Detroit Tigers roster moves

This is more of a housecleaning post than anything else. The Detroit Tigers have made several minor moves today in loom of Max Scherzer sitting out his start tonight, with sore a hamstring, and waiting or his next turn in the rotation next Sunday. Duane Below will get a spot start tonight against the Minnesota Twins. This seems like the perfect time to bring young Jacob Turner up for more seasoning, but he got hit a little hard in a Toledo Mudhens start last night and is thus unavailable to go tonight. If Max has to miss another start look for the Tigers to bring Turner back up as he could use the work at this level.

So the Tigers got rid of three players, and only added two. The math is confusing and I will not bore you with MLB roster rules about sending players to the minors, or the 40 man and 25 man rosters. The details are like this Matt Young has been designated for assignment, and Danny Worth and Luis Marte have been optioned back toToledo. They both remain on the 40 man roster.

With Scherzer out, and with the Tigers hoping Below can give them four good innings the team felt the need to load up on extra bullpen arms. With that in mind RHP Jose Ortega and Darin Downs have been added to the active roster.Downsis 0-2 with the Mudhens. In 24 appearances he has a 2.22 ERA. However these moves feel temporary while the club works to get Scherzer back, and the coaching staff figures out what is wrong with Doug Fister.

With that being said he seems more and more likely that the Tigers will not only keep Rick Porcello, but make a deal for another veteran arm for the starting rotation. The latest rumor is Cole Hammels and if they Tigers can land him and work out a long term deal there ( which would cost 6 years and another 120 million in payroll, and seems highly unlikely) giving up Turner and/or 3B Nick Castellanos makes a ton of sense. Let us not forget that with Miguel Cabrera and Prince fielder on the roster Nick is locked off the big team roster for the foreseeable future.

DJC lists the Tigers needs in descending order of importance:

A better everyday option at second
another veteran arm in the starting rotation
bullpen help
a better DH option
another everyday capable outfielder