's not to like about $80M?

GREAT going and congratulations to both sides!

**DaYooperASBDT** · 02-03-2010, 10:27 PM

IT'S PBJ TIME BY BANANARAMA !!!

**socaltiger** · 02-03-2010, 10:29 PM

Its good. The Tigers had no choice. I hope its backloaded in the last 4 years so we have $$ left for Damon. Could be a very fun summer !

**LostInACoinToss23** · 02-03-2010, 10:41 PM

(leave politics out of this forum!) - Mods

**IdahoBert** · 02-03-2010, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by john doe

A person familiar with the negations says the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander have agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity Wednesday night because the deal had not been announced. Hmm, negations huh, must've been a tough negotiation. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/negations

Is Hegel Verlander's agent?

**Eric Cioe** · 02-03-2010, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by IdahoBert

Is Hegel Verlander's agent?

Best post of 2010 so far. Wow.

**DetroitFolly** · 02-03-2010, 10:49 PM

This news makes me happy.

**84 Lives!!!** · 02-03-2010, 10:57 PM

+

...

$80 MILL!!!

**IdahoBert** · 02-03-2010, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by Eric Cioe

Best post of 2010 so far. Wow.

Did you hear that George Berkeley died? His girlfriend stopped seeing him.

**Walt** · 02-03-2010, 11:03 PM

TSE doesn't think the deal is "a bit too rich for me to be excited about it, but not that big of a deal."

Further empirical evidence that this is a good deal.

**pyrotigers** · 02-03-2010, 11:40 PM

The Tigers should have let Verlander sign with the Yankees, then when he sucks/gets injured they'd be the ones taking the blow.

A huge missed opportunity to weaken a rival here.