I only half the story this morning because the Tigers not only inked Armando Galarraga to a one year, $2.3 million deal, they also designated him for assignment.  I’ve had a few people ask me why they’d sign him then designate but it looks like the Tigers don’t really know either.  According to the quotes in Jason Beck’s piece, the spin is that they wanted to sign him to avoid arbitration, but when they came to work in the morning and the Brad Penny deal was done, they needed a roster spot so they decided to dump Galarraga.

The hope now is that the Tigers can ship him for at least something although the return on these kinds of trades is usually pretty small.  I don’t see him clearing waivers to sending him to the minors is probably a low chance idea.  I’m not totally surprised because the Tigers seemed luke warm about Galarraga most of the offseason then the Brad Penny signing was icing on the cake.  Still, keeping him around in the event something happens might have been a roster spot worth filling if he could work as a relief pitcher in the meantime.

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