Detroit – It was February 2018. Ron Gardenhire’s first spring training as manager of the Tigers.
“In our first meeting, Gardy said, ‘I don’t know any of you guys, so I’m just going to call you ‘buddy’ when you are running around until I can get a look at the back of your uniform,’” Jordan Zimmermann said.
That was all it took. Zimmermann went to equipment manager Jim Schmakel and asked him to prepare three jerseys with the nameplate “Buddy” on the back.
On the first day of full-squad workouts, Zimmermann, Alex Wilson and Michael Fulmer were out there, Nos.