If I were Theo Epstein, I'd get on the phone right away with Paul Cohen:
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Percival signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Tigers and then gave the team a 5.76 ERA in 25 innings because of elbow problems. He's back throwing again and is pain-free. "If you would have asked me in spring training or April the likelihood of him coming back, I would have said 10 percent," agent Paul Cohen told FOXSports.com. "I would say now it's 50-50." Cohan added that Percvial hit 97 mph on the gun at one point. On the off chance that Percival does make it back, it's unlikely he'd do so as a closer.
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Troy Percival : Rotoworld.com - Troy Percival Biography from Rotoworld.com
Troy Percival was one heck of a pitcher in his heyday and if he's now fully healthy and able to throw in the high 90s, he'd be a great addition to our bullpen. At 37 years of age, Percival is no spring chicken, but he'd likely come relatively cheap, on a short-term deal, and could fill the void left by Timlin. As we learned last year, you can never have enough pitching. I'd ease Percival back into the major leagues by using him as a righthanded relief specialist. Just throw him in there for one or two batters to blow fastballs by weaker hitters. He could share innings with J.C Romero in situations where we want to make lefty-righty switches. If he handles that well, we could then ideally use him as the designated 7th inning guy, which would push Timlin and Donnelly down into the 6th inning. Percival in the 7th, Okajima in the 8th and Papelbon in the 9th sounds like a pretty good formula to me. Instead of trading Wily Mo Pena for an overpriced Chad Cordero, let's grab Percival via free agency. This would be one of those low risk/high reward type of situations.