LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – He arrived with the stuff of a superstar who could replace Mariano Rivera and left Yankee Stadium with the echoes of the boo birds ringing in his ears.
Following a meeting with the Tigers brass Wednesday at the Winter Meetings, Joba Chamberlain agreed Thursday to a one-year contract for $2.5 million with the defending AL Central champions.
The Tigers are banking on the 28-year-old re-booting a career that needs a jolt after six up-and-down seasons in The Bronx.
Watching Chamberlain morph into a mop-up arm this past season was a stark contrast to what Chamberlain was when he surfaced late in the 2007 season with a triple-digit fastball and a filthy slider.
It was only 19 games, but Chamberlain sent a buzz throughout baseball by striking out 34 in 24 innings and celebrating big outs with pirouettes and fist pumps that ticked off opposing players.
However, a shoulder injury that forced him off a Texas mound on Aug. 4, 2008, working as a starter, was the beginning of a series of serious injuries that took their toll.
The decision to make Chamberlain a starter, which was championed by general partner Hank Steinbrenner, was a controversial one that had its moments — beating Josh Beckett, 1-0, in Fenway Park on July 25, 2008 — but in the end it didn’t work.
Tommy John surgery in 2011 cost him the last three months of the season. While coming back from that in 2012 Chamberlain dislocated his right ankle jumping on a trampoline. That delayed the start of his season for four months. This past season he missed a month with a strained right oblique muscle.
So what happened? That depends who you ask.
He was miscast as a starter. The injuries robbed him of velocity and made his body stiff. He gained weight. He bought into the hype that developed immediately after arriving in New York.
“It looked like he got caught up in the whole Joba thing and it became a show,’’ a longtime Chamberlain watcher said.
A DUI bust in October 2008 didn’t help the image. The following season he went 9-6 with a 4.75 ERA in 32 games (31 starts) and spent the postseason in the bullpen and helped the Yankees win the World Series.
The Tigers view Chamberlain as a seventh-inning pitcher and insurance against 23-year-old Bruce Rondon, the eighth-inning man, who missed the postseason with a right flexor muscle injury.
Despite the 2013 season in which he went 2-1 with a 4.93 ERA in 45 games, there was a market for Chamberlain. The Angels toyed with him as a starter and the Royals had an interest early in the process.
Late last season Chamberlain’s velocity rose to the mid-90s consistently but the put-away slider didn’t surface.
“From what I saw, he didn’t get on top of the ball,’’ a scout said when asked where the bite on the slider went. “I think he has a chance to help them. The velocity was good.’’