According to the man who never sleeps, Ken Rosenthal, the Tigers are nearing a one-year deal with former Diamondbacks' closer, Brandon Lyon. The back-end of the Tigers bullpen was a bit dubious, with the shaky Fernando Rodney holding a tenuous grip on the closer role, so this signing makes sense for both sides. Lyon, obviously, would want to go somewhere and be the full-time closer, seeing as how he's had success in the role before. The Tigers need to bump everyone a step back, at least, since Rodney fared poorly in his chance to close games last season.
The bad news for the Tigers is that Lyon's best season was when he was in the setup role for Jose Valverde. In 2007, Lyon only saved two games in 73 relief appearances. His ERA sat nice and low at 2.68, and he was among the league leaders in holds, as the Diamondbacks unexpectedly had the best record in the National League.
Last season, Lyon began as the closer, but ended up losing his job due to ineffectiveness. There was a stretch of insane productivity, though. From April 9th through June 12th, Lyon threw 25 innings in 24 games. He converted all 13 of his save chances, and did not give up a single run. Seriously, two months without giving up a run. The most amazing thing about that is his season ERA somehow found a way to bleed all the way up to 4.70. Do the math: Lyon had a bunch of bad outings in the other parts of the season.
Looks like his inconsistency will blend right in with the Tigers bullpen, and they are -- reportedly -- only paying him $5 million to do so.
