The Detroit Tigers and slugger Prince Fielder are close to agreement on a nine-year deal worth $214 million, a source told ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick.CBSSports.com and Yahoo! each are reporting the deal has been agreed to between the Tigers and the free-agent first baseman.
Detroit, coming off an AL Championship Series loss to Texas, will fill a void left by the knee injury to slugger Victor Martinez.
Martinez hit .330 with 103 RBIs in 2011, helping Detroit win the division in his first season with the Tigers. He signed a $50 million, four-year contract before last season. But he tore his ACL this offseason and might miss the entire 2012 season.
The addition of Fielder would mark an about-face for the Tigers and general manager Dave Dombrowski, who last week said the first baseman and his team weren't a good fit because Fielder's agent, Scott Boras, likely wouldn't consider a one-year contract.
"Of course we'd consider Prince Fielder," Dombrowksi said last Thursday, according to MLive.com. "But realistically, it's probably not a good fit."
Dombrowski had emphasized the team's need for a one-year contract since the Tigers anticipated Martinez's return in 2013. The Tigers also have slugger Miguel Cabrera currently entrenched at first base, although he began his career as a third baseman for the Marlins.
The 27-year-old Fielder made $15.55 million last season with the Milwaukee Brewers, including a $50,000 bonus for starting the All-Star Game, after signing a record single-year deal for an arbitration-eligible player last January.
He hit .299 with 38 homers and 120 RBIs as the Brewers won the NL Central for their first division title since 1982, when they were still in the AL.
A first-round pick by the Brewers in 2002, Fielder became the youngest player in big league history to hit 50 homers in a season when he did it in 2007, and he's appeared in all but one of Milwaukee's games over the last three years.
He is a career .282 hitter with 230 homers and 656 RBIs.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7498284/detroit-tigers-land-prince-fielder-214m-offer-reports-say
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