LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The baseball scout snickers.

"He's pitching here?" he says, peering down at the field. "These are high schoolers."

Down on the sun-baked diamond here at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex, one of the more dominant closers in recent major-league history is preparing to pitch to teenagers. The Canadian National team is in town for an extended spring training game against a low-level team in the Detroit Tigers farm system. (Correction: it's actually a scrimmage.) The first pitcher they'll face was 49 for 49 in save opportunities in 2011, finished fifth in the American League's Cy Young voting, and went to his third All-Star Game. He closed out the New York Yankees in the A.L. Division Series with millions of Detroit Tigers' fans' hearts in their throats and more than 50,000 hostile New Yorkers staring him down.

Today, a Monday in April, he's pitching in front of 63 people.

How did this happen? Jose Valverde was once as automatic as it gets, entering last season with a 51-save streak that ranks third in major league history. When he blew a chance on Opening Day against Boston, Tigers manager Jim Leyland and some teammates actually expressed relief that the reliever could put the burden of the streak behind him and have another amazing year.

But something wasn't quite right with the man they call Papa Grande.

He had 35 saves – certainly not a wretched total – but his ERA jumped from 2.24 in '11 to 3.78 in '12. His strikeouts-per-nine innings, 9.9 over his 10-year career in the majors, dropped to 6.3. In 71 games, he struck out 48, lowest since his second year as a pro, when he struck out 38 in fewer than half as many innings.

Then, in the playoffs, disaster.

He blew a 3-1 lead in Game 4 of the ALDS against Oakland, allowing the A's to force a deciding Game 5. Three days later, he blew a 4-0 lead in the Bronx by allowing two two-run homers. The Tigers won both series, yet Detroit fans were apoplectic not only at Valverde, but at Leyland for riding with a closer who clearly didn't have his stuff. Valverde lost his job, watched Phil Coke finish the ALCS for Detroit, then gave up four hits and two runs and got one out in his only World Series appearance.

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Valverde became a free agent after the season and nobody wanted him. Leyland expressed his support in spring training, but Papa Grande was still toxic to fans who used to adore him in Detroit, and Valverde started the season without a team. He was a fossil in big league bullpens: Of the 203 relievers who have gone at least three outings this season, only 28 are as old as Valverde.

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On April 4, oh so quietly, the Tigers signed him to a minor league contract. It was a shot in the dark, with no real downside considering Detroit is struggling to find someone to fill the closer role. Now an unmistakable baseball face who just five months ago pitched for baseball's biggest prize is a hulking, 35-year-old pitching for his career.

So the question in front of him and the Tigers now is this: Can Jose Valverde fix himself? Or is he permanently broken?

A close friend of his makes an optimistic case. Orlando Ventura, who has known Valverde for most of his major league career, sits several rows behind the Tigers dugout as Valverde warms up. Ventura says his friend worked seven days a week over the off-season and dropped 30 pounds.

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