Friday, September 23, 2005

Maybin finally agrees to terms

First-round draft pick will receive bonus of $2.65 million, report today to Lakeland, Fla.

By Tom Gage / The Detroit News

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DETROIT -- Finally some good news for the Tigers.

According to the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, the hometown newspaper of Cameron Maybin, the Tigers' first-round draft choice this year, he has agreed to a contract with a signing bonus of $2.65 million and will report today to the Tigers' minor league headquarters in Lakeland, Fla.

The outfielder told the Citizen-Times after orally agreeing to the contract, "my mom said she hasn't seen me smile like this in months. I'm just so excited to get started and become a Detroit Tiger. For someone who loves baseball as much as I do, this wasn't an easy process, but it was something I had to go through."

It looked as if Maybin and the Tigers were headed nowhere in negotiations.

Maybin was an attractive choice because of his power, speed and raw potential. His high school coach, Tom Smith, told the Citizen-Times for today's editions that Maybin "has added upper body strength" since he was drafted and that he "recently ran a personal best time of 6.374 seconds in the 60-yard dash."

Maybin, drafted 10th overall in June, wasn't understating the fact that the process wasn't easy, however. It got so dicey that on Aug. 27, general manager Dave Dombrowski said that negotiations, for the time being, had been called off.

"You never want to lose a No. 1 draft choice, but it just wasn't working," Dombrowski said.

He emphasized at the time, however, that the "door wasn't closed" -- and clearly, with Maybin now saying he's signed, it wasn't.