The Tigers finalized a two-year, $26 million contract with Torii Hunter yesterday, but they might not be done shopping for outfielders.
While Hunter is expected to be the regular right fielder next season, left field isn’t nearly as settled. The most likely approach is a platoon, but Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski told Jason Beck of MLB.com that he would prefer to see top prospects Nick Castellanos and Avisail Garcia play everyday as opposed to being on the weak side of a platoon with Andy Dirks. Quintin Berry and Brennan Boesch are both left-handed, so Dombrowski will likely explore the free agent market for righty bats.“I don’t really know which way we’ll take that,” he said. “We have our own internal debates if [Andy] Dirks is an everyday player. He hit right-handed pitching very well last year, which is the majority of pitching you face. However, we’re also in a spot with the young guys, [Nick] Castellanos and [Avisail] Garcia, you don’t want them to come in here and play 40 games versus left-handed pitching.
“My instinct,” Dombrowski continued, “is that we would add somebody that could hit from the right-hand side that, if those guys don’t make it, could go out there and play with Dirks. But we’ll wait and see.”Scott Hairston and Jonny Gomes stand out among right-handed hitting mashers, but they are believed to be looking for multi-year contracts. Adding a veteran like Andruw Jones or Reed Johnson could make some sense.