Damon finally agrees to sign with Tigers
Written by Greg Piatt, Saturday February 20 2010
The saga appears to have ended. Johnny Damon and the Detroit Tigers have come to a one-year $8 million deal, according to reports by several news organizations.
The contract has a no-trade clause, the Detroit Fee Press reports. So if the Tigers fall out of this season’s playoff race, Damon can’t be traded to a club he doesn’t want to play for.
No announcement has been made by the Tigers because the deal is expected to be officially announced after Damon, 36, passes a physical, Yahoo.com and SI.com reported.
Damon will likely leadoff or bat second in manager Jim Leyland’s lineup. He will be the Tigers’ regular left fielder, news reports have speculated.
The former Yankee bats left handed and last season hit .282 with 24 home runs and 82 RBIs. He has a career on-base percentage of .355.
Damon’s agent Scott Boras began courting the Tigers three weeks ago. Boras seems to have persuaded Tigers owner Mike Ilitch that Damon wanted to play in Detroit.
This came after the Yankees or other teams didn’t offer Damon the salary he wanted because of a bad economy. Not many teams were willing to offer aging stars the free agent money of past years.
Even after reports that the Tigers offered Damon a contract, Boras held out hoping other teams would better Detroit’s offer. But that never happened, and the Tigers won out in the waiting game.
With the arrival of Carlos Guillen and Damon, the Tigers current left fielder should become a fulltime designated hitter. Damon will also push Ryan Raburn, who was also competing for the left field job, to the pines as a super-sub.
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