2025 Detroit Tigers Spring Training

[gehringer_2]

Seidel reports Malloy is fine after the collision.

Cute that Hinch likes to 're-interpret' history a little when his players screw up. Seidel reports Hinch describing the incident as Clark trying to rescue Malloy after Malloy lost the ball in the Sun. Real time during the game the Phillies announcers said Max was calling for the ball from the crack of the bat. Not the first time Hinch has put a little spin on a game event to take the edge off player miscues.

Edited March 24 by gehringer_2

[casimir]

8 hours ago, oblong said:

One thing about Mickey Stanley I learned is that this wasn’t something out of the blue that was down before the WS. That’s how it was presented to me all these years. Like Mayo Smith woke up and came up with the solution. They planned it down the stretch. 

He had a few games where he started at SS and then moved to the OF in August and then he played SS exclusively for the last week or so of the season.  I don’t know about the August experiment, but the last week was certainly intentional.

[casimir]

8 hours ago, monkeytargets39 said:

I’m assuming Wenceel, but Malloy and Tork get kind of redundant and add nothing defensively—so perhaps Malloy.

 

i could see Malloy starting in Toledo until Vierling is healthy and then us releasing Margot and swapping Perez for Malloy at that point unless Wenceel is off to a fast start.  That way we aren’t crippling ourselves defensively in the outfield.

Seems a reasonable outcome.

[casimir]

7 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

The fact that they signed Margot to a one-year contract makes me believe that Meadows is not coming back for quite some time and that Perez will be the one on the Tony Packos Express once Vierling returns.    The fact that Margot can play all 3 OF positions will be a big advantage for Dr. Frankenstein Hinch.  

 

Well, this isn’t the NBA.  There isn’t a ten day contract option.  So, yeah, it had to be a one year contract.

I don’t know how much stock to put into this contract being a sign about Meadows. They just need another CF right now.  This keeps Greene out of CF.  He can probably handle it from a skill perspective, but why bother tempting fate (or at least increasing the odds) with an injury to the team’s best position player?

[Motor City Sonics]

25 minutes ago, casimir said:

Well, this isn’t the NBA.  There isn’t a ten day contract option.  So, yeah, it had to be a one year contract.

I don’t know how much stock to put into this contract being a sign about Meadows. They just need another CF right now.  This keeps Greene out of CF.  He can probably handle it from a skill perspective, but why bother tempting fate (or at least increasing the odds) with an injury to the team’s best position player?

And it's a much better option than Kreidler or Baddoo (whenever he gets healthy).      If they thought Jones was the guy, it would have been him.   

Edited March 24 by Motor City Sonics

[Arlington]

To ramble a little.  Tork making the team seems to be a given at this point.  And yea, I have wondered about using Wenceel in the infield.  It would increase his value a lot.  Pretty sure they are going to ride Malloy's bat for awhile, especially considering the left-handers we are going to face in LA and NY the first two weeks.  Seeing a platoon at first seems likely, with Tork starting at first against LH and Malloy at DH.  And then Keith coming in when the pitching changes and Tork moves to DH.  The platoon will really be more Keith / Malloy when it comes to batting with Tork toggling between 1st and DH.  There has to be a team desperate enough to grab Maeda. 

[Tiger337]

3 minutes ago, Arlington said:

To ramble a little.  Tork making the team seems to be a given at this point.  And yea, I have wondered about using Wenceel in the infield.  It would increase his value a lot.  Pretty sure they are going to ride Malloy's bat for awhile, especially considering the left-handers we are going to face in LA and NY the first two weeks.  Seeing a platoon at first seems likely, with Tork starting at first against LH and Malloy at DH.  And then Keith coming in when the pitching changes and Tork moves to DH.  The platoon will really be more Keith / Malloy when it comes to batting with Tork toggling between 1st and DH.  There has to be a team desperate enough to grab Maeda. 

They switched Perez to the outfield because he was making a lot of throwing errors, so I don't know if it's a good idea to move him back. Your Keith/Tork/Malloy scenario seems like a good possibility.

[lordstanley]

Not sure whether anyone posted this a few days ago. The Athletic's compilation of top 100 position players. 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6204865/2025/03/20/mlb-position-player-tiers-2025/

Tigers have no one in Tier 1 (6 players), no one in Tier 2 (13 players), Riley Green in Tier 3 (18 players, "All-Stars"), no one in Tier 4 (23 players), no one in Tier 5 (16 players), and Carpenter and Torres in Tier 6 (24 players). The difference between Tier 5 and Tier 6 seems just to be age (30-somethings vs. 20-somethings).

KC's Bobby Witt Jr. is Tier 1 ("Best of the Best") joining Betts, Henderson, Judge, Ohtani and Soto. Guardians' Jose Ramirez is Tier 2 ("MVP Contenders"). Minnesota's Carlos Correa is Tier 4, Guardians' Steven Kwan is Tier 4.

Edited March 24 by lordstanley

[papalawrence]

3 hours ago, lordstanley said:

Not sure whether anyone posted this a few days ago. The Athletic's compilation of top 100 position players. 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6204865/2025/03/20/mlb-position-player-tiers-2025/

Tigers have no one in Tier 1 (6 players), no one in Tier 2 (13 players), Riley Green in Tier 3 (18 players, "All-Stars"), no one in Tier 4 (23 players), no one in Tier 5 (16 players), and Carpenter and Torres in Tier 6 (24 players). The difference between Tier 5 and Tier 6 seems just to be age (30-somethings vs. 20-somethings).

KC's Bobby Witt Jr. is Tier 1 ("Best of the Best") joining Betts, Henderson, Judge, Ohtani and Soto. Guardians' Jose Ramirez is Tier 2 ("MVP Contenders"). Minnesota's Carlos Correa is Tier 4, Guardians' Steven Kwan is Tier 4.

That sounds about right. Detroit's strength is obviously pitching. Hopefully 5 years from now that looks much different

 

[Sports_Freak]

Now Perez is out;

https://x.com/CodyStavenhagen/status/1904292875522785336?t=0cF_A0eJ3Ci1TjGpmSIUXA&s=19

[TJ Rollercoaster]

Tigers will have a special promotion for those sitting in Sections 104 and 105:  "Bring your glove to the park, because you just might be playing Right Field for the team today"

[casimir]

20 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Now Perez is out;

https://x.com/CodyStavenhagen/status/1904292875522785336?t=0cF_A0eJ3Ci1TjGpmSIUXA&s=19

Good grief. 

[Tigermojo]

Meadows to 60 day IL to make room for Margot. He's not eligible to come back until late May but four weeks until he can even get the nerve tested plus time to get into game shape probably meant it would take that long anyway.

[Sports_Freak]

35 minutes ago, casimir said:

Good grief. 

Is this the Detroit Tigers or the Detroit Lions?

[Tiger337]

59 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Now Perez is out;

https://x.com/CodyStavenhagen/status/1904292875522785336?t=0cF_A0eJ3Ci1TjGpmSIUXA&s=19

That doesn't bother me so much because I'd rather see Malloy get a shot.  

[Tiger337]

13 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Meadows to 60 day IL to make room for Margot. He's not eligible to come back until late May but four weeks until he can even get the nerve tested plus time to get into game shape probably meant it would take that long anyway.

This does bother me though.  This injury definitely takes some of the excitement out of the season.  

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

That doesn't bother me so much because I'd rather see Malloy get a shot.  

but not in CF I would hope!

[gehringer_2]

I'm telling you, in two week Javy is your regular CF.

🤣

[SoCalTiger]

2 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I'm telling you, in two week Javy is your regular CF.

🤣

How about Ryan Kreidler. How the mighty have fallen.

[Tigermojo]

17 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

This does bother me though.  This injury definitely takes some of the excitement out of the season.  

Especially since, when healthy, Greene, Meadows and Carpenter might be worth 12+ WAR but it just doesn't seem meant to be.

[Sports_Freak]

17 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

That doesn't bother me so much because I'd rather see Malloy get a shot.  

I guess. We'll need some RH bats against all the LA LH arms anyway. I hear that new CF we signed hits LH pitching pretty good. But there's no replacing Meadows defense. And Vierling's versatility. The first month of the season was already hard, taking out a few starters isn't ideal.

[gehringer_2]

So Petzold reports that Margot was picked up as a spare corner guy *before* they knew Perez was going down. Which says to me that if they had know about Perez they probably don't send Kreidler down and don't bother with Margot. Now, if they want to carry Kreidler for CF, who is probably the only good CF they have other than Riley, Margot gives them one too many OFs again.

Edited March 25 by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

16 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I'm telling you, in two week Javy is your regular CF.

🤣

Fire Hinch. 😏

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

So Petzold reports that Margot was picked up as a spare corner guy *before* they knew Perez was going down. Which says to me that if they had know about Perez they probably don't send Kreidler down and don't bother with Margot. Now, if they want to carry Kreidler for CF, who is probably the only good CF they have other than Riley, Margot gives them one too many OFs again.

Do we know Kreidler is a good center fielder?  

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Do we know Kreidler is a good center fielder?  

No, but Harris says he is (even if he doesn't use plural verbs right), which is what matters:

Quote

"As you guys know, Ryan is an elite defender," Harris said. "He makes our defense batter when he's on the field. Pitching and defense is going to be really important for us moving forward."

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2025/03/25/detroit-tigers-parker-meadows-matt-vierling-wenceel-perez-injured/82644366007/

Edited March 25 by gehringer_2