With one out to go in spring training, Todd Jones left the game with a pulled hamstring. According to Danny Knobler Jones is headed to the DL. A replacement hasn’t been determined yet, and I’d guess that the Tigers are waiting to see the severity of the injury.

I’m not worried about the loss of Jones as closer. I actually think that Fernando Rodney, who is yet further removed from Tommy John surgery will have a pretty good year, and should post comparable numbers to Jones. It’s more an issue of cascading roles with the loss of Jones in a bullpen that has several question marks.

If it looks like Jones will only miss a couple weeks, I’d imagine that the Tigers would go with one of the players currently on the 40 man roster like Mark Woodyard or Roman Colon. My guess would be Woodyard because I really think the organization wants Colon working as a starter.

If it looks like the injury will take a long time to heal, the team may be more inclined to look at a non-roster player. Unfortunately, there don’t appear to be any likely candidates in that group.

If you’re wondering about Franklyn German taking the last spot, I wouldn’t count on it. To me it didn’t seem like German was that close to making the team. His longevity in big league camp was probably more due to his option status than him being the last player cut. Adding German also gets tricky because he’s no longer on the 40 man roster. While there is room to add him, I believe a later demotion would mean him once again clearing waivers.

In other roster moves, the Tigers officially designated for assigment the contracts of Franklyn German and Rob Bowen. They also put Troy Percival on the 60 day disabled list and Craig Dingman on the 15 day DL. Why only the 15 day DL for Dingman? I’m not really sure.