No Jhonny, No!

You may have heard that the Tigers resigned Brandon Inge to a two-year deal with a 2013 option. Smiles and pats on the back proliferated and everyone was relieved to have the franchise's longest tenured member and all-around good guy on the team for a couple more years. All the more so considering there are exactly zero viable internal replacements and free agent options are both 1) sparse and 2) expensive.

And then there was shortstop. I know that once upon a time Jhonny Peralta was a young shortstop with power, but good god:

Morosi writes that the Tigers are willing to live with his sub par glove “in exchange for Peralta’s run production” and goes on to quote his RBI totals, but Peralta batted .249 with a .703 OPS this season and .254 with a .690 OPS last season.

Can Peralta reverse two years of underwhelming performance? Sure maybe, except for that whole "long history of horrible performance in Detroit" thing:

His OPS in Comerica Park through the years:

2006 - .394
2007 - .633
2008 - .665
2009 - .548
2010 -- .589

Gross.

So, as the Tigers appear poised to wisely decline Jhonny's $7.5M option for next year, they seem to be thinking the unthinkable: locking him in for another two years at a lesser rate, citing his offensive prowess. This, of course, is a horrible idea, but not unexpected. Why?

1. Carlos Guillen
2. Edgar Renteria
3. Adam Everett
4. Jhonny Peralta

It seems as though the Tigers have no idea what a good shortstop looks like. Carlos Guillen, upon his 4-year extension back in 2008, was really no longer a defensive shortstop, though he could hit. The result? A Shane Halter-esque move around to every position on the field to try and fit him in. Edgar Renteria was the same mold. Good history, bad aging, not good SS material. The result? Disaster. Enter Adam Everett aka "Blowback." He was the antithesis of Renteria and Guillen. Could field, couldn't hit, was cheap. It was all well and good, until the Tigers realized that neither he, nor Laird, nor rookie 2B, (nor Inge) could hit either.

So now here we are, about to sign a less-old but just as unsuited to be a Shortstop, Jhonny Peralta. For two years. With no other place in the field to move him when he doesn't work out. This is just a horrible, horrible idea.

Can I please just have a platoon of Ramon Santiago and Danny Worth or something to that effect. Do we need to lock in to a player who has never been that good and is getting worse? And have effectively two of that player manning the left side of the infield for two years.

Please Dave Dombrowski, No Jhonny, no.