Welcome To Detroit Tigers: Four Stars AGREE A Contract Deal With Tigers….
Veteran right-hander Michael Lorenzen has reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with the reigning World Series champions Texas Rangers. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the deal is worth $4.5 million, and Lorenzen could earn another $2.5 million in incentives.
Lorenzen started the 2023 season with the Detroit Tigers and earned a first career All-Star nod before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. He struggled during his stint with the Phillies and was moved out of rotation later in the season, causing him to sit out on the free agent market longer than expected.
Lorenzen went 5-7 with a 3.58 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 18 starts with the Tigers last season before being traded to Philadelphia in August in exchange for infielder prospect Hao-Yu Lee. He had a dream debut for the Phillies, throwing a no-hitter in a 7–0 win over the Washington Nationals and becoming just the 14th player in franchise history to achieve this feat.
However, since his no-hitter, Lorenzen largely struggled at the mound. He posted a 7.96 ERA in the following five starts and was demoted to the bullpen. Lorenzen was even left out of the National League Wild Card roster before returning for the NLDS and NLCS series.
Michael Lorenzen made his MLB debut in 2015 and spent the first seven years of his career with the Cincinnati Reds. He spent the 2022 season with the Los Angeles Angels before signing a one-year deal with the Tigers ahead of the 2023 campaign. Lorenzen has a 40-38 record in the majors with a 4.11 ERA and 602 strikeouts.
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While we wait for the Detroit Tigers to make their final roster decisions for the starting rotation and the bullpen, the active roster is now set for Opening Day in terms of position players. For most, the results won’t come as a surprise. The club more or less set the positional roster from the moment they signed Gio Urshela in late February to shore up the infield group.
However, both Justyn-Henry Malloy and Ryan Kreidler had really good camps, making the final decisions at least a little interesting. Akil Baddoo, on the other hand, struggled in camp and really didn’t show anything new to change perceptions. On Thursday, Baddoo and Kreidler were optioned to minor league camp, and Malloy reassigned to minor league camp, not requiring an option. That sets the Tigers final 13 position players on the active roster for Opening Day.
Baddoo’s speed, raw power, and ability to handle center field make him a strong stash at Toledo, but he’s also going to be an attractive low cost player with big tools for other teams in need of outfield help. We’ll see if he lasts another year in the Tigers’ organization or whether a team with playing time comes calling for a trade along the way. For now, keeping him as depth makes sense, but his 40-man roster spot could eventually be better used another way, as both Greene and Vierling can back up center field, and Malloy and Justice Bigbie are the corner outfield bats of the future looking to break through in 2024.
Kreidler and Malloy are both important players in their own right. Malloy showed why the Tigers love his bat this spring, and also played a pretty solid corner outfield in his opportunities. He’s not on the 40-man roster yet, so his potential inclusion on Opening Day never seemed likely, but he’s going to get his shot this season if any of the corner outfielders go down with injury. It’s also possible the Tigers could simply add him for an offensive boost off the bench if there is an injury in the infield somewhere other than shortstop.
With Javy Báez’s bat still looking like a problem, Kreidler’s role is also pretty crucial. He’s worked more in a utility role over the past two years, showing the ability to play well just about anywhere on the field. He’s also clearly the Tigers best defensive shortstop after Báez, and arguably Kreidler is the better defender. As a result, he is crucial insurance for the shortstop position in case of a Báez injury, and if things really fall apart for the veteran, Kreidler is really the only answer the Tigers’ have to try and salvage something at the position.
The lucky 13
In the outfield, Parker Meadows is the starting centerfielder after a fantastic spring camp. Meadows probably didn’t need to do anything but remain sentient to get that job, but instead he slashed .368/.415/.658 with an excellent strikeout to walk ratio and a pair of home runs in 41 plate appearances. He added a bit of emphasis against the New York Mets on Thursday.
Greene, Canha, and Carpenter were all locks to an even greater degree than Meadows, so there was zero drama in the outfield over the last five weeks. Not to be out done, Carpenter and Greene also pumped home runs on Thursday.
The infield also got a representative to Thursday’s dinger party, as Colt Keith launched his first home run of the spring against the Mets’ starter, Dominic Hamel. This one was built a little different from the rest, leaving the bat at 110.1 mph and drilling the light tower in right field in a real hurry. Only Greene and Spencer Torkelson possess that kind of power on the starting roster. Keith has been really strong in camp though the results haven’t shown up in the stats columns. He walked 8.9 percent of the time and struck out just 15.6 percent of the time, while hitting the ball hard with regularity.
Torkelson, Báez, and Urshela were all locks for the Opening Day roster. We did wonder if Matt Vierling, Zach McKinstry, and Andy Ibáñez would all make the cut, as they’re a bit redundant as a group. Kreidler or Malloy seem like interesting alternatives with bigger tools than what they’re taking north. However, all three had a strong camp, and Vierling brings a lot of athleticism and the ability to move between the infield and the outfield, while McKinstry is the sole left-handed hitter on the bench, and Ibáñez a lefty masher who has really been on a tear offensively since last summer. It’s perhaps not an ideal bench group, but the Tigers have done a lot worse than that for years. And of course, it will be subject to change throughout the season.
Jake Rogers and Carson Kelly will handle the catching duties, with AJ Hinch making clear that Kelly would get plenty of playing time rather than just being Rogers occasional backup. Expect Rogers to still get the majority of the starts, but Kelly looks reinvigorated to have found a new home in Detroit, and Hinch and his coaches appear to value the veteran’s contributions quite a bit. There’s also the fact that having two experienced veteran catchers who are strong behind the dish makes it easy to pinch-hit for either as circumstances arise, and Hinch loves to have that option in late game high leverage situations.
Pitching decisions
The final decisions remaining over the next few days are setting the starting rotation and the Opening Day bullpen. There are some tough decisions here, but Thursday’s game with the Mets may have sorted out the bullpen a bit.
As we recently wrote, Jason Foley, Alex Lange, Shelby Miller, Tyler Holton, Andrew Chafin, and Will Vest all looked like locks entering camp. Vest has had a few rough outings, and he’s a bit of a notorious slow starter, but at this point I still think all six go north, leaving two spots.
Joey Wentz, as the lone lefty beyond Holton and Chafin on the 40-man roster, seems likely to go north because otherwise the Tigers have to put him through waivers, and there’s just no way a big lefty who can scrap 98 mph is getting through waivers. Wentz has shown a pop in his stuff metrics this spring, but continues to make too many big mistakes over the middle of the plate. We’ll see how long he lasts, but the Tigers don’t want to make that decision right now.
As for the final spot, it looks like Alex Faedo is going to remain in a starting role at the Triple-A level for a while longer, trying to finally take the next step. That leaves it between Beau Brieske and Drew Anderson, and that’s been a tight competition. Thursday’s game with the Mets may have been decisive though. Brieske still hasn’t allowed a run and looks really strong right now. Anderson has been a revelation compared to the pitcher he was earlier in his spotty major league career, but continues to have stretches where his rebuilt mechanics get out of sync. Thursday was one of those games, and so at this point, we’re betting on Wentz and Brieske going north.
Perhaps, if Vest’s poor control this spring doesn’t turn around in his final outing or two, Anderson can take his spot.
That leaves us with the rotation, where it looks like Matt Manning and Casey Mize will take the final two starting spots, leaving Reese Olson and his excellent work over the past year on the shelf. Sending Olson down now will probably be used to ensure he doesn’t get Super Two status as well, but it’s also true that an injury could force the Tigers hand there at any point. We’ll see if the pitching group has any surprises left over the final few days of camp.
