Detroit Tigers 2015 Roster Preview: The Introduction
Feb 23, 2015; Lakeland, FL, USA; Members of the Detroit Tigers gather at the start of Mondays workout at Joker Merchant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports
The 2014 Detroit Tigers had a new Manager, Brad Ausmus. They went 90-72 which won them the American League Central and then the exited the postseason in the first round against the Baltimore Orioles. You couldn’t call the season unproductive, because it just wasn’t. Winning the AL Central and 18 games over .500 just seems hard to say isn’t productive. The team sat atop the AL Central for 162 days, which was the most by any team in the 2014 season.
Before the 2014 season started the team was making moves that would change the makeup of the team in ways many didn’t expect. In November Prince Fielder was traded to the Texas Rangers and the Tigers obtained second baseman Ian Kinsler. Doug Fister was traded to Washington for pitcher Ian Krol and second baseman Steve Lombardozzi. Drew Smyly and Austin Jackson were also traded midseason for Pitcher David Price.
The Tigers sent four players to the All-star game, Miguel Cabrera made it in as a Starter and Victor Martinez and Max Scherzer were selected as reserves. Martinez ended up not playing due to injury and so teammate Ian Kinsler replaced him. Scherzer ended up be the winning pitcher in the game and was the first Tigers pitcher to do so since Jim Bunning did it in 1957.
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The postseason was really the only disappointing time for the Tigers of the 2014 season, yet even then they still made it worth watching. We got to see some big home runs from guys and they just couldn’t out play the Orioles. Then when the offseason hit we saw Scherzer leave to go to Washington, but we saw the team bring in some new pitchers like Shane Greene in the offseason and the pick up of Price in July via trade.
So now that the 2015 season is getting closer, most position players are returning to their positions and so are the pitchers bullpen and all. Earlier in the week Ausmus penned in six of the seven spots in the bull pen rotation. The Tigers seem like they are going to be pretty similar to the way they were last season, with a few improvements here are and there.
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So with that, we are going to look at the roster for the 2015 season.
We will look at one player on the 25 man roster every day. We will start with the starters, solely because we know more than likely who each of those are. Next we will look at the utility players. Then we will move into the five starters and finally we will closer it up with the guys who close, the bullpen. So it will work out like this. (These will be updated with links when they go up, these are also names from the Tigers official site. )
Starting in the field:
Miguel Cabrera
Nick Castellanos
Jose Iglesias
Ian Kinsler
Yoenis Cespedes
Anthony Gose
J.D. Martinez
Victor Martinez
Alex Avila
Utility guys:
Rajai Davis
Hernan Perez
Andrew Romine
Starting 5 (No certain order):
David Price
Justin Verlander
Anibal Sanchez
Shane Greene
Alfredo Simon
Bullpen:
Joba Chamberlain
Tom Gorzelanny
Ian Krol
Joe Nathan
Angel Nesbitt
Bruce Rondon
Kyle Ryan
Joakim Soria
This list is also subject to change as the Spring training season continues on. At the moment there are more than 25 men listed and throughout Spring training things will work themselves out. The first 10 to 15 player previews will be starters and guys we know will be on the opening day roster.
Besides all of that each day this post will be updated with links to each players different preview and will be the central location of anything you need to find. The regular season starts in only a month and the need for baseball is at an all time high right now. Don’t forget to stay connected to Detroit Jock City for all your Detroit Tiger news.