You know how when your family gets together on Thanksgiving, it's not officially the start of the holiday until your crazy uncle gets drunk and falls off his chair?
Well the offseason doesn't officially begin until agent Scott Boras opens his mouth to talk about how big the market is for one of his clients. He spoke about Magglio Ordonez today with MLB.com's Jason Beck.
"We've gotten a lot of early calls. I think with this marketplace, the right-handed hitters of that ilk, like Magglio, there's going to be a very strong demand for them."
Duh.
The fact Boras spoke really changes nothing at all. Before the offseason it was pretty obvious there was going to be a market for the services of Ordonez. You don't have a batter with an .800 OPS five consecutive years--dating back to his injury-plagued season in 2005--without teams interested in his services. Any Tigers fans who thought the team could get Ordonez for $6 or $7 million were delusional. Of course, doesn't mean Ordonez is going to get a contract through the roof either just because Boras said there's a few teams interested in him.
My take? The Tigers would like to bring him back. He's been successful in Detroit in the past. The coaches and the manager both know him. His teammates know him. He knows how to play right field in Comerica Park.
Just don't expect Detroit to get into a bidding war for his services either. Hopefully they've learned by now about paying too much for an aging ballplayer coming off an injury.
The market for aging outfielders hasn't been the strongest in past years, but Johnny Damon managed to get $8 million in 2009 and Bobby Abreu $10 million. Vlad Guerrero got less, obviously, but I don't think Ordonez will be viewed as a primary DH quite yet. With the state of the free-agent market for outfielders, I think Ordonez will get a two-year deal worth a total in the $15-17 million range with an optional third year.