Detroit Tigers 2022 spring training depth chart

The calendar is creeping toward February, which means we are mere weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training for the Detroit Tigers!

What’s that you say? A lockout?

It’s true, members of the Detroit Tigers 40-man roster will not be reporting to Lakeland with a lockout in place. But the Tigers are still selling tickets to spring training games. And this week we’ve seen small progress toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

But there’s still plenty of work to be done, and no one expects a resolution soon. There are big-name free agents still out there, and the Detroit Tigers likely aren’t done adding to their roster.

Players who aren’t on a 40-man roster can be signed to minor-league deals, as the Tigers did with Gerson Moreno, but there’s a bit of a domino effect happening. Spring training rosters include every member of the 40-man roster and typically another 20-25 non-roster invitees made up of upper-level prospects, minor-league free agents, and fringe big leaguers.

Mid-January is typically the time when teams start signing players to minor-league deals and offering spring training invites. But, with 40-man rosters still unsettled, those deal seem to be a bit more scarce this year.

The Detroit Tigers have added just a handful of minor-league free agents so far, and that makes it tough for us to offer a proper depth chart. But we figured we’d give it a shot anyway, because the minor-league season is scheduled to begin April 5th, and non-roster players will soon begin flooding into Florida for their spring training.

So, let’s dig in and project what your 2022 spring training Detroit Tigers might look like. In an effort to avoid doubling up too much, we’ll list players at their primary position (or what we expect to be their primary position in 2022).

Detroit Tigers Spring Training Depth Chart – Catcher

Spring training camps always include a small army of catchers to handle all the pitchers in need of work. Tucker Barnhart figures to start almost every game against right-handed pitchers this year, while Haase seems likely to catch when the Tigers face southpaws. Dustin Garneau is a competent defender and he was surprisingly productive at the plate in a small sample last year, but he’s probably insurance in case Haase stumbles. Jake Rogers is italicized because his arm injury is expected to keep him out for the season.

On the minor-league side of things, we expect to see a fair amount of Dillon Dingler in spring training game action, while Policelli’s ability to play all over the diamond helps. Proctor, MacLaren, and Rosoff are solid organizational types who can be counted on to lead a pitching staff. Johnson and Alfonzo are one-dimensional, but interesting, and Crouch and Rothenberg are 2021 draft picks who need practice catching MLB arms.