Benoit to sign with Tigers

Well the bad news begins for the Rays as one of their best bullpen arms is close to signing with the Detroit Tigers.

Sources close to the situation are reporting Joaquin Benoit is close to signing a 3 year contract worth up to $16.5 million. Benoit would be eligible for additional incentives that could increase the deal to $19 million.

This is bad news for the Rays who wanted to resign the flamethrower, but now Detroit has out-priced what the Rays could do. This puts more pressure on Friedman as he tries to rebuild the bullpen with limited resources.