Carlos Guillen has been a great shortstop for the Tigers for the past three years and I’d love nothing more to see him continue to perform at that position moving forward for many more years. For the Tigers he has consistently batted above .318, garnered an All Star berth and is, as Leyland says, one of the smartest players on the team. On the other hand, Carlos has many factors working against him filling the Tigers shortstop role on a consistent basis moving forward.

First there is the fact that he is a free agent at the end of the 2007 season. I’ve discussed the contract issues here before but this is really a minor barrier for Carlos. I see no way around Detroit signing Guillen for at least an extra two years; he’s worth it and he deserves it but this might not be enough to provide real security at shortstop.

Guillen is by no means old for his position. Their are seven other starting shortstops in the MLB that are of equal or greater age than Carlos but age is starting to show with him more than others. 2005 was a rough year for Guillen as he sit out much of the year with injuries. 2006 was Guillen’s worst year, by far, for errors with 28; 10 more than his previous high with 18 in 2002. Even if he does defy his high risk injury probability status the Tigers will be looking to move him out of a fielding crucial position, possibly to first base.

So we’ve gone over many issues that could stand in the way of Guillen being at shortstop for much longer; Contracts, Injuries, Age, etc. But who will end up replacing him? Who do the Tigers have planned as successor to Guillen? Their are a few options from Omar Infante or Ramon Santiago, though I don’t see either taking over full time at short. I’ve made my thoughts on Infante obvious in an earlier post and Santiago will not become a regular start in MLB and doesn’t bring consistent hitting to the plate.

I turned to the Tigers farm system to see what the possibilities were and ran across Tony Giarratano as an interesting prospect.

Tony was drafted in 2003 out of Tulane in the 3rd round (70th Overall). He started out of the gate with Oneonta batting .328 with an impressive 845 OPS. 2004 was split between West Michigan and Lakeland where he again showed impressive power and hitting ability posting .376/.421/.505. 2005 was a bit of a setback as he moved up to Erie to play on the SeaWolves. He still posted .266/.334/.373 with his slugging dropping a little and also making a brief 15-game appearance with Detroit which wasn’t so stellar.

2006 was even worse for Tony as he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament that required surgery. He had surgery in July and was out the rest of the season which wasn’t going bad with .283/.340/.390 at Erie. Though the year started out with a real bang as he played on the Italian team for the World Baseball Classic turning many heads.

Tony will likely start 2007 at shortstop for the Toledo Mudhens and has made a tremendous effort at recovery. His future with Detroit will depend highly on 2007 and many in the organization will no doubt be watching very closely.