Tigers land Ordonez

DETROIT -- For the second straight year, the Detroit Tigers added a marquee player about two weeks before the start of spring training.

First, Ivan Rodriguez. Now, Magglio Ordonez.

"Most of us go into spring training excited, but when you sign a big-time guy like Ordonez, it makes you even more excited," Tigers pitcher Jason Johnson said Sunday in a telephone interview from Tampa, Fla.

"It's really going to boost our morale. I can't wait to get started."

After signing in 2004, Rodriguez helped the Tigers win 72 games. That was a 29-win improvement from the previous season, the second-best turnaround in the AL since it expanded in 1961.

With Ordonez's bat in the middle of the lineup, Detroit figures to improve its chances of competing in the AL Central, expected to be among the weaker divisions in the major leagues this year.

"In our game, you go on track record, and he's been an All-Star and a .300 hitter who drives in well over 100 RBIs a year," Tigers manager Alan Trammell said last month after he and team officials met with Ordonez and his agent in Miami.

Ordonez, the last remaining premier free agent, and the Tigers agreed to a $75 million, five-year contract, a baseball source told The Associated Press on Saturday. The deal could be worth up to $105 million over seven seasons.