Ryan Raburn Out

With the deadline to add guys to the 40-man for rule 5 protection approaching, Dave Dombrowski has finally made the move that I never thought he would make and cut Ryan Raburn loose. I’m not the least surprised that he wouldn’t offer Raburn a contract… what surprises me is that he waited this long to give him the boot. He was – as we all know – a truly terrible player on both offense and defense in 2012. Perhaps – as has been suggested – he took all this time to try to work out a deal by which Raburn would stay a Tiger but be paid the kind of money he will be offered now on the open market.

July 1, 2012; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers second baseman Ryan Raburn (25) against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

I made the case yesterday that Raburn wouldn’t be the worst option for a right-handed reserve for the Tigers going into 2013 – though he’d be expensive and risky – now he won’t be expensive (for somebody else) and some other team is going to worry about the risks involved, and potentially get a big payoff if Mr. Raburn returns to form. Now that we know that Ryan Raburn is gone (though no word yet on who – beyond the obvious in Bruce Rondon – is going to be added to the 40 man roster) we can dive into the search for his replacement in earnest.