Posted: 11 a.m. Nov. 23, 2010 | Updated: 12:24 p.m. today
Tigers reportedly land free agent Victor Martinez
By JOHN LOWE
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

It looks like the Detroit Tigers have found their big hitter.

According to two reports, they have signed free agent Victor Martinez to a four-year contract.

Martinez, a switch-hitter, is expected to be the Tigers' primary designated hitter and to serve as the No. 2 catcher behind Alex Avila.

The deal was first reported as close this morning by the Venezuelan Web site El Nacional. The Boston-based csnne.com then reported that the Tigers had signed Martinez for four years at $50 million.

According to El Nacional, Martinez turned down a four-year, $48-million offer from the Orioles.

It is unlikely the Tigers will announce the deal until Martinez, 31, passes a physical.

Martinez batted .302 with 20 homers and 79 RBIs for the Red Sox this season. Of the four major free-agent hitters available, he makes the most sense for the Tigers for a few reasons.

He's the only one who can catch. Martinez also can play first base when Miguel Cabrera takes a day off. So the Tigers' bench will have as many players as usual, even though they'll now have something close to a full-time DH.

He's the only one of the four who's a switch-hitter. When Martinez bats in the fifth spot behind Cabrera, the opposition will never gain a left-vs.-left or right-vs.-right matchup by walking Cabrera. So if Cabrera doesn't win the MVP today, he might have won something better: A proven run-producing hitter to bat behind him who will force the opposition to pitch to him more.

Cabrera drew 32 intentional walks this season, more than twice as many as any other AL hitter. Most of those came in the second half of the season, when the Tigers didn't have any hot nor established hitter to put behind him in the fifth spot.

In his career with Cleveland and Boston, Martinez has five times hit at least 20 homers and three times driven in at least 100 runs.

The other three big free-agent hitters remain on the market: Carl Crawford and Adam Dunn (who are left-handed hitters) and Jayson Werth (right-handed).

The Tigers have been, by far, the most aggressive team in the two weeks since free agency began. They have filled their two biggest stated needs by signing Martinez and right-handed setup reliever Joaquin Benoit, a free agent from Tampa Bay.

It had been clear for months that the Tigers would have plenty of money to spend this off-season. Several big contracts on their payroll expired at the conclusion of this season -- especially those of Magglio Ordonez, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis. Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski and his staff plunged right into the free-agent bidding.

By signing Martinez, the Tigers surrender their first-round pick in next June's amateur draft to Boston. The pick is 19th overall. The Tigers also gave up their first-round pick last winter in signing free-agent reliever Jose Valverde.

Contact John Lowe: 313-223-4053 or jlowe@freepress.com. Read more in his blog at freep.com/tigersblog and follow him on Twitter @freeptigers.

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We had to do something. Laird and Inge at the bottom of the line-up were killing this team. We could survive if Inge is the worst bat on the team, but we can't handle 2-3 terrible players up there. This signing is worth it if V-Mart can be a good DH in the 3rd and 4th years of the contract. And HOPEFULLY this helps convince someone (*cough, Cliff Lee, or Carl Crawford *cough) to sign here.

I know some people may have a fit about it, but I would up the Yanks offer to Jeter (3 years $45 million is what I've heard). I would love to have him back here in MI, and I think he would do wonders for our in field and batting. I think his leadership in the clubhouse would do a TON for this team.

Coolio, thanks for the info.

I agree on Jeter; would love to see him in Detroit though I'm not sure if Iilich would do it.

I like the player and I like the signing - it sounds like they are projecting him as more of a DH first and C 2nd. I dont think we really overpaid much for him and he could be reasonably expected to still be a decent hitter as a DH in year 4 at age 35-36. His contract doesnt have the auto options that Maggs' had which nearly tacked on an additional 2 yrs and 35 mill to the original 5yr/75mill contact he had gotten coming off a big injury. A big problem last season was having a bat to hit behind Cabrera - Boesch was strong for a couple months but was then awful. Then later when Maggs went down we didnt have a real No 3 hitter. It sounds like DD has V Mart slotted as the No 5 hitter so who will hit No 3? Looks like we still need another bat.

Lineup if we had to suit up today:
Jackson CF- R
Rhymes 2B- L
Raburn LF- R
Cabrera 1B-R
Martinez DH-S
Pheralta SS-R
Boesch RF-L
Inge 3B-R
Avila C-L
BN Santiago IF BN C. Wells OF BN Sizemore 2b-3b BN Kelly IF/OF

Not sure if they are going to want an emergency catcher or a 3rd catcher but clearly you dont necessarily want to head into the season with Raburn as your only option hitting 3rd bc he s been so inconsistent month to month. Its also hard to rely on Boesch on being your everyday RF or Rhymes/Sizemore at 2B.

At RF I think the most likely option is bringing back Magglio on a 1yr deal which means VMart ends up catching more often than they seem to have accounted for. Will probably therefore need one of the young players to step up or sign/trade for a RF who can both hit and play better defense than Maggs on a recovering ankle. I really like Wells but if Boesch can return to his glory months that would be huge.

I dont think Jeter is really an option for us - we d have to deal one of Inge/Pheralta or move Pheralta to 2B and really pony up for Jeter.

Rumor has it that Jeter's looking for 5 years at $20-22M PER. WOW!