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The Detroit Tigers signed their first major league free agent position player of the offseason on Tuesday afternoon, inking former Oakland Athletics outfielder Robbie Grossman to a two-year, $10 million contract plus performance bonuses as first reported by The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen and confirmed by MLB.com’s Jason Beck.
The contract is the first multi-year agreement handed out by the Avila regime since the 2015-16 offseason when the team infamously came to terms with Justin Upton, Mike Pelfrey and Mark Lowe. Understandably, the franchise has been a bit reluctant since getting bitten badly that year.
Can confirm Tigers are finalizing two-year deal with Robbie Grossman. This would be their first multi-year contract with a free agent since the 2015-16 offseason, when they signed Justin Upton, Mike Pelfrey and Mark Lowe. https://t.co/ZXAUYByAML
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) January 5, 2021
Grossman is slashing .251 BA/.353 OBP/.404 SLG over the course of his eight-year career in which he has played for three different franchises — the Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics. He put up a career-high 1.3 fWAR last season in Oakland despite playing in just 51 games (his next fewest appearances was his career-low of 29 games in 2015 with Houston which resulted in a -0.3 fWAR). However, Steamer only projects 0.9 fWAR in 2021 over the course of 120 games.
So did the Tigers make a good move or is this just another “business as usual” signing? Vote in the poll below and tell us what you think in the comments.
Poll
What do you think of the Robbie Grossman signing?
This poll is closed
-
0%
Fantastic move. Woohoo Al Avila!
(11 votes) -
27%
Pretty solid move, I approve
(373 votes) -
45%
It’s ok... doesn’t really move the needle much
(610 votes) -
12%
It’s not to my liking, but maybe it’ll work out
(175 votes) -
8%
Ew, what is this even?
(111 votes) -
5%
FIAR AL AVILA
(72 votes)