Dontrelle Willis will be designated for assignment to make room for Max Scherzer, who will be starting tomorrow’s day game against the A’s. That officially brings an end to the not-so-glorious Dontrelle Willis era in Detroit.
Willis was pitching much better this year overall than he had in previous years with the Tigers, which is not saying too much. In his first five starts he was very good — he only allowed 11 earned runs in 28.1 IP, good for a 3.49 ERA — but had tapered off significantly in the month of May. In May, he walked 17 in just 19 innings and had a 6.52 ERA over four starts. Overall, he had a 4.98 ERA, but that included one relief appearance in which he imploded. As a starter this year, he finished with a not good by any stretch of the imagination, but decent fifth starter, 4.68 ERA. There’s more after the jump.
DFA’ing Dontrelle means the Tigers are now eating the rest of his $12 million contract for this season. They already decided to eat $9.6 million of Nate Robertson’s contract when they traded him to the Marlins before the season for $400,000 and a bucket of sunflower seeds. Without taking prorations into account, that’s $21.6 million worth of contracts the Tigers have eaten this season in two LHPs.
I backed the Tigers for trading Robertson, for a number of reasons. It was extremely smart and it remains that way. If it wasn’t Robertson traded before the season, it’d be Robertson being designated for assignment right now. His stats are not any better than Willis’, and he pitches in quadruple-A (but a DFA for him would have made the DesigNATE Robertson blog much more fitting). Any prior arguments to keep Robertson over Dontrelle are moot.
Having said that, this specific move was still somewhat surprising. Obviously, Dontrelle has been struggling lately, but he hasn’t been costing the Tigers any games. Despite all the baserunners allowed, he has yet to allow more than four runs in any start this season, which can’t be said for any other Tigers starter. The problem, of course, is that Dontrelle’s prior seasons served as warning signs, and D-Train’s May was becoming all too familiar.
For a team that was so desperate to get what they could out of Dontrelle Willis, I guess the Tigers felt they’ve received all they possibly could at this point. Now, as we head into June, it’s time for the Tigers to put their best five starters on the hill no matter what arm they use and how much they cost owner Mike Illitch here on out. Tonight’s 6-0 loss may have driven that point home even harder.
Dontrelle was a lot of fun to watch in his Marlins’ days and he was just as fun to watch with the Tigers when he wasn’t walking three an inning, which wasn’t often enough. It just wasn’t working out and I do think it’s time the Tigers get very serious before they let this Central Division slip from their fingers by the All-Star break. Let’s just hope Scherzer isn’t a Triple-A all-star and Gags is back to his rookie year form, because if that’s not the case, the Tigers just let their only LHP option, who had given them 5+ innings in 7 of 8 starts, and four or less runs in all of them, go at the cost of $12 million.
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