Joe Nathan Signing Reaction

The Tigers have signed Joe Nathan to a 2 year/$20 million deal to fill the closer role.  Last year, the Tigers decided not to make this a priority which resulted in a roller-coaster ride of events:

• Pre-Spring Training - Bruce Rondon, while not officially named the closer, was the most likely candidate.
• March 28th - Tigers option Rondon to AAA, go with a "Closer by Committee."
• April 1st - Phil Coke records a save on opening day, retiring the last 2 batters of the game.
• April 3rd - Phil Coke records a blown save, allowing 2 runs in the 9th.
• April 4th - Jose Valverde signs a $2 million deal, reports to Lakeland.
• April 5th - Drew Smyly records a perfect 4-inning save.  
• April 10th and April 12th - Tigers get blown saves by Octavio Dotel and Drew Smyly before it reaches the 9th inning.
• April 17th - Joaquin Benoit pitches a scoreless 14th inning for his first save of the year.
• April 24th - Jose Valverde gets called up and records his first save of 2013.  
• April 24th - June 12th - Valverde is the primary closer, recording 9 saves, 3 blown saves and a 4.15 ERA.  
• June 16th - Joaquin Benoit records a save as it looks like it's back to Closer by Committee.
• June 17th - Drew Smyly records a perfect 3-inning save. 
• June 21st - Jose Valverde DFA.  He would accept a AAA assignment and later would be outright released.  He ended up with a 5.59 ERA for the Tigers in 2013.
• June 28th - End of Season - Joaquin Benoit is the primary closer.  During this time he recorded 20 saves and 2 blown saves with a 2.08 ERA.  

With Joaquin Benoit leaving as a Free Agent and some money freed up by trading away Prince Fielder and Doug Fister, the Tigers signed the best Free Agent closer available.  After having Tommy John surgery and missing all of 2010, Nathan had a mediocre 2011, but pitched really well the last 2 years, similar to his career stats since becoming a full-time reliever in 2003:

	IP	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	FIP	xFIP
2003-2009	497 2/3	246	2.04	0.95	10.87	2.77	2.56	3.12
2012	64 1/3	37	2.80	1.06	10.91	1.82	2.78	2.60
2013	64 2/3	43	1.39	0.90	10.16	3.06	2.26	3.27

The Tigers now have a reliable closer and shouldn't have a problem with the 9th inning over the next 2 years.  What's worrisome is that I'm not totally convinced that the Tigers are a better team with Drew Smyly in the rotation and Joe Nathan in the bullpen as opposed to Doug Fister in the rotation and Drew Smyly in the bullpen.