In his many years in baseball, Scott Harris has never seen something like this. The Tigers have lost three center fielders before playing a single meaningful game this year, which is "the hardest I've seen a single position get hit in spring training in my career," Harris said Monday.
His meeting with the media came on the heels of three related pieces of news: the Tigers have signed Manny Margot, placed Parker Meadows on the 60-day IL with right arm inflammation and learned that Wenceel Perez will be out for at least a month with lower back inflammation. Fellow outfielder Matt Vierling is already out for Opening Day due to a strained rotator cuff.
So -- who's playing center?
"Everything is on the table for us," said Harris. "We have a number of internal solutions that we are working through right now. We also may have to adjust our strategy to win games until we get healthy. We may do some things differently on the field."
The assumption when the Tigers signed Margot was that the nine-year vet would platoon in center along with Perez until Vierling and Meadows get healthy. But Margot, 30, hasn't been a primary center fielder for several seasons and Harris said the Tigers "think he is more additive to this group in the corners." Margot will see some time in center, but likely not much. The Tigers are more intrigued by what he can add to their lineup with his right-handed bat and career .753 OPS against lefties.
As for another external addition, don't expect one. Partly because the Tigers like the versatility of their own players, said Harris, but also because "this is a really difficult time to make a significant trade" with every team around the league breaking camp and preparing for Opening Day.
"I think we're more focused on internal solutions right now," Harris said.
To that end, the Tigers brought infielder Ryan Kreidler to San Francisco on Monday, where they're playing the Giants in a pair of exhibition games before the season opener Thursday in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Kreidler started Monday's game in center field, where he played sparingly for Toledo the past two seasons. His best position is shortstop.
"Ryan is an elite defender," said Harris. "He makes our defense better when he's on the field, and pitching and defense is going to be really important for us moving forward."
If Kreidler makes the Opening Day roster as one of the Tigers' potential solutions in center, it could cost someone like Justyn-Henry Malloy or Spencer Torkelson a spot on the team out of the gate.
One player the Tigers are not inclined to shift to center is Riley Greene. They remain committed to playing him mostly in the corners to preserve his legs and keep their best hitter healthy over the course of the season. Harris said the dilemma in center doesn't "really change how we feel about Riley."
"It's always tempting when you go through injuries to run your healthy guys out there more often to compensate for your losses, but we have to resist the temptation to do that," he said. "If we run our healthy guys into the ground by playing them too much, we're only compounding our issues right now."
The Tigers have also pondered playing shortstop Javier Baez in center, having already experimented with him this spring at third base. Harris said he's not yet sure how the situation in center affects Baez.
"We try not to focus on, 'What does this mean for this individual?' We try to map out the best team defense we can run out there and position the players accordingly," he said.
Harris was sure to note that Vierling, Perez and Meadows, likely in that order, will recover from their injuries and contribute to the team this year: "This isn't permanent. All three of our center fielders are going to be back and healthy and performing this season."
The challenge for the Tigers, as they try to build on the momentum of their first playoff appearance in 10 years, is coming up "with the right strategy in the interim to win as many games as we can until we get to full strength," said Harris.
"And I think we're going to have to leverage what we believe is a really talented pitching staff, and we're going to have to protect that pitching staff with defense," he said. "Exactly what that means for who's on the roster and how we're going to deploy all these players is to be determined, but we'll be able to speak more about that when we get to Dodger Stadium."
