# Tigers’ camp preview: Same names, lofty expectations for position players
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Before the All-Star break, the Tigers ranked sixth in baseball in runs scored, 10th in average, ninth in on-base percentage and sixth in slugging percentage.
After the break, they ranked 21st in runs, 20th in average, 24th in on-base percentage and 19th in slugging.
The Tigers, though, chose not to overreact to the smaller sample. To this point, they haven’t added a single big-league player to the current position-player group.
“We did score the most runs in Tigers’ history in a decade,” manager AJ Hinch said Friday on the Foul Territory podcast. “We have a good team. We have a good offense. I know we had a tough stretch toward the tail end of the season and when you do it that way, the narrative tends to run too far.
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… as spring training commences this week in Lakeland, the position-player group is virtually the same as the one that ended last season in a 15-inning heartbreaker in Game 5 of the American League Division Series.
“From the day I got here, I articulated a vision that is based on development,” Harris said. “If we are going to build around development, this is what it looks like. If you charted the course of this team over the last three years, you notice that individually guys changed and the team has changed.”
The growth last season came from players like Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Kerry Carpenter and Zach McKinstry having career seasons. It came from the addition of veteran Gleyber Torres. It came from breakout years by Dillon Dingler, Wenceel Perez and Jahmai Jones. It came from a resurgent season from Javier Báez.
But for every step forward, there were steps backward. Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling both endured injury-wracked, unproductive seasons. Colt Keith, who also battled injuries, especially the final month, stagnated in his second season.
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Entering his sixth season with Detroit, Hinch has changed the way we present spring training position battles. Except for catcher and center field, position-by-position breakdowns are almost obsolete.
You have to look at it as a 13-man rotation:
Catchers: Dingler, Jake Rogers.
Infielders: Torkelson, Torres, Báez, Keith, McKinstry.
Outfielders: Greene, Meadows, Vierling, Carpenter, Perez, Jones.
“We’re looking for strengths,” Hinch said. “And my job is to maximize the strengths of the team. Case in point, if I put Jahmai Jones in just a fourth outfielder, fifth outfielder role and play him whenever Riley Greene is tired or when Parker Meadows is tired or when Kerry Carpenter is not in the outfield, that’s a great disservice.
“We want that guy (Jones) up to bat against about every left-handed pitcher walking this earth. Like, I want that dude up to bat with the damage that he can do.”
That’s where the position flexibility comes in. Vierling, McKinstry and Báez can and will play both infield and outfield. Keith will play third, second and first. Hinch likely will use the designated hitter spot to create matchup advantages with left-handed hitters Keith and Carpenter and right-handed hitter Jones.
He also will use the DH spot to get Torkelson and Greene off their feet for a few games.
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“There’s going to be some surprises in which we can maximize a guy’s strength on a roster,” Hinch said. “The other aspect is, like, getting Parker Meadows and Vierling back. … It’s a little bit bigger deal than people probably realize. Matt Vierling is going to bring a whole other strength to our team somewhere.
“Now, where is that going to be? How much does it cut into the outfield play? How does it work with Wenceel and Carp and Greeney and Jahmai? I don’t know. I mean, that’s what I’m going to try to sort out over the course of spring training.”
The riddle of this camp may be less about who makes the roster but where and how much they will play? There is no guarantee that Báez will be the regular shortstop, for example. McKinstry, a left-handed hitter who showed last year he can hold his own against left-handed pitching, was a plus-4 defensive runs saved at shortstop last season.
McKinstry, Keith and Báez will all be in the mix at third base, as well, along with Vierling.
The Tigers would love for Meadows to be the regular center fielder, but Vierling, Perez and Báez all will be prepared to play out there, keeping as many options open and available to Hinch as possible.
Only Dingler, Greene, Torres and Torkelson come to camp with single-position jobs.
