There wasn’t a lot of surprise that Tigers manager Jim Leyland began to get a little testy with repeated questions in spring training about his defense, which everyone was patiently waiting to display itself as being as porous as they’d expected.

To borrow Leyland’s parlance, repeated questions about the defense is ‘beating a dead horse.’ Even if you're asking about a good play, there's not a lot of upside in the discussion.

“There’s no sense talking to it because it’s a no-win situation for a manger. We’re not playing Miguel Cabrera at third and Prince Fielder at first for their defense. That’s not why we’ve got them there. We got them there because of those big bats,” the manager said.

“That’s not why they’re on the corners. They’re power guys on the corners that work on both sides of the ball. And, they’re working their (butts) off. I really believe that Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera’s work in spring training have helped them. There’s no question about that. They worked hard. And, it’s paying off. I’ve said all along that I think Miguel Cabrera has great hands and a great arm.”

Nobody in the Tigers organization has ever espoused the theory that three of the four primary infielders — Cabrera, Fielder and Ryan Raburn — are going to win Gold Gloves.

All Leyland asks of them is they make plays on the balls hit to them.

So far, they have.

Coming in to Thursday’s games, the Tigers were the team in MLB with the fewest errors (one).

While the second base position for the Detroit Tigers — one of their expressed positions requiring offseason attention — is shaping up to be all the usual suspects, there’s one less name in the hopper now.

The franchise announced Monday that it was not tendering a contract to Will Rhymes, their 2011 Opening Day starter at the position, making the 28-year-old a free agent.

That leaves utilityman Ramon Santiago — who re-signed with the club for two years at the start of December — and Ryan Raburn as the probable platoon, unless the Tigers make another move.

It’s been a merry-go-round of a position since the Tigers chose not to retain Placido Polanco after the 2009 season. None of the last three players to start the season at second base — Polanco in ’09, Scott Sizemore in ’10 and Rhymes in ’11 — remain on the roster. Six different players have started at the position in two seasons.

The diminutive Rhymes, a career .291 hitter in 633 minor league games, hit .304 in 54 games as an injury replacement at the end of the 2009 season, earning himself a shot at making the big-league club in spring training last year.

He did one better, earning the start on Opening Day, but — thanks to a .206 batting average — lasted just 28 games before the hot-hitting Sizemore took his spot. Rhymes would play in just one more game at the big-league level — a pinch-running cameo in Baltimore in mid-August — before the September call-ups.

Rhymes, who hit .235 for the season with the Tigers, did not make the postseason roster, but he made waves during the playoffs, nonetheless. A late-night post to Twitter during the American League Championship Series, questioning on-the-field moves, may have hastened his departure from the organization, although GM Dave Dombrowski denied that on the record, according to MLive's Chris Iott.

Worth noting: There have been increased social media restrictions on MLB players worked into the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for The Oakland Press. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery. To get updates on the team sent to your phone, text “Tigers” to 22700. *Msg & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.

When Tigers pitcher Phil Coke puts on a Toledo Mud Hens uniform on Friday, and trots to the mound in Scranton, Pa., for a rehab start against the New York Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, it will seem like almost any other day at the office.

He’ll have a familiar coworker in the Hens lineup with him, after all.

Magglio Ordonez, who has been on the disabled list since May 13 with weakness in his surgically-repaired ankle, will begin his rehab stint with Toledo the same day, the Tigers announced Wednesday.

Even though Tigers manager Jim Leyland has tried to stay out of the discussion, leaving it between Ordonez and the training staff — “I just stay out of that stuff. ... Whenever they tell me Magglio’s ready, he’s ready,” he said — there’s no question that he’s been encouraged by watching Ordonez take batting practice on the field at Comerica Park the last few days.
“He felt fine the last couple of days, felt really good. And drove the ball pretty good. Just wait and see,” Leyland said after one session.

“He feels great, but is a couple of days swinging going to change how he feels? I wouldn’t think so, but I don’t know,” the manager noted after another.

Struggling off and on with his ankle in the cold weather early this season, Ordonez was hitting just .171 in 26 games before notifying the Tigers’ medical staff that he wanted to shut it down.
He was re-examined by Dr. Phillip Kwong, the surgeon who repaired his broken ankle last August, in Los Angeles three weeks ago, but has been rehabbing in Detroit since then.

Coke, who has been on the DL with a bruised bone in his foot, is scheduled to return to the Tigers’ active roster after his lone rehab start. Once he comes back, the Tigers will send left-handed starter Andy Oliver back to Toledo.

Ordonez’s return could make for a more interesting roster decision. Do the Tigers demote Andy Dirks, who’s hit .281 since taking Ordonez’s spot on the roster? Or Casper Wells (.228)? Or infielder Danny Worth, who may be less needed, once Ordonez’s presence in the outfield rotation pushes Ryan Raburn into the second base role full time?

Just wait and see on that, too, I guess.

Ryan Raburn earned himself a shot at a full-time job with his hitting down the stretch last year.

Coming out of spring training, he was the starting left fielder, but through his own struggles and the hot start by Brennan Boesch, he was slowly phased into a rotation.

Starting Saturday, he’ll be the new primary second baseman, after neither Will Rhymes nor Scott Sizemore could lock down the job.

“I think you can safely say he’ll be our second baseman,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland told reporters after Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Red Sox. “To me, Raburn’s season starts tomorrow. Forget everything that’s happened to this point.”

That may be hard to do, unless the position change revitalizes Raburn’s bat.

The one-time utility man left April with a .253 batting average, but he’s hit just .100 so far in May, with just one extra-base hit. At one point, he was neck-and-neck with teammate Austin Jackson for the MLB lead in strikeouts.

Still, the pop in his bat is an upgrade over what the Tigers had been putting out there for most of the season.

Between them, Rhymes — who was demoted to Triple-A Toledo at the start of the month — and Sizemore — who was traded Friday for pitching help, in the form of lefty reliever David Purcey — hit just .221 with two doubles and six RBI in 35 starts at second.

Raburn and the other player in the mix, Ramon Santiago, combined to hit .313 with two doubles, two homers and seven RBI in just 13 starts at second.

Friday’s trade wasn’t the only move the Tigers made, optioning struggling reliever Ryan Perry to Toledo to clear room on the active roster for Andy Oliver, who will make a spot start Saturday, in the injured Phil Coke’s turn in the rotation.

In his last nine appearances, Perry allowed 13 earned runs in just seven innings pitched, as his ERA ballooned from a reasonable 3.00 to 14.04.

Leyland said the move was as much as anything to allow Perry — the Tigers’ first-round draft pick in 2008 — to “get away from it up here,” and work on mechanics. Thursday, Leyland said his “heart aches” for Perry because of his profound troubles.

The team will need to make an additional move to clear room on the roster for Purcey, when he arrives Saturday.