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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I ask again - what freed up money?
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The freed up money that you get from having a 7 year/168M contract off the books. Even when you account for the Kinsler contract (which isn't bad at all at 4/61) and the $30M they're giving to get rid of the albatross, it's still clearly a net positive to them. Fielder's contract is just that awful.
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I do wonder, however, if the Ilitch children don't share his love of sports ownership. If this is done with an eye on perhaps making the team more attractive to a potential buyer in the event of Ilitch's demise, it actually makes a little sense.
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I think it's just to make the team better, both now and in the long term. This deal has the potential of making their infield defense much better than it was before (instead of two butchers defensively on the corners, they'll presumably move Cabrera to 1st base where his range won't hurt them as much). They may take a minor offensive hit imediately, but Fielder wasn't that good last season anyway and you can bet the Tigers will be out looking for a bat the rest of this offseason now.
The Tigers are still winning the Central with ease in 2014.