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Tigers Acquire Jacque Jones from the Cubs

Jacque JonesThe Tigers shored up their outfield on Monday following the acquisition of Jacque Jones from the Cubs in exchange for Omar Infante. Nothing is official, but it seems likely that Jones will see the bulk of the duties in left field platoon. From Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press:
"I'll play that by ear," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said during a telephone interview Monday afternoon, when asked if he envisioned a platoon between Jones and [Marcus] Thames. "We face so many right-handers that Jacque is going to play a lot, but I can't forget about Marcus."
Jones' splits weren't all that pronounced last season (.295 vs. lefties; .283 vs. righties), but that's likely a fluke due to sample size. Over his career, he's hit just .233 against lefties and .294 against righties. He did suffer a huge power drought last season, going from 27 home runs in 2006 to just five in 2007, but the Tigers are probably hoping that a return to the American League will get him back on track.

In any case, Infante was expendable, especially with Edgar Renteria in the fold. And the Cubs are throwing in some money to defray the cost of Jones' $5.5 million salary, so this was pretty much too good to pass up. Jones will be a free agent at the end of the year, but barring the unexpected he'll likely just be a one-year fix until uber-prospect Cameron Maybin proves that he's ready for regular duty in the big show.

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