The Tigers have agreed to a five-year, $77-million contract with free-agent left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Monday.
The club has not confirmed the deal.
Rodriguez returned to the mound in 2021 after missing the shortened 2020 campaign following a COVID-19 diagnosis and a bout with myocarditis.
The southpaw pitched to a 4.74 ERA across 157 2/3 innings for the Red Sox, but his 3.32 FIP and 3.55 expected ERA suggest he was unlucky. The 1.19-run gap between Rodriguez’s ERA and xERA was the seventh largest in MLB (min. 250 batted balls against).
Rodriguez’s best season came in 2019, when he finished sixth in the American League Cy Young Award voting after going 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA and 213 strikeouts in 203 1/3 innings.
The Valencia, Venezuela, native has struck out more than a batter per inning in every season since 2017, and after leading the AL with 75 walks while averaging 3.3 BB/9 in 2019, he issued just 2.7 walks per nine innings this past season.
Spending his entire big league career with Boston after being acquired from the Orioles in a 2014 Trade Deadline deal for reliever Andrew Miller, Rodriguez will enter his age-29 season in 2022 with a career 4.16 ERA (110 ERA+), a 9.4 K/9 and a 3.1 BB/9 over 856 2/3 innings.