As the Detroit Tigers continue to climb the standings in the AL Central, they are doing it with some unexpected contributions from players forcing their way into the everyday lineup.
After a brutal opening series against the New York Yankees, Alex Avila has rebounded to be the biggest early surprise this season for the Tigers.
Avila has provided several clutch hits this season and provides solid defense, currently ranking eighth in MLB in caught-stealing percentage.
Before the season, Avila was thought as merely a defensive option at catcher seemingly keeping the spot warm until he was replaced by Victor Martinez's offensive option.
But Avila is quickly entrenching himself as the full-time catcher regardless of Martinez's availability. He's currently on the 15-day DL.
As Martinez is due to come off the DL next week, Jim Leyland will be faced with an interesting decision—one that is nice to have.
With Martinez back from the DL, it would be expected that he would assume the everyday DH spot with an occasional day at catcher to rest Avila.
However, Leyland currently has four outfielders that need to be in the lineup without a DH spot available.
Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez have started slow but are vital to the Tigers' season.
Brennan Boesch has been dynamic again early this season and has provided a huge spark to the Tigers offense. With his new approach to hitting, he needs to play everyday.
Ryan Raburn started slow, but has really heated up the last week. This has been Raburn's M.O. during his career. The more he plays, the better he gets. Raburn also needs to keep playing.
The pending question is, "What does Leyland do with all these outfielders once Victor Martinez resumes the DH duties?"
Leyland really has a few possible solutions to this situation.
First (get your notebook out for this one), Leyland can rotate Boesch between left and right with Raburn and Ordonez with the player not in the field rotating with Martinez at the DH spot while occasionally rotating Martinez in at catcher giving Avila a break.
Wow...got it?
This would be a possible solution, but it's hard to justify sitting Boesch and Raburn at all thus far since their offense has been vital during the recent hot streak.
A stop-gap solution, which I expect to happen if he doesn't pick up his offense, would be to put Ordonez on the 15-day DL to rest his ailing ankle, leaving Raburn in left and making Boesch the everyday right fielder.
This buys Leyland a couple of weeks.
Austin Jackson could be sent to the minors to tweak his swing for a short period of time, but it doesn't really solve the quandary as Boesch and Raburn are far too streaky defensively to play center field. This would probably just put Don Kelly in the everyday lineup at center.
Additionally, Jackson has looked more comfortable at the plate the last few days, making this option less likely.
Thus far, it appears that Leyland is preparing to make Ryan Raburn the everyday second baseman when Martinez comes back.
Raburn has played four games the past couple weeks at second and 22 games over the past two seasons.
While Raburn struggled at second early in his career, he only has one error at the position during his time there the past two seasons.
With Will Rymes offering no offense at second base so far this season, Leyland's best chance to keep his strongest lineup in tact may rely on Raburn's ability to prove he can play second base on an everyday basis.
If Raburn can prove adept at second (despite the ulcer inducing combination with Jhonny Peralta at short stop), he'll provide the Tigers with another powerful bat in an already potent lineup and set up Leyland with an even bigger dilemma.
What does he do when second baseman Carlos Guillen comes off the DL?
But that is a discussion for another article.
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