Will The Detroit Tigers Keep Joakim Soria?
By Clinton Cole
The Detroit Tigers have to decide whether or not to exercise Joakim Soria’s $7 million option after the World Series.
Joakim Soria spent the first five years of his career with the Kansas City Royals and was one of the better closers in MLB.
With a career 2.58 ERA, Soria has proven he can pitch at a fairly high level. The right-hander from Monclova, Mexico posted a 3.25 ERA with 18 saves in 2014 between the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers. The stat that really sticks out is his .99 WHIP.
Everyone knows that the Tigers bullpen has been their downfall over the last couple of seasons. With an MVP and several Cy Young winners, the Tigers SHOULD have won at least one and maybe two championships in the last few years. Instead, they have only reached the World Series once since 2010. They lost to the San Francisco Giants in 2012.
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In 2014, the Tigers bullpen ranked 27th according to Fangraphs.
According to an article written by Jason Beck, the dilemma is more of what role Soria will play rather than whether or not to keep him.
Current Tigers’ closer Joe Nathan is owed around $10 million but some hope they let him go.
Lions fans just happy Joe Nathan not coming on to close!
— Steve Tannen (@SportsTalk953) October 19, 2014
According to Beck’s article, Dave Dombrowski commented on both Nathan and Soria.
“I would think [Nathan] starts as our closer going into [next season],” Dombrowski said, “but he has to perform up to the capabilities required of doing it.”
“We still have to make the final decision,” team president and general manager Dave Dombrowski said last week. “But it’s a situation where we look at him as being an important acquisition toward this [coming] year also.”
The Tigers traded away a couple decent prospects to get Soria from the Texas Rangers in July. Soria pitched in two games during the ALDS and didn’t perform up to expectiations.
As Beck said, Soria would be one of the top closers on the free agent market so don’t expect the Tigers to let him go.
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