Written by DIC SCANLON The Associated Press
Lakeland, Florida – Eduardo Rodriguez – the highest paid and most experienced pitcher in the “Detroit Tigers” after signing a five-year contract for $ 77 million.
However, manager AJ Hinch does not believe that someone can be called a novice number 1.
“I know the players are probably taking responsibility where they fall,” Hinch said Wednesday, “but for me pitcher number one is the guy who starts the game.”
Rodriguez, a 29-year-old left-hander, will start at Friday’s show and possibly in the Tigers ’opening game against the Chicago White Sox on April 8th.
“Obviously the throw has to be fast,” Hinch said. “You look at four starts on the starter. You look, trying to condense how many guys are leaving. We need to run them in the game faster. We’re not going to look much at our younger guys at camp. ”
Rodriguez has 153 career starts. Casey Meese, Matt Manning and left-hander Tariq Scoob and Tyler Alexander, four pitchers who are likely to join him in the Detroit rotation, have a total of 116 – most of them last season.
“I’m glad he’s here, and I know he’ll help us,” Miz said of Rodriguez. “He reinforces our staff and he makes us better.”
Only Mize and Scoobal started the rotation last season. Manning came in June and started 18 games. Alexander spent most of the season in the bullpen, and in August on a regular basis became the starting point.
“At this time last year, Miz was a pencil, Scoobal may have been a slightly darker pencil, Matt Manning was definitely going to Triple-A,” Hinch said. “Now, with fewer holes, this command is harder to make because of the answers we already have in camp.”
Detroit improved its ERA to 4.32 last year from 5.63 in the shortened pandemic 2020 season. Deeper bullpen included Michael Fulmer, Joe Jimenez, Jose Sisner, Alex Lange and closer Gregory Soto.
“Towards the end of the year, I thought we were some of the best bullpen in the league because everyone knew their role,” Fulmer said. “AJ had a plan and he followed it and it paid off for us.”