With the Detroit bullpen issues of late there has been much talk around town about resigning RHP Troy Percival to help with late inning relief. Percival ended his career last year with the Tigers, well.. officially with the Angels, after season ending surgery. The Tigers payed him around $12M for the ‘05 and ‘06 seasons in which he pitched a total of 25 innings and this bad karma is what Percival’s agent blames for not getting the deal done:

“We all felt, from a karma perspective, that Detroit may not have been the best fit, because of the injuries he had there the past two years.

“That was a mutual feeling. We all felt that it wasn’t the best way to go.”

He’s now been signed to a minor league contract by the St. Louis Cardinals. Funny since the last I saw it seemed there was good karma between the teams with Percival using his World Series share to purchase a suite at the park for the Tigers wives. Then there is the simple fact that he was still voted a World Series cut.

However, this is likely the best outcome with Detroit needing to take a shot at a more “sure bet” pitcher than a long shot chance. The long shot was already taken on Jose Mesa, who is now apparently with the Phillies. Additionally if chances were to be taken there is a full stable of arms sitting in the Minor Leagues in Jair Jurrjens (on DL now though), Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz and Virgil Vasquez.

Additionally Roman Colon has been continuing his journey back to the big leagues and could possibly fill innings when Rodney isn’t available before Zumaya returns. He’s been lights out against righties and could be a good complement to Bobby Seay and/or Tim Byrdak who’ve both been handling lefties well.

I would still like a move to be made to get a more tried and true MLB pitcher to pick up some innings but the market doesn’t have many available and those that are currently have a very hefty price tag. As of late the current bullpen has started stepping up but the urgency could return quickly with just a few rotten outings.