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Tigers win Grapefruit League finale, but Gleyber Torres scratched
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- Tigers win Grapefruit League finale, but Gleyber Torres scratched
LAKELAND, FL – The Detroit Tigers won, 3-1, against the New York Yankees on Saturday, March 21, at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium in spring training.
Detroit finished 8-12 with six ties in Grapefruit League play.
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What happened
Second baseman Gleyber Torres has been with the Tigers for two games since returning from Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. In the first game, he went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts.
He never got to play in the second game.
The Tigers scratched Torres from Saturday's game with lower back tightness. The 29-year-old was supposed to serve as the designated hitter against the Yankees, batting second in the lineup.
The good news: Torres is expected to be ready to play for the Tigers in the upcoming exhibition games Monday and Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Detroit Tigers second baseman Gleyber Torres (25) throws to first during the second inning against the Minnesota Twins at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida, on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.
Instead, the Tigers replaced Torres with Spencer Torkelson .
In the WBC, Torres hit .250 (4-for-16) with three walks and six strikeouts across six game, spanning 19 plate appearances. He also played in six games for the Tigers in the Grapefruit League, hitting .270 (5-for-18) with one walk and six strikeouts over 19 plate appearances..
Torres, an eight-year MLB veteran, has landed on the injured list once in the past four seasons, suffering a left oblique strain in late March 2025. He played through a groin injury, which required offseason surgery, throughout the second half of the 2025 season.
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His goal is to play the full 162-game schedule in 2026.
Starting off
Left-hander Framber Valdez allowed one run on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts across 6⅓ innings, throwing 77 pitches. The 32-year-old is scheduled to start Friday against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park – the second game of the season.
He finished the Grapefruit League with a 0.98 ERA over 18⅓ innings in four starts, featuring two walks and 16 strikeouts.
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Facing the Yankees, Valdez allowed the lone run against him in the fourth inning – sparked by Amed Rosario 's leadoff double and Jasson Domíguez's one-out single to put runners on the corners.
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A sacrifice bunt from Austin Wells put the Yankees ahead, 1-0.
In the second inning, Valdez walked Randal Grichuk , then threw a middle-middle sinker that Domíguez ripped between third base and shortstop that should've shot into left field.
But Kevin McGonigle saved the situation.
The 21-year-old top prospect – a shortstop playing third base – dove to his left to keep the ball in the infield, jumped to his feet and started a double play. He fired the ball to second baseman Zach McKinstry , who completed the web gem with a quick turn to first baseman Colt Keith .
In the Grapefruit League, McGonigle hit .250 (10-for-40) with 11 walks and eight strikeouts across 19 games, spanning 52 plate appearances. He hasn't played above Double-A Erie, but he remains in the mix to make the Opening Day roster with five days remaining.
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The Tigers plan to take the McGonigle decision down to the wire.
At the plate
The Tigers scored one run apiece in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Kerry Carpenter tied the game, 1-1, with an RBI single against left-handed reliever Ryan Yarbrough , winning a left-on-left matchup with two outs in the fifth. In the sixth, Dillon Dingler put the Tigers ahead, 2-1, with a sacrifice fly against Yarbrough.
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Back-to-back doubles from Javier Báez and Matt Vierling – both against Yarbrough – extended the Tigers' lead to 3-1 in the seventh. The hit from Vierling got lost in the sun by the outfielder and bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double.
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The Tigers finished with eight hits and three walks.
Right-hander Cam Schlittler , who started for the Yankees, tossed 3⅔ scoreless innings on two hits and one walk with one strikeout. The two hits came from McGonigle in the second and Báez in the third.
On the mound
Right-handed reliever Brenan Hanifee took over in the eighth inning, facing a trio of right-handed hitters: Paul Goldschmidt , José Caballero and Amed Rosario. The 27-year-old struggles against lefties, but he dominates righties.
Hanifee showed exactly why he fits on the Opening Day roster.
He features a sinker-slider pitch mix, but he relied on his sinker to retire all three batters: Goldschmidt struck out swinging, Caballero flew out and Rosario grounded out.
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Another key moment occurred in the seventh inning, when right-handed reliever Drew Anderson – who spent the past four seasons as a starter in Asia – replaced Valdez.
In this situation, Anderson inherited a runner on third base and one out. He escaped the jam with two outs, working around a two-out walk that put runners on the corners.
Anderson finished the Grapefruit League with a 0.69 ERA, five walks and 17 strikeouts across 13 innings in six games. He threw as few as 11 pitches in Saturday's game and as many as 51 pitches in a Feb. 28 start.
Three stars
1. Brenan Hanifee, 2. Framber Valdez, 3. Drew Anderson.
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Next up
Monday (9:10 p.m.) vs. Colorado Rockies in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers win Grapefruit League finale, but Gleyber Torres scratched
