The Tigers plan at third base is running into trouble already.
Two weeks into spring camp, the Detroit Tigers have managed to avoid any major injuries, but a pair of minor ones threaten to put them in a difficult spot to begin the season. Center fielder Parker Meadows continues to try and get his bicep issue resolved. Meanwhile, utilityman, and key part of the Tigers plan at third base, Matt Vierling is dealing with a rotator cuff strain and will not be ready on Opening Day. Instead, he’ll start the season on the injured list.
The Tigers failed pursuit of Alex Bregman was the key topic of discussion all offseason long. In the end, the club didn’t want to meet his demands, and felt they would be okay at third base with some combination of Vierling and Jace Jung. Now they’ll have to find a contingency for their contingency plan. This is pretty far from ideal for a team with little margin of error as they try to get back to the postseason, but at least it doesn’t sound like Vierling is likely to miss more than a few weeks to a month of action.
One would assume this ensures Jung plenty of playing time to begin the season. The Tigers can potentially supplement him with Andy Ibáñez against left-handed hitters. It’s also at least possible that Ryan Kreidler could get some looks there. The Tigers have played prospect Hao-Yu Lee at third base a fair amount in the early going, but presumably they won’t rush him to the major leagues straight from Double-A. Lee needs more time to work on his defense at the position, and should get plenty of at-bats at the Triple-A level before perhaps getting consideration for a call-up later in the season.
Right now, there’s no reason to think Vierling will be out that long, but the Tigers say he needs a few weeks of rest to make sure the injury is resolved before getting back to baseball activities. Unfortunately, that’s going to cost him most of his prep time for the season. As a veteran, he may not need much time to get up to speed when he returns, but one would think the Tigers would like to get him a decent number of plate appearances before activating him sometime in April.
Either way, this makes a tricky situation at the hot corner all the more difficult, at least for a little while. Still, this doesn’t sound like something that is going to prompt a trade. The Tigers will just have to piece it together at third base to start the season.
As for Meadows, he injured his right biceps on a throw last Saturday and has been resting it since. The Tigers expect to have a better idea of his timetable after he’s re-evaluated this weekend.