Detroit Tigers: Recently-Released Players Worth Taking a Flier on

Detroit Tigers general manager Al Avila added plenty of depth in the offseason. With Opening Day around the corner, here are four players the Tigers should take a flier on.

Detroit Tigers fans didn’t see much Major League activity during the offseason.

Cameron Maybin was the only veteran traded, while Victor Alcantara (traded for Maybin) and Mikie Mahtook represented the only players general manager Al Avila traded for.

Instead, the club brought in a bevy of players on minor league deals to provide added options in Spring Training.

These players included Omar Infante, Efren Navarro, Alex Presley, Edward Mujica and Brendan Ryan among others.

With Opening Day fast approaching, it is never a bad time to add depth.

The Tigers used 22 position players and 22 pitchers last season, including nine different starters.

Considering Tyler Collins, Dixon Machado and Steven Moya are all out of options, it is conceivable that Detroit could lose some of the team’s more prominent depth pieces.

It remains to be seen what the Tigers roster will look like on Opening Day, but some depth certainly wouldn’t hurt.

With the regular season just around the corner teams around the league are beginning to pare down their respective rosters.

This means plenty of players being let go.

Here are a few recently-released players the Detroit Tigers should take a filer on.

Paco Rodriguez
Age: 25
Position: Relief Pitcher
Throws: Left-Handed

Rodriguez, who missed last season due to Tommy John surgery, bounced back with a solid Spring Training for Atlanta. He threw four innings, posting a 2.25 ERA and a pair of strikeouts.

However, Atlanta recently announced on Twitter that the team had released Rodriguez, among a number of other transactions.

The reliever had previously spent his entire Major League career with the Los Angeles Dodgers before joining the National League East club at the 2015 trade deadline.

Rodriguez moved to Atlanta in the three-team deal that sent Luis Avilan, Alex Wood and Mike Morse to Los Angeles.

In parts of four seasons with the Dodgers, Rodriguez logged a 2.53 ERA and a 2.98 FIP while striking out 9.6 batters per nine innings.

His best campaign came in 2013, when he turned in a 2.32 ERA, a 3.08 FIP and 10.4 punch outs per nine frames in 54.1 innings.

He’d give the Tigers another left-handed option to work alongside Justin Wilson, Kyle Ryan and Blaine Hardy.

Bryan Holaday
Age: 29
Position: Catcher
Hits: Right-Handed

Old friend Bryan Holaday was recently cut by the Phillies.

Philadelphia announced the move in a tweet on Monday morning, tweeting:

“#Phillies have released catchers Ryan Hanigan and Bryan Holaday.”

Holaday was drafted in the sixth round of the 2010 draft by the Detroit Tigers and spent parts of four seasons with the club. He was flipped to Texas for Myles Jaye and Bobby Wilson in late March of 2016.

The 29-year-old spent 2016 with the Rangers and Boston Red Sox. In a combined 24 games, the veteran batted .231 with a .281 on-base percentage.

What’s more, the backstop also posted a 66 wRC+, a 0.4 WAR and a .128 ISO while throwing out 29% of would-be base stealers.

The former Tiger’s numbers didn’t exactly jump off the page, but he did provide value on the base paths with a 1.4 BsR.

Holaday would give Detroit another veteran catching option should something happen to James McCann or Alex Avila.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s familiar with the pitching staff.