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Reaction to Tigers' Jordan Zimmermann deal largely positive

Jordan Zimmermann will join the Tigers for $110 million across five years. For the most part, local and national media think Detroit made a wise move with the signing.

By Kurt Mensching
Rob Carr/Getty Images
Jordan Zimmermann can help Tigers, but deal is definitely a risky one -- ESPN.com's Keith Law (sub req)

Jordan Zimmermann ... has been durable and effective since his return from Tommy John surgery in 2009, but a downturn in his stuff and performance in 2015 makes it seem the Tigers are paying for a version of Zimmermann that no longer exists.

MLB's market has changed and Jordan Zimmermann's contract is proof -- Yahoo's Jeff Passan

For everyone who calls Rick Porcello's $20.75 million-a-year extension an anomaly and Lester's $25.8 million-a-year deal an overpay, though, there are the realists who look at Zimmermann becoming the first Tommy John survivor to reach nine figures and realize this is what baseball in 2015 looks like.

It is a stupidly rich game, and the men in boardrooms aren't the only ones who deserve to partake.

No, Zimmermann's contract doesn't mean a thing -- Fox Sports' Rob Neyer

So if Zimmernann's been "worth" well more than $110 million over the last five years, on what grounds would anyone think there's anything amiss with Zimmermann's new deal?

Well, because he wasn't nearly as good in 2015 as he'd been in 2014, and because the speed on his speedball was down a tick this year, and because he's five years removed from Tommy John Surgery and some people figure that means he's about to reach his expiration date.

Tigers need heavyweight like Zimmermann -- Detroit News' Lynn Henning

(Given) the market for blue-chip starters, Detroit got at a defensible price for a 200-innings pitcher who twice has made All-Star teams and been in the top 10 of Cy Young Award votes.

The Tigers needed an all-around boost in pitching in 2016. They required a heavyweight starter to join Justin Verlander and a presumably healthy Anibal Sanchez in creating a legitimate playoff rotation troika.

Can the Tigers really rebound in 2016? -- MLB Daily Dish's Mike Bates

Don't get me wrong, Cabrera and Verlander (even with reduced velocity) are fantastic players. There simply isn't enough room for them to improve enough to catapult the Tigers back into the playoff hunt.

Related.

Also related.

Tigers wise to sign Jordan Zimmermann now before market develops -- MLive's James Schmehl

In just his first offseason at Detroit's helm, [Tigers GM Al] Avila made a bold move by striking first and acquiring one of the top starting pitchers in a market that had yet to develop. ... It was a savvy move for the rookie general manager, who has already addressed Detroit's two biggest holes before next week's winter meetings in Nashville.

Tigers sign perfectly fine Zimmermann to perfectly fine deal -- Fangraphs' August Fagerstrom

(The) Tigers got the next-best thing, and even if he is just the three-win pitcher he was last season, they got him at a perfectly reasonable cost. If he returns to 2012-14 Zimmermann form, it's possible the Tigers got a steal. There's some added value at the team-specific level, given who Zimmermann was replacing in the rotation and the fact that the Tigers are now less reliant on the health of Verlander, Sanchez and Norris.

The Tigers are spending $110 million on Zimmermann because they don't have a choice -- SB Nation's Grant Brisbee

The Tigers need all sorts of unreliable things to go right if they're going to contend, like Anibal Sanchez and Victor Martinez bouncing back, prospects succeeding at the back of the rotation, and young hitters taking a developmental step forward. They can't deal with mercurial pitchers right now. They need cost certainty, at least for the next couple years. Zimmermann fits that spot very well. High-risk, high-cost, high-reward pitchers make sense for them.

Zimmermann joins the rotation -- Neil Weinberg, New English D

Maxing out the payroll to build an 80-win team isn't a good long terms strategy because it's wasteful and creates risk before risk is needed. If the club, however, intends to really invest in the pieces they need to be an 87-90 win team, getting Zimmermann is a nice move.

And on Twitter

Nobody knows what that means, but it's provocative. Gets the people going!

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