UTIL Jermaine Palacios, Detroit Tigers
Cardenales de Lara, Venezuelan Professional Baseball League

The 26-year-old utilityman returned to his native Venezuela to play for Cardenales de Lara this winter and seems back on track, with a 1.104 OPS that trails only Oswaldo Arcia in the LVBP.

In November, the Tigers claimed Palacios off waivers from the Twins. As a multi-positional defender, he is the kind of depth piece that teams rely on throughout a season. They just need to know those players can handle an at-bat, even when coming in cold off the bench, and remain competitive in difficult situations. And while the Tigers outrighted Palacios off their roster, they quickly re-signed him to a minor-league deal.

To get back to the bigs, Palacios needed to find a groove at the plate. And his .471 on-base percentage, sixth-best in the league, is a good sign.

I know that Palacios had mainly a down time as far offensively in his MLB debut. but he remained a solid glove. Palacios had a pretty good bat in AAA & now in winter ball. I only wished that we held onto him a little longer so he'd have a better chance sticking  with us.

I was a little surprised that Tigers were able to get him through outrights and sign him to that minor league deal. Expected him to be one of those guys who gets bounced around to half a dozen teams until there's finally nobody left to claim him. Probably had to do with the timing of Rule V roster decisions. I hope he's successful there. Seems like a good kid and gamer. Not sure he had a lot of use left with the Twins, though.

Palacios will be a decent backup in the MLB from my viewpoint.  Twins were getting in a bit a roster crunch and left him open to be claimed.  

I wish Palacios well, but doing well in Winter Ball doesn’t instill fear in me that the Twins whiffed. For Palacios’ sake I hope they did. But I don’t second guess that decision