Dave Dombrowski spoke yesterday of how the team in planning on Austin Jackson manning centerfield next season. But that’s a lot to put on someone who hasn’t seen a pitch at the big league level. Especially when the guy playing second base is in the same boat. So it’s probably natural that the Tigers would get linked to free agent Scott Podsednik.
Lynn Henning (who saw the Granderson trade coming before anyone and was also a member of the Brennan Boesch fan club a couple months prior to his inclusion on the 40 man roster) planted this seed earlier in the week. The seed appears to have a shot at growing as the Tigers were listed as one of five teams interested in the left handed hitting outfielder.
Podsednik hadn’t cracked the .700 OPS barrier since 2006 before having a bit of a late career renaissance when he mustered a 764 OPS for the White Sox in 2009. This would be kind of a buy-high move. For all Podsednik’s speed, he’s not a spectacular fielder and has been pretty average to below average the last couple years according to UZR.
It makes sense to have a left handed option that could play centerfield. Of course for a cash-strapped team it probably makes more sense to just let Clete Thomas get some at-bats in that role. Then again lots of things aren’t making sense with the Tigers lately so I’d say there is a good chance that the deal gets done. As an aside, Podsednik is married to Lisa Dergan (google away).
Image credit: Matt Stratton on flickr