Lakeland, Fla. — AJ Hinch announced that Garrett Hill will start the Tigers’ Grapefruit League opener at Joker Marchant Stadium Saturday against the defending National League-champion Phillies.
“I’m super excited,” said Hill, who made eight starts for the Tigers last year before finishing the season in the bullpen to limit his workload. “It’s going to be the first look for both teams. I’m just going to try to stay quiet, do my thing and let the results happen.”
Hill is among a large group of pitchers who are being stretched out as starters in camp but could end up starting the season in the Tigers’ bullpen.
“We’ve told all of our young starters that if we can stay healthy and we can ramp our five starters like we want, then we expect to have some dilemmas at the end of camp,” Hinch said.
All five of the Tigers’ projected starting pitchers — Eduardo Rodriguez (who will start Sunday), Spencer Turnbull, Matt Manning, Michael Lorenzen and Matthew Boyd — are coming off abbreviated seasons. Turnbull didn’t pitch at all and Boyd only worked 13 innings.
Those pitchers will have a slower ramp-up into the season, probably working no more than five innings for the first couple of months. That creates some spots for a couple of bulk relievers in the bullpen.
Hill, Beau Brieske (who will start Monday), Joey Wentz, Alex Faedo, Rony Garcia, Mason Englert, Reese Olson and Edwin Uceta are in that group.
“I’d love to stay a starter but I will do whatever AJ needs me to do, whatever (pitching coach Chris) Fetter needs me to do and whatever is going to help the team win in the long term,” Hill said.
Around the horn
Wentz was mostly impressive in his two-inning live bullpen session Thursday, though he nearly decapitated Akil Baddoo with a rising fastball up and in. Baddoo’s helmet flew off as he lunged out of harm’s way and immediately went back to the dugout — at-bat over. The only real damage against Wentz was a long home run to right-center by Cesar Hernandez. “We are open to any role for Joey,” Hinch said. “I think his future is as a starter and so does the organization. But, in the short term, anything can happen.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky
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