The Tigers added right-hander Michael Lorenzen on a one-year, $8.5MM guarantee earlier this offseason. He’ll add some depth to a Detroit rotation that’ll be without Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal to start the season (likely the whole year in the former’s case), joining Eduardo Rodriguez, Spencer Turnbull, Matt Manning and Matthew Boyd in the presumptive season-opening rotation. The 31-year-old indicated today he’s hoping to expand his responsibilities beyond the mound.

Lorenzen told reporters he’s angling for an opportunity to log some at-bats this season (link via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). He’s dabbled with being a two-way player in years past, most notably when he combined for 87 plate appearances with the 2018-19 Reds. Lorenzen only hit once in each of his final two seasons with Cincinnati and didn’t do so at all last year with the Angels, whom he said declined his request for at-bats. The eight-year MLB veteran said this morning he devoted some time this offseason to tinkering with his swing mechanics.

Over 147 big league plate appearances, Lorenzen is a .233/.282/.429 hitter. He’s connected on seven home runs and stolen five bases in seven attempts, showing an intriguing power/speed combination. Yet his overall offensive production — while excellent compared to other pitchers — has been well worse than that of a league average hitter thanks to a meager 4.8% walk rate and huge 32% strikeout percentage. Of course, Lorenzen has never had an extended run of everyday looks at live pitching to get into a groove. Whether the Tigers are willing to give him even stray at-bats or some outfield work remains to be seen.

In other news out of the Motor City: