Lakeland, Fla. — Casey Mize, who aspires to be the Tigers’ union rep one day, was plugged into the negotiations all through the lockout.
“I kept on board with Matty,” Mize said. “I wanted to be in the loop on all of that. There was a ton of conversation.”
Wait. Matty? As in Matthew Boyd? The former Tigers’ player rep who is now a former Tiger?
Yep. Technically, catcher Tucker Barnhart was serving as the Tigers’ de facto rep, mostly because he had been the rep with the Reds and was already plugged in.
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But, since Barnhart was traded to the Tigers just a month before the lockout and hadn’t met most of his new teammates, it was Boyd who stepped in and served as the club’s conduit to the union and the talks with owners.
“Matt Boyd did a helluva job looping me in and integrating me into this clubhouse,” Barnhart said Monday, before going through his first official workout with the Tigers. “We had a very good open line of communication with everybody. He helped out a lot.”
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Barnhart was in a no-win situation. He tried to answer all the questions players had, but he was hesitant to voice his opinion much.
“It was really interesting,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave anybody out to dry. Just one of those things where I let Matt do his thing, even though he’s not here. But he’s been in this clubhouse for so long and I haven’t. I felt a little out of place inserting my two-cents at certain times.
“Just one of those things where I kind of like to meet people before I insert my opinion into things.”
No surprisingly, Boyd was one of the first Tigers players to reach out to Barnhart after the trade, too.
“There’s a lot of guys who wouldn’t have done what he did for a clubhouse without actually, physically being here,” Barnhart said. “It was really cool to see. He’s an unselfish dude, for sure.”
Barnhart isn’t quite sure if he’s the Tigers’ official union rep now or not.
“Hopefully we don’t need any union stuff for a while,” he said, with a laugh.
It was mentioned to Mize, in jest, that he may need to start his campaign.
“Right,” he said, laughing. “I might need to raise some funding from you guys (media). I would like to be (the union rep) one day. But I have to earn that.”
Camp roster grows
The good news for the Tigers is that on the first official day of spring training, every player that was supposed to be there was there. But that doesn’t mean the camp roster is set.
“I don’t know if it’s ever going to be 100 percent set the entire spring,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We may have guys filtering in and out. The organization is still looking for guys. At some point we will draw a line in the sand where you can’t start the season with us unless you’re here by a certain date.”
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That day was not Monday, as the Tigers brought in five more non-roster players — four right-handed pitchers and a veteran catcher.
The pitchers: Drew Hutchison, who finished last season with the Tigers; Chase Anderson, 34-year-old veteran who pitched last season with the Phillies; Ramon Rosso, who pitched in 14 games over the last two years with the Phillies, and former Padres reliever Miguel Diaz, whom they signed on Saturday.
The catcher: Ryan Lavarnway, 34-year-old who was with the Guardians last season.
“I’m glad to be back,” Hutchison said. “I enjoyed my time here last year a lot. I’m looking to get going.”
Hutchison, entering his age-31 season, hadn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2018 before the Tigers called him up last September. He went 3-1 in nine games (two starts) with a 2.11 ERA.
Anderson, a staple in the Brewers rotation from 2016-2019, made just 16 starts the last two seasons, allowing 63 runs in 87.2 innings.
“Starting pitching depth is something we’ve been bantering around about for a while,” Hinch said. “Do we have enough?”
Hutchison and Anderson join a group with lefty Joey Wentz and right-handers Ricardo Pinto, Nivaldo Rodriguez, Beau Brieske, Elvin Rodriguez and eventually Alex Faedo potentially vying for spots six through 12 on the starting pitching depth chart.
Faedo, coming back from Tommy John surgery, isn’t expected to be fully ready to compete for another couple of months.
Lavarnway, a career back-up, has played for eight teams in 10 big-league seasons.
Around the horn
…Hinch said Wentz, nearly two years after Tommy John surgery, was hitting upper-90s with the fastball during his bullpen session Monday.
…New Tigers’ lefty starter Eduardo Rodriguez threw his first bullpen of camp Monday, extending his session some 20 pitches longer than the others in his group. “We have to take the players at their word as to what they’ve done and what they can handle,” Hinch said. “Especially a guy like Eduardo, he knows what it takes to get ready.”
…Before throwing his final pitch, Rodriguez announced, “head shot.” The pitchers were throwing to a batter mannequin standing in either right-handed or left-handed batters box. Rodriguez let it fly, easily clearing the mannequin and nearly the backstop.
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…Hinch came away impressed by Brieske, who threw live batting practice to a group of hitters that included Miguel Cabrera, Javy Baez and Jonathan Schoop. “I like his confidence,” he said. “I like his stuff. I’ve closely watched his confidence and demeanor and I think he thinks he belongs…I can see why the organization has been high on him.” Cabrera gave Brieske a “bueno” after a well-executed change-up.
…One of Barnhart’s best friends in baseball, his former teammate Sonny Gray, was traded from the Reds to the Twins. “I sent him a text congratulating him,” Barnhart said. “But with a question mark, like ‘Congratulations?’ Because I didn’t really know how he felt about it. He told me he didn’t see it coming. I don’t know if he meant the trade or being traded to the Twins. But I told him I look forward to having a golf buddy when we go up to play the Twins.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky