The Tigers are still on the lookout for a closer and after Derrick Turnbow signed with the Texas Rangers, the Tigers have their eyes on another pitcher coming off of a big time injury.  Former Nationals closer Chad Cordero will be showing his stuff this week and the Tigers are one of several teams who have their eyes on how his arm holds up.  The big question is whether he’ll be ready for opening day or not.  Based on his rehab schedule, it’s a possibility but I can’t imagine he’ll be 100% for the first half of the season.  Still, this is one of those high risk, potentially high return type of moves that the Tigers are faced with.

The Tigers inked former outfielder Alexis Gomez to a minor league deal and he’ll get a chance to show his stuff at spring training.  Gomez has bounced around two different minor league systems since he had his impressive ALCS for the Tigers back in 2006.  Odds are good, with the Tigers depth at outfield, that Gomez will find himself at Toledo to start the season but with the departure of Matt Joyce and Gomez being left handed, there’s a solid chance that we’ll see him in Tigers uniform in 2009.

Joel Zumaya looks to begin throwing within a week as he once again tries to come back from an injury.  Even with an optimistic time table, it’s unlikely that Zumaya will be fully ready when spring training fires up but it’d be nice if we could see what he could do late in March.  With the Tigers leaving the pen alone so far, that puts even more pressure on the Zumaya to come back strong to help the team.

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