Who Is Newest Tiger Mike Fiers -- And Why Was He Suspended Five Games Last Season?
By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Justin Verlander displaced Mike Fiers in the Astros' starting rotation last season.
Now Fiers will join Verlander's old staff.
The Tigers signed the veteran Fiers to a one-year, $6 million deal on Friday. The team was in need of another rotation arm after declining the 2018 option of Anibal Sanchez last month.
As things stand today, the righty Fiers will team up with Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris, Matthew Boyd and Jordan Zimmermann in the starting rotation. Buck Farmer could compete for a spot as well.
Fiers, 32, broke into the majors in 2011 with the Brewers. His best season to date came in 2014 when he went 6-5 with a 2.13 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP. He was dealt to the Astros at the 2015 deadline and finished out another strong campaign.
But it's been downhill since.
His ERA jumped to 4.75 in 2016 and then ballooned to 5.22 in 2017. When the Astros acquired Verlander at the waiver trade deadline in August, Fiers became a spare part. He was left off the team's postseason roster in each of its three series.
Fiers can be described as old-school, given an incident he was involved in toward the end of last season. (If Ian Kinsler is around next year, the two might become friends.) The pitcher gave up a bomb to the Angels' Luis Valbuena, who flipped his bat in demonstrative fashion, so Fiers threw a fastball over Valbuena's head the next time he stepped to the plate.
Fiers was suspended five games.
He told reporters after the game, via MLB.com, "You watch this game and you know what goes on. What he did to me, I took it as disrespect. Obviously, I played with Valbuena and I have no hard feeling towards him, but when you do something like that, as disrespectful as he did, you've got to send some kind of message. I'm not trying to hit him, but something has to be said."
Valbuena got the last laugh, hitting a double on the very next pitch.
"I enjoyed my home run," said Valbuena, who's known for his bat flips. "If he wants to hit me, it's OK, but if I hit another home run, you'll see what happens."
Fiers, who led the AL with 13 hit batters last season, will likely get reacquainted with Valbuena next year. The Tigers host the Angels for a four-game series at the end of May before traveling to Los Angeles for a three-game set in August.
The Tigers probably like Fiers for his durability. He's made at least 28 starts each of the last three seasons and qualifies as an effective innings-eater. His arsenal, which primarily features a fastball, curveball, changeup and sinker, won't wow anyone, but he can be counted on to take the mound every fifth day.
For a Tigers team that won't be competitive next season, that's sufficient. And if Fiers can recover his earlier form, he could become a trade chip in July.
