3 deserving Tigers players who were squeezed off the Opening Day roster

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The Detroit Tigers Opening Day roster is set. After six weeks of spring training, we finally know who's coming north with the team. Now, it's time to take a look at some guys who were deserving of a spot on the roster, but didn't make the cut.

All of these guys will be pitchers. Nobody really challenged the regulars in the lineup, and thus there wasn't much of a competition. But the starting rotation and bullpen had a lot of guys fighting for not a lot of spots. Both battles came down to the wire.

In the end, these players were kept off the Opening Day roster, through no fault of their own. Here are three deserving Tigers players who were squeezed off the Opening Day roster.

Matt Manning

Manning didn't really have a bad spring. In five starts, he had a 3.38 ERA with 19 strikeouts and seven walks. However, he allowed six home runs. That's likely what did him in.

Still, seeing him get sent down was quite surprising. It seemed like Reese Olson would be the odd man out, though he didn't have a bad spring either. In fact, no Tigers starting pitcher had a bad spring. Everyone pitched very well. However, something had to give. They had to cut somebody, and it ended up being Manning.

There's no question Manning will be back with the Tigers at some point this season. Just because he didn't make the roster doesn't mean he's going to stay in Toledo all year. In fact, he'll almost certainly be the first arm called up in the event of an injury. This stinks for Manning, but it's not the end for him. Far from it, in fact.

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Drew Anderson

If you look at his spring training numbers, you'd wonder why the heck Drew Anderson would appear on this list. After all, he had a 7.88 ERA and allowed nine hits in eight innings of work. Well, that was the result of one bad outing — his final outing before getting cut.

On March 21 against the Mets, Anderson allowed five earned runs on three hits and a pair of walks. Those runs accounted for all but two of the runs he allowed the entire spring. Unfortunately for him, he picked a bad day to have a bad day.

Anderson was cut just about 90 minutes after the game. There was still a lot to like about his spring. He had 14 strikeouts in eight innings. The fastball got up to 98 mph, when it was hovering around 93 the last time he pitched in the big leagues with the Texas Rangers. The Tigers may have found something here.

Anderson will probably start the year in Toledo. There's a chance he gets a shot with the team at some point this season. He's not on the 40-man roster, so it'll take a corresponding move, but these things usually sort themselves out.

Beau Brieske

This might be the toughest cut of them all. Brieske pitched 13.2 innings of scoreless baseball this spring. He walked two and struck out nine. He allowed just three hits. He had a 3.60 ERA in 35 innings out of the bullpen last season. But he starts the year in Toledo. That's some tough luck.

Instead, the Tigers went with Alex Faedo and Joey Wentz, both of whom pitched very well in their own right. Faedo struck out 17 batters in 13.1 IP and had a 1.35 ERA. Wentz had a 2.93 ERA on 15.1 IP with 19 strikeouts. Nobody had a bad spring. But somebody had to go down, and the Tigers went with Brieske.

It likely came down to a couple of things. Wentz doesn't have an option left, so he would have had to clear waivers if he didn't make the roster. The Tigers didn't want to take that risk. The other thing is that Brieske basically just has a fastball and a changeup. That's it. Faedo has a fastball/slider mix, as well a newfound changeup. Combine those things, and you have the decision to send Brieske down.

And like with Manning, it's not like he's going to stay in Toledo all year. He's going to pitch in Detroit this season. It just won't be right away. As soon as there's an injury in the bullpen, Brieske will probably the first guy up.

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