Prior to his signing, the Detroit Tigers had a pair of capable pitchers in James McCann and Bryan Holaday. His signing created some competition between the three pitchers that resulted in Holaday having a shockingly good spring training season in Lakeland.
Despite his eye-catching stats with the Tigers during spring training, the team traded Holaday to the Rangers and put Salty in the backup spot.
Signing Saltalamacchia turned out to be a good move. He was an inexpensive addition to the team and he provided some clutch offense – when his bat made contact with the ball.