2 Detroit Tigers players who hurt their cause in the WBC and 1 who helped it

INF Andy Ibanez

For Andy Ibanez, it's not what he did do, it's what he didn't do, and that's play. He sprained his left finger during a workout before Team Cuba even played a game in the WBC, and he didn't play for them until the semifinals. Thankfully, he seems healthy now, but the reason it hurt him is because he's playing for a spot on the Detroit Tigers roster.

We are about a week away from the final Opening Day roster being set, and the Tigers don't have a ton of evaluation done on this guy. They can't even look at his performance in the WBC because he barely played. That puts both him and the Tigers in a tricky spot, especially since his competition hasn't done much to separate themselves.

Right now, if we're going solely off spring performance, the best option to be the backup utility infielder is probably Zack Short. Cesar Hernandez is probably a lock to be the backup infielder, and will likely start some games, but no one else has taken that next step to be the utility guy. That's something Tigers fans probably don't want to hear. Heck, I really don't like typing it. But that's where we're at.

Maybe Ibanez lights it up during the last week of camp. That would certainly be nice. I still think the Tigers like Ibanez and I expect him to make the team, but the injury did him no favors.