Lions haven't done so well in Detroit in recent years.  Hopefully, a Lyon will be much more successful.

The Detroit Tigers will make it official this morning, just as TigerFest begins at Comerica Park: Brandon Lyon has agreed to a one-year contract with the team.  Financial terms of the deal haven't been announced, but it surely fits within that $5 million slot the Tigers presumably had available in their payroll.

So it looks like The Quest For Relief will end this week, after all.  Good timing on this one for Dave Dombrowski.  Now he doesn't have to face a bunch of "When are we gonna get a closer?!" questions from the Tiger Town faithful this afternoon.  (But if anyone stands up and asks, "Why didn't you go after Juan Cruz?" you'll get applause from us.)

The Tigers don't seem willing (at least publicly) to announce Lyon as the team's closer.  But really, would he have signed with Detroit if he wasn't getting a more-than-decent shot at being The Guy?  And once it's revealed how much money Lyon signed for, it'll probably be for more (per year, that is) than other middle relievers received.  So that's the expectation.

(I like to imagine that Dombrowski said to Lyon what Jack Donaghy told himself in the mirror on 30 Rock this week: "You're a lion.  Take what's yours.")

If it turns out that Lyon doesn't win the closer job in Spring Training, that probably means someone beat him out.  That would indicate someone's throwing really well.  And with Lyon's previous success as a set-up man, that could still hold the promise of a good bullpen for the Tigers in 2009.