Detroit Tigers: 4 position battles to watch throughout spring training

Third base

The obvious one. Matt Vierling and Andy Ibanez will be duking it out for the third base job this spring. Oh joy.

Jace Jung will likely see some time there as well. He won't make the team out of camp, but it'll be very important for him to at least look serviceable defensively.

For Vierling, we're not too worried about him defensively. He was serviceable in the small sample he had at the hot corner last season. It's the bat that has had us concerned. Supposedly he's made an adjustment ($$$) to his swing mechanics, so we'll see if he can pull the ball in the air more.

Ibanez has been pretty consistent in his two years in the big leagues. He's going to make a lot of contact and put the ball in play. He doesn't have a very good arm, so second base has always seemed like a better fit for him, but they have Colt Keith slotted in there. Ibanez/Keith could be something to watch for the long term as far as seeing those two swap positions.

Since the Tigers didn't add a third baseman for the second straight offseason, this is what we have to work with. Who knows? Maybe one of them will surprise us.