THURSDAY: Valverde has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Toledo, according to Tigers manager of media relations Rick Thompson (on Twitter).

FRIDAY: The Tigers have designated Jose Valverde for assignment tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

The 35-year-old Valverde returned to the Tigers following the start of the season and stepped into the closer's role admirably. He converted six of his first seven save opportunities, allowing one run over the course of 12 innings in that time. Over his past 7 1/3 innings, however, Valverde has allowed 11 runs on the strength of six homers.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland recently said that Joaquin Benoit would handle the majority of the closing duties, but shied away from officially naming Benoit the team's closer (MLB.com's Jason Beck reporting on Twitter).