Michael Rosenberg: Don't expect Tigers to go on off-season spending spree

Tigers president Dave Dombrowski met with the media Tuesday, and I'm sure you will agree the highlight was when he said of reliever Ryancheap nfl jerseys Perry: "His arm speaks for itself." I can't wait to talk to Perry's arm when I get to spring training. (This job gets better every day, it really does.)

For better or worse, that also might be the highlight of the Tigers' winter. This will be an off-season of small, short-term moves, instead of dramatic long-term moves. Except for a couple of spots, the roster for 2012 is virtually set.

That's actually good -- the Tigers won 95 games this year, so they are quite happy to take another shot at the World Series with basically the same group. But fans should understand that the Tigers won't compete for the priciest free agents. Their payroll is almost all locked up.

How can that be? Carlos Guillen ($13-million salary in 2011), Magglio Ordoñez ($10 million) and Brad Penny ($3 million) all come off the books. That is $26 million right there. Why can't the Tigers spend it?

Well, it's not like they can freeze the rest of their salaries. Justin Verlander's salary jumps from $12.85 million to $20.1 million next year. (It jumps because he would have been a free agent this off-season. Let's pause a moment so you can thank the appropriate deities that the Tigers signed him to a long-term extension.) Jose Valverde's salary goes from $7 million to wholesale nfl jerseys$9 million.

The Tigers already have committed $82.875 million to their 2012 payroll. Then there is the small matter of deferred money. Actually, it's a very large matter.

Tuesday, Dombrowski basically said good-bye to Ordoñez, but the Tigers still owe him $3 million in deferred money in 2012, plus interest. They also owe Valverde $2 million, Pudge Rodriguez $2 million, and Gary Sheffield $1.5 million. Thankfully, they have paid off Ty Cobb's last contract. But that totals almost $9 million, pushing the Tigers' payroll past $90 million.

And after spending that $90 million, guess how many players they have under contract. OK, guess lower. Lower. Answer: nine.

Five Tigers are eligible for arbitration: Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello, Delmon Young, Phil Coke and Don Kelly. The Tigers are sure to offer arbitration to all five. It is really hard to project arbitration rewards or settlements. But the total for those five probably will be somewhere between $15 to $25 million.

That puts the Tigers between $105 and $115 million. And they still only have 14 players. If the last 11 guys on the roster make an average of $500,000 -- close to the major league minimum -- that adds another $5.5 million to the payroll.

I don't know what the Tigers' payroll ceiling is. But that is pretty close to it. And they also have to plan to spend some serious cash after the 2012 season, when Doug Fister, Alex Avila, Brennan Boesch and Austin Jackson will be eligible for arbitration for the first time.

Some of the pieces might move around. Some Cheap NFL Jerseysmight get traded. Some might get hurt. But most of Dombrowski's chess board is set.

He will try to add a second baseman on the cheap, possibly via trade, and maybe -- maybe -- a third baseman. That is basically it, though.

The Tigers have committed to their 2012 team. They just have to hope it is good enough.http://finshlinegunz.forums-free.info/t27-michael-rosenberg-don-t-expect-tigers-to-go-on-off-season-spending-spree