CHICAGO -- It’s been a game of musical chairs at the shortstop position for Detroit since Jordy Mercer went down, but Mercer and the Tigers are hoping that those days are behind them.
Mercer was activated from the 10-day injured list Monday and was scheduled to hit eighth in the lineup vs. the White Sox on Tuesday and return to shortstop, but the game was postponed due to rain.
“It’s something that I’ve never had to experience,” Mercer said of his injury. “It’s made me a better person. A better father. Had a lot of time to reflect, and it’s going to make me a better player."
The Tigers’ shortstop missed nearly eight weeks with a right quad strain, an injury that he originally suffered in mid-April, before reinjuring the quad May 7, and aggravating it while on a rehab assignment at the end of May.
“I feel like we’re ready to go. We did our due diligence this time and took our time. I stayed down there longer than probably what we anticipated, just to get those back-to-back-to-back games in,” he said. “You wanna try to work out all the kinks you can down there before you get activated and get going up here.”
“Stability in the infield is really important. He’s a good communicator and a leader out there. The shifting and everything, he understands pretty well,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said prior to Tuesday night’s game in Chicago. “It’s been a long time without him and we were playing pretty good early when we had him out there, so it’s nice to have a veteran back in the middle.”
Mercer’s return allows Niko Goodrum to return to his role as the team’s super utility man.
“Goody did a really, really nice job for us playing shortstop. That lets us put him in all those situations that we planned on during the year and gives us another veteran out there catching the ball,” Gardenhire said. “You gotta give guys a break here and there. Goody’s played an awful lot of baseball. He got beat up pretty good playing everyday like that, but he loves playing. This will give us a chance to rest people when they need it and move him around.”
Alexander to make MLB debut
When Tyler Alexander found out that he would be making his first trip to the big leagues, he thought Toledo Mud Hens manager Doug Mientkiewicz was pulling his leg.
“I didn’t believe him. I just stood there for a while and was like, ‘Are you serious?’ But it was an awesome moment,” Alexander said with a laugh. “Doug did it in a special way. It’s a dream.”
Alexander will be making the start in Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader vs. the White Sox.
The 2015 second-round pick out of TCU has had an up-and-down season at Triple-A Toledo as shown by his 6.23 ERA in 14 starts, but feels that he’s been able to figure some things out over the last month.
“The beginning of the year, I’d say the first two months, were tough. Finding a new arm slot and battling, making an adjustment with the new balls,” Alexander said. “[Mud Hens pitching coach] Juan Nieves, he’s worked with me a lot and put in a lot of hard work for me. Things started clicking a little bit.”
“He’s had a couple of good performances. He’s had a couple of bad ones too lately, but he’s had some good performances,” Gardenhire said. “He knows how to maneuver the ball and change speeds. All we can do is put him out there and let him see. It’s another first. We know that’s kind of where we’re at. We’re trying to see what guys can do. I don’t want him to put too much pressure on himself. Just go out and give us a chance in the ballgame. See how many innings we can get out of him and go from there.”
Rosenthal working way back to the Majors
Former All-Star closer Trevor Rosenthal threw as hard as 98 mph during his Tigers organizational debut for Toledo on Monday night, but still seemingly showed the rust of more than a week off. Facing a Columbus lineup that featured several former big league hitters, Rosenthal yielded three runs on four hits over one-third of an inning, walking one batter and hitting another.
Rosenthal threw strikes with 14 of his 24 pitches, but threw first-pitch strikes to just three of the seven batters that he faced. He gave up a trio of singles before Ryan Flaherty hit a 96-mph fastball off the center-field wall for a two-run triple.
“Physically, I felt really good,” Rosenthal said. “I felt like my command was pretty good, just made a couple bad pitches ahead in counts. But overall, I’m happy with how I felt.”
Rosenthal hit Trayce Thompson with an 0-2 offspeed pitch before a five-pitch walk to Eric Haase ended his outing.
The Tigers signed Rosenthal to a Minor League deal last Saturday, a week after his last outing for the Nationals. Rosenthal arrived in Toledo on Saturday night and was activated a day later. He’s expected to have a brief stint with the Hens, but will get work with Nieves.