The Detroit Tigers will face at least one shaky situation heading into the American League title defense this season. Bruce Rondon, the heir apparent to the ninth inning role, was demoted from Spring Training on Thursday and will begin the season in AAA.
After watching, Jose Valverde close games for three seasons in the Motor City, the Tigers watched him completely forget how to pitch last October. Of course, Detroit was usually able to compensate with big leads or alternative options in the ALCS because the entire Yankees’ team forgot how to hit.
The Tigers were swept in four games in the World Series and did not require a closer. Heading into 2013, the closer’s role was earmarked for Rondon, a promising 22-year-old relief prospect in the Detroit system. Rondon spent most of last year in A ball before throwing eight innings in AAA where he struck out nine batters in eight innings and yielded just five hits.
The Tigers have: Al Albuquerque, Octavio Dotel and Joaquin Benoit on the roster, but all of them have their drawbacks. Albuquerque is prone to control issues, Dotel is in the twilight of his career and Benoit is preferred as the eighth inning setup man for the defending AL champs. Rondon did not do the team any favors with an abysmal spring.
In 12.1 innings to try to prove he belonged, the Venezuelan righty posted a 5.84 ERA. More offensively, Rondon gave up 17 hits, walked nine, posted a 2.11 WHIP and a .327 opponent’s batting average. When he wasn’t putting countless runners on base, Rondon did manage to strike out 19 hitters, posting better than a 15K/9 ratio.
The Tigers may resort to what seemed to work in small sample sizes in October of last season, which is to place former lefty specialist, Phil Coke, in the closer role. Whatever the experiment is, the Detroit should have time to sort it out as they are widely considered runaway front-runners for the AL Central and have been a second half team regardless the past few seasons.
