LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) -The Detroit Tigers desperately needed to add a closer this winter to replace the retired Todd Jones.
Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney, the relievers groomed to replace Jones, both failed to instill confidence because they were either hurt or ineffective last year.
So, how important was the signing of Brandon Lyon last month?
“We’ll find out,” Detroit manager Jim Leyland said Wednesday.
Lyon had a career-high 26 saves for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, but a late slide led to him losing his job. He had a 2.43 ERA before the All-Star break and an 8.46 ERA after, ballooning with a 12.27 ERA in August.
The Tigers, though, viewed him as the good fit as a closer at the right price.
Lyon signed a $4.25 million, one-year contract – with the potential to make another $500,000 in bonuses – after turning down multiyear offers from other teams.
ure what they wanted to do or they were talking about putting me in a setup role.
“It was not only about the opportunity to close, but to be on a team I felt had the best chance to win.”
Detroit was not going to repeat its spending spree from the previous offseason, so it didn’t pursue high-priced free agents Francisco Rodriguez, who signed with the New York Mets, or Kerry Wood, who joined the Cleveland Indians.
“After some of those other guys that we knew we weren’t going to be in the hunt for, (Lyon) was the next guy on our list,” Leyland said. “He had some other options and the fact that he chose us is flattering.”
Lyon made his major league debut in 2001 with Toronto and started 11 games that season and 10 the next for the Blue Jays.
The right-hander became a reliever in 2003 for Boston, appearing in 29 games and saving nine.
The native of Salt Lake City had 14 saves for the Diamondbacks in 2005, but an injury stunted his success in May when he was leading the NL in saves. Lyon was relegated to being a setup man the next two seasons before getting another shot to be a closer last year.
He made the most of the opportunity with 15 straight saves from early April to late June and didn’t allow a run in 24 straight appearances before he was beset by struggles that cost him his job.
eparing as well as I needed to, especially when I had long stretches between games. I’ll use that experience to help me this season with the Tigers.”
Rodney or Zumaya could conceivably become Detroit’s closer this season, but the franchise couldn’t count on either one of the pitchers who were key setup men during the 2006 AL Championship season.
The Tigers had 28 blown saves last season, trailing only Seattle in the AL, with Rodney going 13-of-19 and Zumaya saving only one game in five chances as both had shoulder problems.
Rodney has said he feels healthy and is determined to compete to be on the mound at the end of games. Zumaya declined to be interviewed on Wednesday, for the third straight day, but seems to be throwing hard in workouts.
In a perfect world, Lyon will deliver in his role while Rodney’s changeup and Zumaya’s fastballs set up Detroit to bounce back from a bad year and avoid a closer-by-committee approach.
“Any time you can get a closer,” said Leyland, emphasizing the `a’, “particularly if he’s a good one, it takes stress off everyone.”
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