Anthony Fenech

Detroit Free Press

JUPITER, Fla. – Andrew Romine wants to punch me.

We are sitting on the bench inside the visitors dugout at Roger Dean Field on Tuesday. He is explaining his new swing and animating how, if he wanted to punch me — really punch me — he wouldn’t swing across my face, but rather through it.

“Because that’s going to provide the most power,” he said. “So, if I’m going to hit a baseball, I don’t want to hit a baseball and go off it. I want to hit a baseball and go through it until it takes off, and then your swing finishes naturally because that’s the way your body is going to spin.”

Hours later, what started as a story about Romine’s off-season swing change — slowly working his way out of habits that have formed over the course of a professional career — ends up a story about something the Tigers should try.

If, as evidenced this spring, Romine is becoming a more impactful offensive player — he’s hitting .314 with a .515 slugging percentage — why not see if he can’t solve the centerfield question?

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After all, if he can play there one day, why couldn’t he play there most days?

Before the game, manager Brad Ausmus talked about Romine’s importance in a utilityman role.

“Guys like Romine can be the difference between a winning team and a losing team,” Ausmus said. “He’s a huge asset.”

After the game, Ausmus said Romine has been considered in the centerfield mix.

“We’ve talked about it,” he said. “There’s a number of people in the organization that think he might be our best defensive centerfielder.”

The value Romine brings as a utilityman is great, perhaps too great to make him a serious contender for the everyday centerfield job. To this point, we’ve written plenty about JaCoby Jones, Mikie Mahtook, Tyler Collins and Anthony Gose in the mix, but not so much about Romine. He’s an often-overlooked piece of the puzzle, much the way Don Kelly was a few years back, taken for granted but scrutinized all the same.

But while Romine was taking his new-look hacks during batting practice, something else caught my eye: Dixon Machado was in leftfield.

Machado, out of minor league options, was fielding fly balls. It’s becoming clear that Machado is going to make the team. The Tigers don't want to lose him — he would not make it through waivers if the team cut him.

If Romine was afforded a serious shot at becoming the everyday centerfielder, the team then could turn to Machado as a utilityman. The catch there is that Machado doesn’t have experience at first base or in the outfield.

Romine already is a plus defensively at most positions, a player who can be used for late-game situations, spelling starters and pinch running — an insurance policy of sorts.

But if he has found something more in his bat like he thinks, then there’s no reason he couldn’t be the best option in centerfield.

He studied video of Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado and teammates Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez. He spent hours on applications that showed his swing overlapping with theirs and when it went off track.

“The objective is to stay through it as long as you can, no matter where you’re thrown,” he said. “I’m thinking more about finishing my swing toward the pitcher.”

It hasn’t been easy. He called a flyout to left Tuesday one of his terrible swings.

“It takes a long time to break habits that you’ve been doing or creating for 30 years,” he said. “It just takes a lot of work.”

The cluster of Jones, Mahtook, Collins and Gose has looked every bit the “work in progress” general manager Al Avila foreshadowed it would be last spring. So, if the spring wears on and nobody wants the job, why not throw Romine into the mix for a few days and see if that will work?

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Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.

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