Our week long Pudge should-they-or-shouldn't-they nightmare is now over, Detroit Tigers fans.  (Well, if you thought the Tigers should've gone the other way on this, I suppose the nightmare might continue...)  The Tigers have announced that Pudge Rodriguez's $13 million contract option for 2008 has been picked up, so "catcher" can now be scratched off the team's off-season to-do list.

As I wrote last week, I didn't think Dave Dombrowski and Co. had much choice in the matter.  There weren't any viable alternatives available in the free agent market.  (Though I have to say, I was becoming enamored of Yorvit Torrealba, based on his playoff performance thus far.)  But maybe the front office thought it was an issue worth exploring, and wanted to bounce the idea around a bit with Mike Ilitch before coming to a decision.  

Obviously, the hope (or should that be "expectation" with that salary?) is that Pudge can at least maintain his offensive and defensive numbers from last year, if not slightly improve upon them (Take a walk!  Block a pitch!), but maybe this also gives the Tigers some more time (another year?) to evaluate their post-Pudge plans for 2009.  

So what do you think about this?  Thumbs up?  Thumbs down?  Shoulders shrugged?