Worth noting

• Ausmus said shortstop Eugenio Suarez has impressed the Tigers so far this spring. A career .277/.363/.404 hitter in the Minors, Suarez has gone 5-for-16 with a double and two RBIs in 10 Grapefruit League games.

"He's pretty young, but he carries himself pretty well defensively in the field. He doesn't look like he's rattled or intimidated by Major League camp or Major League hitters when he's playing defense," Ausmus said. "Obviously, a kid like that you want to get more at-bats and more innings, but he's played well. In that regard, he's opened some eyes in a situation where we don't know -- if Iglesias isn't back, we have to have some type of answer at shortstop."

• Infielder Hernan Perez has seen time at both second base and shortstop this spring, but he would be an obvious candidate to make the roster if Iglesias spends any time on the disabled list.

"From Day 1, I told him to make sure he was taking some ground balls at short," Ausmus said. "We weren't expecting anything, injury-wise, from Iglesias, but if something happened to him for an extended period of time, we'd need a shortstop. I think he could play either spot. He's got enough arm to play either spot."

• In discussing how much preparation Iglesias will need before he's ready for the regular season, a reporter asked Ausmus how many at-bats he felt he needed each spring during his playing career.

"I was never ready for the season," Ausmus said, laughing. "You could make the argument that in September I still wasn't ready."

• Third baseman Nick Castellanos went 2-for-4 in Wednesday's 7-7 tie with the Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field, bringing his Grapefruit League average to .400.

"He's been good. He's had good at-bats, as good as anyone in camp," Ausmus said. "And he looked solid at third today. There were a couple tough in-between hops that he played into bigger hops and made plays. Overall, he looked pretty good at third as well."

• Ausmus joked that he was "a little bit" jealous that Yankees manager Joe Girardi challenged a play under the new instant replay rules Wednesday. Ausmus noted that the Yankees' replay was "very quick," but he didn't get a chance to use the new system himself.

"I'm not going to slow the game down for the sake of slowing the game down," Ausmus said. "There really wasn't an opportunity to use it."