Two points on Pena

1. Pena was the classic example of a player needing a change of scenery. Leyland said as much before the game, and while I’m not as confident as other people he’ll blossom somewhere else, I’m certain he would never do it here if he stayed. There’s been too much history to let that happen. Pena wasn’t going to get the at-bats needed to emerge at the big-league level. Even if he was the only first baseman here, he was pressing far too much to make any difference here. The big salary was working against him developmentally, and he wouldn’t have taken an assignment back to the minors well enough to get enough out of it. He might come back to bite the Tigers, but can it really be called that when he had zero chance of doing the same thing here?

2. Don’t be surprised if other players start asking Leyland where they stand on this team, as Pena did. Leyland said once he got to Legends Field this morning, another player asked to see him and asked that same question. In this case, Leyland couldn’t give a definitive answer. He was either going to make the team, not make the team, or be traded. Leyland wouldn’t name the player. I checked a couple of likely suspects who made the trip, and both said it wasn’t them.