DETROIT -- The renewed hope and joy that comes every year when the Tigers trot onto the fields at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland are four months away.
Even that thought might not lift your spirits after they got knocked out of the ALCS by the Red Sox.
You’re still grieving, and I understand that.
But 2014 is coming, and your team will have another good chance to win it all ... or, of course, break your hearts again.
Some very important decisions – most coming from Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski – will impact the face of the team for next season and years beyond. So, let’s look at what’s in store:
REPLACING JIM LEYLAND
Coaches Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon are under consideration, but weren’t hired as managers by other major league clubs they interviewed with in recent years. This opening will attract the best available managers, and it’s most likely that a higher profile candidate will get the job.
Dusty Baker, 64, has done everything but win a World Series with the Giants, Cubs and Reds . He’s won 1,671 games -- 98 games fewer than Leyland -- and is there for the taking.
He’s a players’ manager like Leyland, and has the great motivation to win it all shared by veteran Tigers players such as Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez. It could be a pretty good baseball marriage. And Dombrowski has known and respected Baker for years.
Or will Dombrowski get bold and try to pry a top manager away from a current club? If so, I think the best manager in the game is Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays.
I don’t think he wants to leave his team or front office. But he lives in Long Beach, Calif., so where he spends summers doesn’t matter. Maddon loves the history of the game and the Tigers are a team steeped in tradition with a great ballpark – neither of which exists in his current situation.
He’s my dream hire, but a long-shot because he’s happy and already manages a contender.
Those lobbying for Kirk Gibson are operating under the delusion that winning a World Series as a player equates to winning one as a manager. Gibson has done well at the helm of the Arizona Diamondbacks, but I don’t believe his personality is the right fit with this front office.
THE BULLPEN
Max Scherzer pitched two brilliant games in the ALCS that the relievers blew. Joaquin Benoit and Jose Veras served up grand slams that were the difference between being in the World Series and being on the golf course.
The bullpen cursed this team from the start. Dombrowski gambled that Bruce Rondon was ready to close and he wasn’t. And there were ensuing melt-downs by Phil Coke and Jose Valverde before Benoit saved the season. But Benoit blew a save late in the season and then another. Then “Big Papi” hit the grand slam.
I’m not sure he can turn the page, and that’s required of closers. Benoit’s a free agent. Let him go and make Priority One signing a proven closer. Rondon is ready to be a set-up man and will eventually be the closer. But don’t leave any loose ends this time.
There are four interesting free agent closers: Grant Balfour (don’t laugh), Fernando Rodney (really, stop laughing), Brian Wilson and Joe Nathan, who is expected to void his $9 million option with the Rangers unless they offer two years of big money. Detroit talked to Texas in July about acquiring him, and has a definite interest.
Nathan, 38, is just what the Tigers need. He had 43 saves, a 1.39 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP. And he’s perfect in 36 save opportunities against Detroit. Hunter, his long-time teammate in Minnesota, could be invaluable in wooing him.
Drew Smyly, Al Alburquerque and Veras (whose $3.25 million option the Tigers are almost certain to pick up) will combine with Rondon to take care of the other important innings.
And, please, close the door on Coke. But find a veteran left-hander to take his place in the bullpen.
LONG-TERM CONTRACTS FOR CABRERA AND SCHERZER
Miguel Cabrera is a free agent after 2015 and Max Scherzer is after 2014.
The Tigers can’t afford to let Scherzer walk for nothing after next season. I think he wants to stay, but his agent, Scott Boras, likes to play the field and avoids long-term contracts that keep his clients from free agency. So, Scherzer has to decide who’s running his show. And if he lets Boras run it, the Tigers could very well trade him.
This is the time to sign Cabrera to an extension before he gets close to free agency. If he keeps hitting this way, his price two years from now will break all contract records.
RE-SIGN INFANTE
Remember a few years back, when Scott Sizemore was supposedly ready to replace Placido Polanco? Well, I hope the Tigers don’t really believe Hernan Perez is a good option to not re-signing second baseman Omar Infante.
Infante is vibrant both offensively and defensively. Sign him.
He won’t come cheaply, but won’t break the bank. Second basemen not named Robinson Cano don’t do that. Also pursue Tampa Bay’s Ben Zobrist for negotiation leverage.
FIGURING OUT LEFT FIELD
The platoon of Andy Dirks and Matt Tuiasosopo was OK, but Detroit can do better. And I don’t think Nick Castellanos is ready to take that spot. The Tigers can talk about him all they want, but they didn’t put him on the postseason roster. What does that tell you?
My suggestion: Baltimore Orioles free agent Nate McLouth. The Muskegon native grew up a rabid Tigers fan, and brings a Gold Glove (as a center fielder in 2008), speed (30 steals in 2013), good power (31 doubles, four triples and 12 homers) and a great attitude.
The Tigers will be taking the field in Lakeland before you know it. There will be some new names on the backs of the uniforms, but the hopes won’t change.
