The Tigers Sign Andrew Chafin To A 2 Year, 13 Million Dollar Deal

The Tigers added a great mustache and a pretty darn good reliever. 

Chafin had a career year last year with two teams. He started the season with the Cubs before being traded to Oakland for the latter part of the season. He had a 1.83 ERA over 71 appearances a year ago and WHIP well under 1. He has a career ERA of 3.30, and he’s been remarkably durable, appearing in 70 games or more in four of his eight major league seasons. 

This would typically be the point where I get pessimistic, but I can’t. I like this deal quite a bit. Chafin is a good reliever with a solid sinker/slider mix. He’s pitched in the postseason for multiple teams, and he’s got a lot of experience. It's a friendly deal of two years, 13 million with an opt-out after one year. I'm not crazy about the one year opt. It's starting to seem like the Tigers are sometimes afraid to retain really good players for substantial periods of time out of fear they're going to become the next Jordan Zimmermann, but that's a minor complaint. I know that relievers are fragile, but Detroit needed another lefty in their bullpen to complement Gregory Soto's flamethrowing, and I think they got that with Chafin. It’s a good move. 

The word “good” is typically the last thing that comes to mind whenever you think of anything that involves the Tigers bullpen, but as I said on my show the other day (cheap plug, I know), I think the Tigers are going to have a pretty good pen this year. Gregory Soto, Jose Cisnero, Michael Fulmer, and Kyle Funkhouser all had their blowup outings, but in general, it seemed like AJ Hinch found a back end of the pen in 2021, and now you have a new toy in Andrew Chafin. So yeah, good work Al. Now sign another starter.