Tigers Designate Galarraga to Make Room for Penny

Just hours after the Detroit Tigers came to terms on a one-year, $2.3 million deal with pitcher Armando Galarraga, the club designated the right hander for assignment in order to clear space on the roster for pitcher Brad Penny.

In a move that can only be described as shocking, the Tigers now have ten days to trade or release Galarraga. If he goes unclaimed during the waiver process, he can elect to become a free agent. I threw that last bit in there for the sake of completeness, but in all honesty there’s no way Galarraga goes unclaimed. The Orioles are known to have some level of interest in Galarraga, so I’d expect him to be claimed by Baltimore if no one else. If Galarraga is claimed, the Tigers can opt to simply let him go, or they can work out a trade with the claiming team.

So basically, I’m all sorts of confused here. The Tigers deal with Galarraga wasn’t guaranteed, so since they will be cutting ties with him before March 15, they’ll only be out about $350,000. On the other hand, why go to the trouble of signing the new deal with him if they were just going to DFA the guy? Unless it was simply a procedural move that was needed thanks to the arbitration deadline, I don’t get it.

Another possibility, I suppose, is that the Tigers already have the parameters of a deal worked out with another club and making this moves allows them the time needed to complete the trade while still getting Penny on the club. Upon further reflection, that’s what I’m going to have to guess caused all this upheaval.

Stay tuned, we’ll have more on this as we become enlightened.

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