The Detroit Tigers are going to give Brandon Inge a shot to earn the full-time 2nd base gig during spring training. Don’t be surprised, he deserves the chance. What will be surprising is if he actually wins the job. Placing Inge at 2nd base in a full-time capacity will trigger a domino-effect throughout the Tigers’ roster.
The key question, and an obvious one at that is: does plugging Inge in at 2nd base make the Tigers an overall better team?
Forecasting production from Brandon Inge shouldn’t be that difficult at this point. The best he’s ever hit in a season was .287, all the way back in 2004. As it turned out, that season was a major outlier in an otherwise disappointing career trend.
Inge’s lifetime batting average is just .235. Had he not figured out alternative methods to win over his manager and the fans of Detroit, he likely would have been ushered out of town years ago. Since 2006, Inge has hit .236, .205, .230, .247, and .197. Ouch.
Supporters of the soon-to-be 35-year old 3rd baseman (former?) come in all shapes and sizes. In general, his hustle, positive attitude, occasional defensive brilliance, and ability to play while hurt have won the hearts and minds of a swarm of Tiger fans. That will never go away, even long after he retires.
No player on the roster has been lacing up the cleats and sporting the “D” longer than Inge. For that, he deserves a shot to play, but certainly not a free pass.
Brandon Inge
Perhaps the original domino was Victor Martinez and his torn ACL. When Victor went down, the Tigers huddled up and decided to go all-in on Prince Fielder. At the same time an offensive juggernaut was assured, so was a defensive conundrum.
The baseball world was gasping for air when the Tigers came out publicly and said that Miguel Cabrera would be the everyday 3rd baseman. Included in the disturbed masses was none other than Inge, a man suddenly without a position.
Out of sheer respect, Jim Leyland offered up the opportunity for Inge to supplant the anticipated platoon of Ramon Santiago and Ryan Raburn at 2nd base. The only positions up for grabs this spring are 2nd base and left field.
13 position players will make the roster. In for sure are Alex Avila, Gerald Laird, Prince Fielder, Ramon Santiago, Jhonny Peralta, Miguel Cabrera, Brennan Boesch, Austin Jackson, Don Kelly, Ryan Raburn, and Delmon Young. That’s 11. Presumably Brandon Inge is the 12th. The expected competition for the 13th spot is between Andy Dirks, Danny Worth, and Clete Thomas.
If Inge wins the 2nd base job, Worth is out of luck. After all, how many utility guys can the Tigers possibly hold on the roster? Between Santiago, Raburn, Kelly, and Inge, the flexibility is in place. Adding a 5th utility player doesn’t make a ton of sense.
If Inge cannot win the job, is he out?
Don Kelly would make a perfectly fine backup 3rd baseman to Cabrera, just as he was for Inge a season ago. Offensively, I think we can all agree that Kelly adds a little more value than Inge.
As the roster and position battles currently stand, I see 2 options that are most likely:
- Inge doesn’t win the job at 2nd. Santiago and Raburn platoon at 2nd base. Dirks and Thomas battle it out for the starting left field job. Detroit has to make a decision about keeping Inge and his $5.5M final year around. In this scenario, if they can move him they should. Worth is a better defender and squares the ball up well enough on offense to be passable.
- Inge does win the 2nd base job. Raburn gets bumped into a lefty-righty platoon with Dirks in left field. Santiago backs up Inge and 2nd. Kelly’s playing time goes way down as the outfield is more crowded. Worth is out.
As fun as this argument is, the crux of the decision really boils down to whether Brandon Inge can hit in 2012. He will have about a month’s worth of spring training games to prove that he can. Detroit’s front office clearly doesn’t care about defense, so his difficult transition from 3rd to 2nd won’t be the deciding factor.
If he hits well in camp but loses the job anyhow and the team comes out and says it was because he struggled defensively, well then we know they just didn’t want him around.
If Inge wins the job and hits .220’ish over 120 games or so, the decision to move him to 2nd will have been a poor one.
For a player who has undeniably meant a lot to this franchise, let’s hope he really is 100% healthy and can muster up an unlikely renaissance in the batter’s box. If not, the Tigers might be better off swallowing most of his contract and shipping him out of dodge.
If Mike Ilitch is willing to pony up $214M for Fielder, then chewing up $5.5M more on Inge is an easy decision if it gets the Tigers that much closer to a World Series title.
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