Results tagged ‘ Brandon Inge ’
Leyland on Inge: “He’s not the happiest camper”
Four years ago, Miguel Cabrera was a man on the move, and Brandon Inge was man without a position, hoping to find a starting job somewhere. The trade that was expected that winter never happened, and Inge ended up back at third base.
Now, the Tigers and Inge might be back in the same spot.
Because Miguel Cabrera was the only player given a heads-up about the signing, Inge found out about being replaced through the media, not the team. Manager Jim Leyland said he finally talked with Inge Thursday once the signing was official.
“I basically apologized [to him] that this got out on the airwaves obviously prior to us wanting it to,” Leyland said. “I’m sorry he had to hear it other than from the horse’s mouth, but at that particular time, I was not at any liberty to discuss this whatsoever.
“I have talked with Brandon. He’s not the happiest camper. We certainly understand. We try to deal with these issues as we’re supposed to be.”
Leyland suggested there still could be a role for Inge on the team. He had Inge penciled in for some starts at third when Cabrera’s DHing or off. He did not indicate any change of positions for Inge.
Team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said he has not talked with Inge yet, or his agents. If Inge wants a trade or release, he hasn’t heard about it. At this point, he isn’t preparing to make a move.
“I can understand he wouldn’t be thrilled,” Dombrowski said, “but I also think at this point, probably the best thing for him to do — he’s not coming off a big year, the market is pretty well set — probably the best thing is to let him come to spring training, let him play well and let’s see what happens. I think he still can play a very important role on our club. Like I said, we’re trying to win.
“I respect his situation. We’ll do what we can. We’ll see what happens, but I think he’s a very important part of our club. He is in good shape, and he’s worked hard, and I think he’s got a chance to put up some nice numbers this year.”
Inge has $6 million in guaranteed money this year — $5.5 million in salary, plus a $500,000 buyout assuming the Tigers don’t pick up his $6 million option for 2013. The Tigers were willing to eat that money last summer when they designated him for assignment for make room for Wilson Betemit. Inge accepted a minor-league assignment after some encouragement from Tigers owner Mike Ilitch.
On the other hand, if Miguel Cabrera’s move to third base doesn’t work out — remember, the Tigers moved him out of third a few weeks into the 2008 season — the Tigers would then need a third baseman. If Inge is gone, the Tigers’ best option at third is Don Kelly. So even if the Tigers could find another team for Inge, or could afford to eat his contract, they have a motivation not to. He’s an insurance policy, or Plan B, or the fallback option, whatever term you want to use.
On a semi-related note, Dombrowski was asked whether Cabrera’s move to third makes top position prospect Nick Castellanos, one of the top third base prospects in the game, expendable? Dombrowski said no.
“We’re in a position where you just take your time with him,” Dombrowski said. “He’s at third base. He’s a tremendous player. He’s going to be a tremendous player. We’re not looking to trade him. He’s just made the [MLB.com] Top 100 players prospectwise along with [Jacob] Turner and [Drew] Smyly.
“So for me, it’s just really a matter of you want to have young players. A guy like Castellanos will be a fine big-league player. He’ll fit in great eventually.”
Getting the picture here?
Betemit’s knee flares up again, not ready yet
UPDATE: Team doctors examined Betemit later Monday afternoon. According to Betemit, everything was fine aside from the inflammation. He’s hoping for good news Tuesday.
Wilson Betemit came to Comerica Park early on Monday with a plan to start at third base, his first start in a week and a half. It was supposed to be his first of three games to get ready for the postseason. Then he tried to push off with his left knee moving for a ball.
Now, his situation is a question mark once again, and his manager is increasingly concerned.
“He’s not right,” Leyland said. “I’m worried about Betemit. And I’ll leave it at that.”
Betemit sounded a little less concerned as he tried to clear up his own situation, but nonetheless anxious. He played in three straight Division Series with the Braves and Dodgers from 2004-06, and he has a very good chance to start for the Tigers in this one coming up. But he has to be healthy to do it.
He thought he was. Right now, he said, his knee’s “so-so.”
“I went out today to go work on the field,” Betemit said. “and I felt something push on my knee.”
Betemit was diagnosed a week ago with inflammation in the knee after injuring it on a slide Sept. 16 at Oakland. He still has swelling on the inside of the knee, which is where he felt the problem when he went to push off. He also feels discomfort, he said, when he goes into an all-out sprint. He feels fine when he’s batting.
“Hopefully I’ll be fine,” Betemit said, “because, man, I want to play. I have to do everything I can to play.”
With Betemit out, Don Kelly started at third base for the third time in the last four days and the fifth time in Detroit’s last eight games. Cleveland has right-handed pitchers starting every game in this series to end the regular season, so it’s uncertain whether Brandon Inge, Detroit’s defensive replacement and part-time starter at third, might get a start.
Once the postseason begins, that question becomes a lot more interesting, depending on the opponent. The Yankees, for instance, are expected to start lefty CC Sabathia to open their Division Series, then have a handful of right-handed candidates.
Leyland is keeping pretty mum on his postseason roster, and he isn’t going to map out how the Tiger would replace Betemit if he can’t go. While team officials met Monday to discuss the roster, among other topics, they didn’t announce anything. Kelly could be a big part of it, but dedicating him to third base would also take a candidate out of right field. The Tigers also have infielder Danny Worth, but he has played all of four innings at third base this month since rejoining the club from Triple-A Toledo.
Breaking down the fielder’s choice
To Brandon Inge, second base was the only option on Elliot Johnson’s ground ball, as you might have heard already.
“It’s very cut-and-dry: A ball hit to the left of you, you go to second base,” Inge said. “A ball hit dead at you, if you have the time, you go step on third, or go across the infield. But a ball to your left, you go to second base. That’s a fact.”
To manager Jim Leyland, Inge had other options.
“I thought there was an out probably at first, or probably at third,” Leyland said. “But that’s part of the game.”
To Ramon Santiago, he had to cover the bag.
“No doubt about it, I have to cover,” Santiago said. “Bases loaded and nobody covering, [Rodriguez] got a big lead off first. I got there as quickly as I can. It was close, but I think he was out.”
Somewhere in that mix, a potential inning-ending ground ball ended up being a walkoff fielder’s choice. Where that happened is up for debate.
Inge made a quick decision based on where he was positioned and what he saw. Whether he saw where Santiago was positioned when making his throw wasn’t clear. He threw it to the base, but Santiago was behind it and trying to catch up. I didn’t see a replay where Santiago was positioned and when he broke for the bag, but he said it was his immediate thought.
Sean Rodriguez, who beat Santiago to the bag, seemed to lean towards the covering the base part of the play.
“Inge got rid of it pretty good,” Rodriguez said, “but Santiago didn’t get there early enough, because the ball beat me there but he didn’t. His foot didn’t beat me there. … When I went to slide, I knew he wasn’t there yet.”
Regardless, it looks bad for everybody, of course. Inge and Santiago are the defensive options in the platoons at their respective positions. It doesn’t mean either of them are bad defenders, but it didn’t look like good execution. If it was, the game probably continues.
What Inge’s return means for Tigers
Brandon Inge’s return from exile will come a little earlier than expected. Not only will the Tigers purchase his contract from Triple-A Toledo Saturday, they’ll put him in the starting lineup against Indians lefty starter David Huff Saturday night. From there, a very interesting mix at third base is going to unfold for the stretch run.
Jim Leyland made the announcement on the Inge move, and he explained it as this: The Tigers expect to see four or five left-handed starters between now and Sept. 1, when Inge was expected to come up. Inge has been pounding left-handed pitching while with the Mud Hens, 15-for-38 (.395) with three home runs and nine RBIs against lefties when you add in his rehab assignment in June. Yes, those are Triple-A lefties rather than David Price, whom the Tigers are scheduled to face next week. But they’re also signs of a comfort level.
Though Wilson Betemit’s a switch-hitter, his splits are much stronger against righties (.313) than lefties (.238, 34 strikeouts in 90 plate appearances). He also had been giving up starts to Don Kelly for defensive purposes.
Leyland floated the idea Wednesday. He followed through on Friday.
The move to send down Andy Dirks is more procedural than performance. The Tigers can option him out and bring him back Sept. 1 with no problem, and they should might be able to get him eligible for a postseason roster spot if they choose, in case of a player on the DL. And with the slate of lefties they have ahead of them, though Dirks has fared pretty well against southpaws, they’re not going to sit Austin Jackson, Brennan Boesch, Delmon Young or Magglio Ordonez to get Dirks a spot against them.
Inge could be back in mix at third come September
The topic came up innocently enough, with Jim Leyland asked about Wilson Betemit’s contributions since the trade and his role going forward.
“Probably the ideal situation for us is to mix and match a bit,” Leyland said.
That’s what he has been doing with Betemit, Don Kelly and Ryan Raburn lately. Once rosters expand in September, that could be what he’s doing with Brandon Inge as well.
When the Tigers designated Inge for assignment and later outrighted his contract to Triple-A Toledo, they did it with the understanding that Inge would be back in Detroit once rosters expand Sept. 1, if not sooner. Inge probably would have opted for free agency without that. What role, if any, he would take in September has been more of a question.
Leyland didn’t set it as the plan, but he said Wednesday he’s considering using Inge in the third-base mix against left-handed pitching, as well as for late-inning defense. That could change, but it’s a sign that he’ll be doing more than watching games in uniform.
Inge entered Wednesday batting .316 for the Mud Hens with five home runs and 17 RBIs in 21 games since being outrighted. Granted, it’s against Triple-A pitching, but it’s a sign of encouragement. The numbers against lefties are particularly so, going 15-for-34 (.441) with three homers and nine RBIs.
Inge designated, will accept assignment to Hens
The longest-tenured Tiger is about to become the newest Mud Hen. At least partly, it was his decision.
Dave Dombrowski announced after Wednesday’s loss to Oakland that Detroit will designate Inge’s contract for assignment to make room for Wilson Betemit on the 25-man roster once Betemit joins the team Thursday in Minnesota. Inge, in turn, decided that he’ll accept an assignment to Triple-A Toledo if he clears waivers in the next few days.
Inge’s contract through next season all but guarantees he won’t be claimed. That gave him two choices — go to the Hens, or force the Tigers to release him. He would’ve been a free agent then, with a chance to sign with any team. It’s possible he could’ve found a spot right away — he said he had multiple possibilities — but it was also possible he’d have to start out at Triple-A anyway. This gives him a chance to work his way back with the only team he has known in his Major League career, while also commuting from his Michigan home.
Compared with the previous few weeks, when Inge talked at times about feeling good at the plate and not getting results to show for it, he sounded Wednesday like somebody who needed to get right with what he was doing and wasn’t arguing the decision.
“I’m not contributing, and I don’t want to be responsible for holding the team down, either,” Inge said. “So I need to fix it. That’s the way I look at it. I mean, the unselfish point of view is to look around at the other guys. This team has a great opportunity, and I can contribute, and I can help. If I get back to, say, three-quarters of what I did in ’06 or in ’09, I’m going to help this team out tremendously down the road. So hopefully I can get down there and knock the cobwebs out of there and get rolling.”
In the same sense, he wasn’t blaming the Tigers for making the move.
“They’re looking for options,” Inge said. “They’re looking forw ays to get something done. You have to look at it like a GM sometimes. What they did, I’m not going to knock them. That’s fine. I played with Betemit in the Dominican, and he’s a great guy. Obviously in my mind, I know that I’m the best third baseman when I’m playing well. I’m just going to get ready to come back. I’m not asking for my job to just be handed to me. I’ll go down and I’ll play hard, but I just want that opportunity when I get back. This is still my team.”
Inge’s decision came after what he said was a three-hour conversations with his agent, Keith Miller at ACES. It also followed what Inge said was a message relayed to him from Tigers owner Mike Ilitch through organizational channels.
“He wanted me to stay,” Inge said. “It wasn’t something that was disrepect to me. Obviously, this is not coming from his mouth. This is what was relayed to me, that I meant a lot to this city, state and organization. He just wanted me to go down, get myself right and come back up here.”
Inge said he has a good working relationship with Mud Hens hitting coach Bull Durham, who has been in the organization at least as long as Inge has. He also said the atmosphere in Toledo, where he spent a short rehab assignment last month, should provide a lower-pressure setting for him.
“I actually feel like I’m in a good spot right now,” Inge said. “A lot of times, when you get sent down to Toledo, you get away from all the distractions. And right now, the distractions are when you look at the scoreboard and you see .177 and you don’t concentrate on what you should be doing. A lot of times, when you go down there you realize there’s no TV cameras, there’s not as much pressure, and you get a lot more production.”
Tigers acquire Betemit for two prospects
The Tigers remain on the lookout for a starting pitcher on the trade market, but they decided they couldn’t wait any longer to find some offense at third base. Detroit swung a deal Wednesday to add veteran infielder Wilson Betemit from Kansas City for prospects Antonio Cruz and Julio Rodriguez.
The move fills a void at the hot corner, where Brandon Inge’s struggles — first with mononucleosis, then with his bat and energy level since — had become a lingering issue. It also puts Brandon Inge’s future as the longest-tenured current Tiger into question.
“We like Betemit,” Dombrowski said. “We feel like he upgrades us at third base at this time. We’re in a position where, you know, we’ve scuffled offensively at that spot.”
Once a highly-touted infield prospect with the Braves, Betemit has found a fit as a corner infielder with some pop, bouncing around teams. His .297 averagewith 20 doubles, 13 home runs and 43 RBIs in 84 games last year with Kansas City helped him find a fit there.
That put the 29-year-old Betemit in a position to get a good share of playing time with the Royals at the start of this season. However, he was a placeholder for Royals third-base prospect Mike Moustakas. Once Kansas City called him up last month, Betemit was out of a role.
Betemit batted .281 (57-for-203) this year with 15 doubles, three homers and 27 RBIs. His .750 OPS is 139 points lower than last year, but higher than in any season since 2007.
By comparison, five different Tigers had combined at third base for a .186 average, a .500 OPS, two home runs, 27 RBIs and 79 strikeouts in 334 at-bats.
“He has swung the bat well the last couple years with Kansas City,” Dombrowski said. “He’s a very solid third baseman. He’s got a good arm over there, probably a little bit better left-handed hitter than right-handed hitter, but he is a switch-hitter and he’s got pop on both sides of the plate. He puts fear in us any time he comes to the plate, can drive in a run.
“He’s going to be hitting at the bottom of the lineup, so it’s a spot where all of a sudden you have a guy like that down below that can add, from an offensive perspective, we feel good about that.”
He’ll get a good share of at-bats to build on those numbers in Detroit.
Betemit is working on a one-year contract worth $1 million for the season.
Dombrowski hinted that they had been working on other options at third base. Those options dried up, though, and with Inge’s 0-for-4 game Wednesday dropping his average to .177 on the season, the Tigers made their move.
“It’s a tough situation,” Dombrowski said. “Brandon has done a lot for the organization. We would not have signed him this winter if we didn’t think he was going to come out and he was going to do very well for us, or do solidly. We never projected him to be a .300 hitter, but thought he’s come out and be a guy that could hit .230 or .240 with some home runs and play real good defense and maybe drive in runs. It hasn’t happened this year, and I think we’re at the point where playing him every day, we just don’t see it happening right now.”
The aforementioned contract was a two-year, $11.5 million deal signed last November, which plays a big role in any decision the Tigers make on Inge. Judging from Dombrowski’s remarks, it appears contracts played a role in the Tigers’ trade options as well.
“It’s just come to a point where it’s decision time in the sense that you get to July 31 and you may not be able to make a move,” Dombrowski said. “I was talking to a couple other clubs, but one primarily about a third baseman that isn’t going to go anywhere, so really your choices at third base are really limited if you’re going to do something. So we didn’t want to get caught where we were sitting there and you come to July 31 and all of a sudden you say, ‘Well, he’s still scuffling at this point, what do we do at this time?” It was the right time to make the move and Kansas City was willing to do it.”
Betemit is scheduled to join the team on Thursday in Minnesota, where the Tigers will open a four-game series against the Twins. Dombrowski said they’ll add Betemit to the active roster then. They have the room on the 40-man roster to fit him, but they’ll have to take somebody off the 25-man roster to create space.
Dombrowski also deferred questions about Inge’s future role on the team to Thursday.
Inge reinstated from DL, Worth optioned
The question about Brandon Inge’s return from the disabled list (as mentioned in last post) didn’t last long. The Tigers announced this morning that Inge is being recalled from his minor-league rehab assignment and activated from the 15-day DL today. Danny Worth is optioned to Triple-A Toledo to make roster room.
There had been some question whether Inge might get in one more game with the Mud Hens to get ready for his return. And while Jim Leyland said Wednesday he assumed something would happen with Inge in the near future, there was nothing more announced before the Tigers headed back east Wednesday night. Today’s move means Inge will not rehab with the Hens tonight.
No news about Inge’s role accompanied the transaction. Leyland said Wednesday he has a plan with Inge, and that team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski is believed to be on board, but cautioned that it wasn’t final yet.
Inge to go on rehab with Mud Hens
While the Tigers are out west for Interleague Play over the next week, Brandon Inge will be on the road for International League play (see what I did there) with the Mud Hens in Louisville and Columbus. The Tigers confirmed Thursday morning that Inge is headed out on a Minor League rehab assignment.
Inge, who went on the 15-day DL two weeks ago with mono, had said earlier in the week that he wanted to come back as soon as he was ready. He’s eligible to come off the DL on Friday, but he said he thought better of it once he picked up his activity level beyond batting practice and infield work.
“I know usually I want to come back as fast as I can, and I still do,” Inge said. “But after working out the first two days, I realized I need to go, because it’s different. It’s like once you have to do something physical, it’s a different type of tired. I think I need to let my body get back into the daily grind.”
In other words, Inge needs to get into baseball shape again. He’ll serve as the designated hitter tonight at Louisville and then start playing at third base. The plan is for him to play six games.
Meanwhile, it sounds like Jim Leyland will be following through on his idea to use Alex Avila at third base with the Tigers to help survive the next week without the DH. Leyland said he’s considering starting Avila at third Friday night at Colorado.
Tigers meet after Sunday’s loss
Compared to the news overnight, the day-to-day dealings of a baseball team are minutiae. Still, it’s my job to chronicle it. So if you’ve been looking for some emotion from the Tigers over the course of their slow start, then Sunday’s game was it.
While Jim Leyland talked in his office with reporters after Sunday’s 5-4 loss in Cleveland, the doors to the clubhouse were closed, something that rarely if ever happens after games. A few of the voices inside were loud enough to be heard in Leyland’s office down the hall. The door slamming after one exchange could easily be heard.
Once the doors opened, it was a very subdued, quiet clubhouse, with players and coaches inside. At one point, Brandon Inge and Alex Avila were talking with Joaquin Benoit, who took the loss Sunday with a three-run eighth inning.
Not sure whether it could be called a closed-door meeting, or a session, or a reaction to something else. One player indicated it wasn’t something as formal as a meeting. Suffice to say, it was not a pep rally.
Nobody went into details on what was said.
“It’s good,” Inge said. “It’s one of those [things] I think can unite the team. We’re good, anyway, but I think we’ll be better in the long run for it.”
Said Avila: “After the game, doors are closed. It’s just us, and we’ve just got to figure things out.”
Leyland didn’t say anything about what was going on inside, though the commotion could be heard ongoing while he talked. When asked what he can say to players during struggles like this, though, without putting too much attention on the struggles, his remarks hinted at something.
“All you can do is try to relax guys as much as you can,” Leyland said. “That’s what you try to do. And then at some point, you have to say something else. I mean, all you can do is support them. But at some point, you have to step up. That’s just the way it is.”
Jason Beck
