No matter if it was Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez, Victor Martinez, Jordan Zimmermann or Justin Upton, the Tigers’ creed was steady these past five years.
Sign stars and superstars to new contracts or extensions in a full-throttle push to win. This year. And for subsequent seasons at Comerica Park.
Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, before he died in February, was the chief voice and sole benefactor in authorizing contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He also knew some of those deals could at some point blow up. Or, at the very least, cause anxiety if production didn’t match expenditures.