The Detroit Tigers have had struggles at closer all season and while Joaquin Benoit has done a good job coming in thus far, the chance of Jose Valverde winning his job back is over as the team decided to release him.
According to Hardball Talk, Valverde was struggling all season and he has been pitching at Triple-A since being designated for assignment and his stats of a plus-4.00 ERA and 10/6 K/BB ratio in 11 innings was not working out, so the team decided to release him. Valverde was lights out for the Tigers in 2011, making 49 saves with a sub-3.00 ERA, but since then both numbers have not improved and now he is done with the Tigers after making 20 appearances this season.
The team is also dealing with losing Jhonny Peralta for 50 games after the Biogenesis scandal and the team traded for Jose Iglesias in the Jake Peavy deal for the Red Sox. The young star now will take over for Peralta and the team is hoping that he can hit well after going over .330 in 60 games with the Sox and he has a fantastic glove.
The team designated Valverde for assignment back in June when his stats were 0-1 with a 5.59 ERA, converting nine saves in 12 chances and now Benoit is the closer. At the time the team said: "We have asked him if he would go to Triple-A for us, and try to work with him there, try to get him straightened out," Dombrowski said. "He did not give us an answer on that. It really doesn't make a difference at this point, since we would still have to get waivers at some time. He was open-minded to it. He didn't say no to it, but he needed some time."
