Brandon Inge's time in Detroit has come to an end. The team announced after the game he was unconditionally released. Brad Eldred has had his contract purchased.
Tigers have unconditionally released Brandon Inge. Brad Eldred's contract will be purchased from Toledo on Friday. #tigers
— Brian Britten (@BBritten_Tigers) April 26, 2012
We'll obviously have more on this angle as well. We'll also have a separate story on Eldred later. For now, check out Tony Paul's story at the Detroit News for more on Eldred. In short, he's been red-hot with Triple-A Toledo. In 20 games, he has 13 home runs, nine doubles and a triple. The 31-year-old has played parts of three seasons in the major leagues, reaching the big leagues with both Pittsburgh and Colorado.
Inge was batting .100 with one home run and two RBI at the time of his release. He played in nine games and amassed 20 at bats. He also played iffy defense at second base. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski thanked him for his time in Detroit and praised what he's meant to the organization in announcing the move.
Inge on the Fox Sports Detroit post game: "You can kind of see how things are going before they come. No hard feelings. This has been where I've been my whole career. I'll miss the guys. A chance to go play somewhere else may be a good thing for me personally, but my heart will always be in Detroit 100% forever. ... It's a business when you come down to the end of it. I hope the team does well. I hope they go on and win it all."
Jim Leyland: "We thought long and hard about it, and this is what we came up with. He's been a true soldier, a lot of great memories there. It's not my happiest day obviously. But that's the way it is. You have to make tough decisions. But at the end of the day, we felt like this was the decision we had to make."
Leyland added that the log jam at second base contributed, that Ramon Santiago and Ryan Raburn needed more playing time and that it didn't help any of the three players to divide their time so much.
My final word before heading out for a little late afternoon sun while collecting thoughts on all the day's events, is that it's a sad way for things to end. Unfortunately, the moment he signed that two-year contract extension during the 2010-11 offseason, you had to know it would end this way. Inge's career trajectory was known at that time. He followed it maybe sharper than the Tigers expected, but there was no other way the story would end. Inge has always been polarizing, but do try to remember some of the good moments he had with the organization. He loves Detroit. Take a moment to give him a little bit of love back.