The words of caution from general manager Al Avila echoed in his hotel suite at the Winter Meetings two years ago, when he announced the Tigers had signed free agent Mike Pelfrey to a two-year contract.
"Our analytics guys, hey, I'm not going to throw them under the bus, because this is not an analytical signing by any means," Avila said at the time, absolving his newly formed analytics department from whatever might follow. "This is a scout signing. We felt the ability is still there."
Perhaps it was for that reason that when a similar question came up at this week's General Managers Meetings regarding the Tigers' Minor League deal with right-hander Mark Montgomery, Avila veered off that same path.