Detroit Tigers: 5 roster battles to watch in spring training

5. Utilityman

There are going to be a ton of players competing for the utilityman role, and there might be multiple utlilitymen because of it. The infield is where most of these guys will play.

Most of the guys who are competing for the third base job are also competing for this role. Most of these players can play multiple positions anyway.

I think Ryan Kreidler has an edge here because he can play shortstop, which means he can spell Javy Baez in the event he gets injured or just needs a day off. He can also play second and third, and plays all of them pretty well. He just needs to hit.

Zack Short could be a name to watch as well. He draws a lot of walks and plays decent defense in the infield. He's likely more of a dark horse than anything, but he'll compete for sure.

Lastly, Jonathan Schoop will probably be the Opening Day second baseman, but he'll likely move around the diamond this season. A.J. Hinch has already alluded to that being a possibility.

Spring training has arrived. Pretty soon, we'll be watching all of these roster battles unfold. Baseball is back, folks.