With news of Jamie Walker leaving the Tigers to sign with the Baltimore Orioles behind us, the Tigers have decided to re-sign 1B Sean Casey to a 1 year deal worth a reported $4 million.
Casey is definitely a happy man:
Based on earlier rankings Casey was an A free agent, meaning if they would have offered him arbitration and he signed with another team the Tigers would have received a first round pick. The chances of that scenario unfolding seemed slim, though.
So the question is now what the future of Chris Shelton holds. Sean Casey will more than likely be the Tigers starting first baseman based on what we saw post-trade deadline last season, so Chris Shelton could either be stuck on the bench, in the minors, or could be involved in some type of trade. It will be interesting to see what becomes of Chris Shelton.
Finally here are what other Tigers sites are saying:
Billfer of the Detroit Tigers Weblog
Kurt of Mack Avenue Tigers
Lee of Tiger Tales
Mixed reaction, sorta, and I'm exactly the same. I like Casey as a player and thought that he did reasonably well as a Tiger. On the other hand though, as Billfer said, I'm disappointed that the Tigers do not think that they can do a little better in terms of a left handed bat. If he hits like he did in the WS I think that I'll be fine with this move, however.
I'd love to see what Shelton can do and it's good to keep the competition there at 1B. I would hate to see Shelton never get a consistent shot, or perhaps leave Detroit and bust out elsewhere. You never know.