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Gleyber Torres is suddenly a bench player for Team Venezuela as they prepare to play Japan Saturday in the quarterfinals of the WBC.<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 starting second baseman had been in Miami the last 10 days and has played in just three games, getting nine plate appearances. Venezuela manager Omar Lopez has been using Luis Arraez at second base.<\/p>\n
More: <\/strong>Pain-free again, Tigers’ Gleyber Torres ready to embark on ‘special’ season<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEverything is fine with Gleyber (health-wise),\u201d Tigers manager AJ Hinch said Thursday morning. \u201cBut the schedule for the WBC is not conducive for the position-player ramp up.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a double-edged sword. Not only is Torres having to accept a bench role, he\u2019s missing out on what would\u2019ve been a much heavier build up to the season had he stayed in camp with the Tigers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have a lot of guys (on Team Venezuela) and it\u2019s hard to get the at-bats and playing time,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cI talked to Omar about it. All the players are playing less than they normally would in spring with the way the schedule is. It\u2019s frustrating for Gleyber, but it\u2019s all part of the WBC experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Thursday was an off-day for the WBC and even though Torres is in Miami, he\u2019s not allowed to drive over and play for the Tigers in the spring game against the Yankees at Joker Marchant Stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s taking his batting practice, getting his ground balls and running, doing all the work that a player who doesn\u2019t play a lot in the regular season does,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cThere\u2019s not much we can do about it. It\u2019s just the depth they have with their team.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish he was playing more.\u201d<\/p>\n The WBC has fractured spring camps in both Florida and Arizona. Besides Torres, lefty Enmanuel De Jesus is also with Team Venezuela. Right-hander Keider Montero is still with Team Dominican.<\/p>\n Outfielder Jahmai Jones has been gone for two-plus weeks with Team Korea.<\/p>\n Reliever Kenley Jansen returned from Team Netherlands on Wednesday. Tarik Skubal returned after one start on Monday but now reliever Will Vest has left camp to join Team USA in Houston.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the roster configuration will be for the semis and finals,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cBut we are expecting him stay there until it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n Coaches Joey Cora (Team Puerto Rico) and George Lombard (Team USA) have been gone for two weeks and counting. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who has players gone is having to piece it together the best they can,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cYou want the games to go as late as possible in order for the players to be built up and ready to play. But that leaves like two or three games here and two (exhibition) games in Arizona as the only time we\u2019re going to have the roster together that we\u2019re going to break with for Opening Day.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody has to concede something to have this event at the time we are having it. I\u2019m not sure there is an ideal time to pull this off.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tigers Thursday assigned three non-roster pitchers to minor league camp: Relievers Tyler Mattison and Cole Waites and lefty starter Bryan Sammons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe innings were starting to dry up for the relievers,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cStarters are going deeper into games. Kenley is back and we\u2019re going to get De Jesus back soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Sammons, Hinch said, needs to get on a five-day program to be ready to pitch in the rotation at Triple-A Toledo.<\/p>\n It\u2019s likely not the last we see of Mattison this season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just nice to have him in camp and not rehabbing,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cHe has plenty of stuff to pitch at this level. He\u2019s got to keep working on consistency and getting into count leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n Mattison, with his high-rpm, mid-90s four-seam fastball and slider, struck out six in 3.1 innings this spring. But he\u2019s also walked three.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looked like he had one pitch or the other and he\u2019d end up being a one-pitch guy in a lot of his outings,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cBut those pitches are dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n Mattison made himself an option for Hinch at some point this season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s really intriguing,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cIt\u2019s a different look, different stuff. He misses bats. I look forward to seeing him get his season underway and see how he factors in. I can easily see him being a candidate to help us at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer Torkelson was sporting a multi-colored bruise on his right forearm Thursday, courtesy of a fastball thrown by teammate Burch Smith in an intrasquad game Tuesday. But he was back in the lineup, no worse for wear. Asked the most painful hit by pitch he\u2019s taken, he recalled taking a heater off the C-flap of his helmet in his rookie season (2022), courtesy of Royals Brad Keller. He had to leave the game for concussion protocol. \u201cHe got me a bottle of tequila, though,\u201d Torkelson said with a smile. \u201cI told him, \u2018Do it again.\u2019 Get a free base and a bottle of tequila, heck yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026 There\u2019s the possibility of a pretty special spring pitching matchup Saturday in Dunedin. Tarik Skubal, the reigning two-time Cy Young winner will make the trip for the Tigers. The Blue Jays have tentatively aligned three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer to make his first start of the spring.<\/p>\n \u2026 Framber Valdez will make his third start of the season on Sunday in Tampa against the Yankees.<\/p>\n Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n @cmccosky<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lakeland, Fla. \u2013 It\u2019s not ideal, for sure. Gleyber Torres is suddenly a bench player for Team Venezuela as they prepare to play Japan Saturday in the quarterfinals of the WBC. The Tigers\u2019 starting second baseman had been in Miami the last 10 days and has played in just three games, getting nine plate appearances. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Why-is-Detroit-Tigers-Gleyber-Torres-riding-Venezuelas-bench-in.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23814,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23812\/revisions\/23814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Three pitchers re-assigned<\/h2>\n
Mattison an option?<\/h2>\n
Around the horn<\/h2>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"