LAKELAND, Fla. -- Scott Harris worked the waiver wire all offseason, save for his wedding and honeymoon, in his first months as Tigers president of baseball operations. He lit up his phone with texts and calls to other executives, talking trades. He pitched the Tigers¡¯ vision to prospective coaches, front-office assistants and free agents, all while bouncing between his previous home in San Francisco and his new home in Detroit.
As he surveyed the back fields at Tigertown over the past week, he not only has had a chance to see this roster in person, including many players for the first time, but he was also checking out the Tigers¡¯ Spring Training facility for the first time.
¡°I¡¯d never been to Lakeland before,¡± Harris said, save for some amateur scouting meetings this winter. ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve been here for Spring Training. This facility¡¯s beautiful, and we have everything we need to help players get better. Pretty excited about that.¡±
This camp largely fits that theme of improvement. The Tigers want to evaluate their young hitters in the system. That evaluation process begins in earnest here.
¡°We¡¯re going to learn a lot about our players over the next five weeks,¡± Harris said. ¡°We have a lot of competition in camp, and I think that¡¯s going to bring the very best out of people and it¡¯s going to tell us who deserves to be on the Opening Day roster. We¡¯re excited to get them in games and start evaluating them.¡±
That evaluation extends to prospects who aren¡¯t in the picture for the Major League roster yet but need to find a fit for the long term.
¡°Some of them are going to be ready. Some of them aren¡¯t going to be ready,¡± Harris said. ¡°But it gives me a good opportunity to evaluate where they are in their development cycle and how close they are to the big leagues.¡±
Three other key points from Harris¡¯ first media session in Lakeland:
1. No stopgaps on offense?
The Tigers did not sign any free-agent position players to Major League contracts this offseason, though they did trade for hitters with Major League experience. That was by design, not just for roster construction but for evaluation.
¡°We were looking for controllable young players who embodied the offensive identity that we¡¯re working toward -- players who control the strike zone, who can help us control the strike zone better as an organization,¡± Harris said. ¡°On the position player side of free agency, it¡¯s really tough to find young, controllable position players at reasonable acquisition costs.
¡°I didn¡¯t think it made sense for us to invest significant at-bats in veteran players who will not be a part of this team beyond, say, 2023. Those at-bats are too valuable for us. We have to invest those current and future at-bats in some of the young players that we were just talking about, players like Kerry Carpenter, [Ryan] Kreidler, [Andre] Lipcius, Malloy, Wenceel Perez, Parker Meadows and a lot of the young players who are already in camp who are fighting for jobs on this team.
¡°For us, we feel like we found four of those players in Justyn-Henry Malloy, Nick Maton, Matt Vierling, Donny Sands. We found all four via trade, which is a good reminder that free agency isn¡¯t the only market for young position players.¡±
2. What are the expectations??
A year ago, the Tigers made no secret of their quest to take the next step toward contention, starting with then-general manager Al Avila. With Harris now in charge and the Tigers looking toward young players, the question of goals and expectations for this season came up.
¡°Our goal for this year is to play competitive baseball as deep into the season as we possibly can,¡± Harris said. ¡°Coming off 96 losses, there are no shortcuts back to contention. It starts with putting together a team in an environment that can play competitive baseball every day. ¡ We¡¯re going to start there, and we can build from that.¡±
3. Roster moves don¡¯t stop
The Tigers have made three moves in the past week alone, signing veteran relievers Matt Wisler and Jace Fry to Minor League contracts and claiming lefty Tyler Holton off waivers. Harris left the door open for more moves, saying his job is to constantly look for ways to improve the team.