Detroit Tigers: Who will be the Opening Day Second Baseman?

With a few spring training games in the books, the Detroit Tigers have roughly a month until Opening Day. In that month, many questions will be answered about how the team will look under first-year skipper Ron Gardenhire.

The Detroit Tigers have plenty of questions surrounding them heading into 2018. How will the rotation set up behind Michael Fulmer? What will the bullpen look like? How will Nicholas Castellanos fare as a full-time outfielder? Will any more veterans be traded away before the team heads north?

After the flurry of trades Detroit made last season, many positions opened up for younger players to claim bigger roles as the Tigers begin their rebuild.

Despite rumors involving many others, just one veteran was sent packing during the offseason. Second baseman Ian Kinsler was dealt to the Los Angeles Angels back in December for a pair of prospects.

Suddenly, a position that had been occupied by the same player for more than 600 games over the course of four seasons with the Tigers was vacant, without an obvious in-house candidate to replace him.

Who will form the double play combination with Jose Iglesias come March 29 at Comerica Park? Let’s explore some of the options.

The heavy favorite to get the first crack at the everyday job at second base is Dixon Machado. The 26-year old is coming off a season in which he played a career-high 73 games. Of those 73 games, 59 came at shortstop or second base to spell Iglesias or Kinsler.

The Venezuelan has always been known more for his defense, hitting just .246 with a .303 on-base percentage in 105 Major League games. Machado is not known for power either, with just 10 career extra-base hits.

Machado showed improvement at the plate last year, hitting a career-best .259. While the sample is small, it gives optimists hope that he can continue to get better with more playing time.

The real value with Machado has always been with his defense. Baseball America rated him as the Best Defensive Infielder and the Best Infield Arm in the Detroit system for three straight years while he was in the minors.

An Iglesias-Machado double play duo could be a great defensive combination. However, if the Tigers are looking to replace Kinsler’s offense, they likely need to search elsewhere.

With the best of their infield prospects in the lower minor leagues, Detroit was looking for infield depth this offseason. To address that, they brought in a few players as non-roster invitees to spring camp.

Alexi Amarista has played more than 700 games in the majors, but is not much of a hitter (.231/.275/.323 career slash line). He also struggled mightily defensively as a utility guy with Colorado last year.

Pete Kozma played just 39 games last year with the Rangers and Yankees, going 5-for-45 at the plate.

Former second round pick Niko Goodrum hit 13 homers at Triple-A Rochester and was a September call-up for the Twins. Upon his arrival however, he went 1-for-17 and was let go by Minnesota in November.

Ronny Rodriguez may have the best offensive upside of this quartet. In seven seasons with Cleveland, Rodriguez launched double-digit homers five times and owned a .262 batting average. However, his walk rate was less then 5%, he struck out four and a half times for every walk, and has not yet cracked the majors.

None of these guys are likely to be in contention for anything other than a utility spot.