Chafin's return finds him battling for spot in deeper 'pen

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The face in the clubhouse at Joker Marchant Stadium was familiar, yet there were subtle signs that things are different for Andrew Chafin in his third Tigers stint.

The long hair and beard are still there, but more groomed. With his number 17 from last year now worn by Jace Jung, Chafin has the jersey number 0, which no Tiger has worn in a regular-season game, according to Baseball Reference.

The bullpen that Chafin rejoins, too, has changed. Lefties Sean Guenther and Brant Hurter were promoted from Triple-A Toledo after Chafin’s trade last July 30, and they became valuable members of Detroit’s pitching chaos strategy down the stretch and into the postseason. Now they’re all in the mix for the same bullpen openings, and with a non-roster invite to camp, Chafin doesn’t have a job assured.

“He wants to make the team, and I think the best thing he can do is just lock in on the strike zone and get himself physically and competitively ready to make his case to make this team,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “As I told him, we’re a different team than the one he got traded from, from an experience level, from a maturity level.

“There are different players in that room, and a lot of the same players. But he’s very focused on having a good spring and making this team, and that’s the opportunity that was presented to him. We’re very familiar with him and we’ll give him that opportunity to see if he’s one of the better relievers to take with us.”

Chafin’s Minor League contract includes a $2.5 million salary if he makes the Major League roster, with an additional $1.5 million possible in incentives. As a player with more than six years of MLB experience on a Minor League deal, Chafin qualifies as an Article XX(B) free agent. Chafin can ask for his release if he’s not on the Major League roster by March 21. The Tigers would then have until March 23 to add him or grant him his release to seek opportunities elsewhere.

The Tigers are familiar enough with Chafin that they can probably tell if he’s ready in due time. For now, he’ll throw some bullpen sessions before working his way into game action.

Tigers announce broadcast roster
Wednesday marked the season debut of the Tigers’ television broadcast team, with Jason Benetti returning for his second season of play-by-play duties on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit. He’ll have a rotating group of analysts led by former Tigers Andy Dirks and Dan Petry. Fellow ex-Tiger Carlos Pena – who joined Benetti for Wednesday’s broadcast – will be a contributing analyst along with Kirk Gibson and Todd Jones.

Dan Dickerson returns for his 23rd season as the primary radio voice of the Tigers and his second season jumping in on television when Benetti has national TV duties. Greg Gania, voice of the back-to-back Eastern League champion Erie SeaWolves, will handle Tigers radio play-by-play when Dickerson has television duties. Bobby Scales will serve as a primary radio analyst along with Petry. Dirks, who worked with Dickerson on the majority of home radio broadcasts last year, will still do some radio work this season.

The Tigers also announced that they’re expanding their Spanish-language radio broadcasts from 45 games last year to all 81 home games this season. Carlos Guillen returns for play-by-play alongside analyst and former Tiger Barbaro Garbey.

Relief is on the way
The Tigers have brought along several of their relievers from last season on slower timetables as part of a plan to get them a specific number of innings prior to Opening Day. That has left the later innings in these first few games for non-roster invites and Minor League extras, but that will change soon.

Will Vest and Jason Foley will make their first outings of the spring on Thursday. Beau Brieske will do the same over the weekend. Veteran free-agent signing Tommy Kahnle is also on a deliberate ramp-up.