Emotional Joba confident he'll find another team

Detroit — Just like he was throughout his time with the Tigers, through the high times and the low times, Joba Chamberlain stood before his locker and graciously, thoughtfully and at times emotionally, answered every question Friday.

"This is just another chapter in the experience of my life," Chamberlain said, minutes after he was notified his time with the Tigers was over. "I am going to embrace it and I am going to be better for it. I promise you that."

The Tigers designated Chamberlain and left-hander Tom Gorzelanny for assignment.

"I have no idea what the process is," Chamberlain said. "I am just going to go home, relax for a minute, get my bearings and go from there."

Chamberlain has been an enigma in Detroit. Signed as a free agent before the 2014 season, he seized the eighth-inning setup role and helped turn the Tigers season around. But in the second half he floundered.

He had a 2.63 ERA and a 1.142 WHIP in the first half last season, 4.97 and 1.500 in the second half. Yet, despite that and a disastrous playoff series, the Tigers signed him again in late February for $1 million.

This season was even more perplexing. His fastball was hitting between 95-97 mph. His slider and curveball were both sharp. But they weren't producing outs with consistency.

In his last eight appearances, spanning six innings, he had given up nine runs and 13 hits. Opponents hit .419 off him with a 1.406 OPS during that span.

"I know Joba has taken some heat lately, but this is a standup guy who did some good things for us," manager Brad Ausmus said. "We don't win the division last year without him. It was no fun for me telling him that I was letting him go. No fun at all."

Ausmus said he would be shocked if Chamberlain wasn't picked up by another team, and shocked, too, if he wasn't successful.

"He still has the stuff," Ausmus said. "Sometimes, it's just a matter of time for that stuff to translate to success."

Chamberlain, though certainly aware of his numbers, was surprised by the move.

"Obviously I had a couple rough outings; that's the story of the year," he said. "It's the story of the business. You just go about it, keep working and hope you get another opportunity. I am throwing 95 to 97 mph and I feel great. But you fix things here and there, that's the journey of a season.

"I am just looking to find the opportunity, whatever the next opportunity is."

Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, who announced the moves before the game, said the discrepancy between Chamberlain's stuff and his results was his inconsistent command.

"I want to be extremely complimentary of him because he's pitched well for us at times, and helped us a great deal last year," Dombrowski said. "But it just comes down to command of the pitches. He is throwing hard, his breaking ball has been solid on occasion, but the command isn't quite what you would like.

"We just felt at this time, we're going to make a change, for no particular reason other than we think we need to make some changes to maybe improve the efficiency in that area."

Chamberlain was adamant, though, his issues weren't mechanical or related to an inability to repeat his arm slot.

"No, man, these dudes (hitters) are good, you can't make a mistake," he said. "That's the long and short of it. You can make a good pitch and they can still hit a home run. You can make a terrible pitch and they miss it."

Chamberlain got emotional talking about his time in Detroit and especially about his teammates.

"I am so thankful for the opportunity and thankful for the division championship I got to share with these guys," he said. "This is part of the business. They draft guys every year to take your job."

The Tigers recalled two right-handers from their farm system to replace Chamberlain and Gorzelanny. Jeff Ferrell was recalled from Triple A Toledo and Drew VerHagen was recalled from Double A Erie.

"There's 29 other teams, I'm pretty sure I could fit in somewhere," Chamberlain said. "I love to play this game, I love to be a good teammate. At the end of the day we'll see where we end up. We're going to have fun. This is a game and life is a lot harder than this game. This is just another first for me."

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

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