Dayan Viciedo goes job-hunting

With Victor Martinez's torn meniscus jeopardizing the start of his 2015 season, and Miguel Cabrera being iffy for Opening Day himself, the Tigers are leaning heavily on J.D. Martinez.

The year before, Martinez wasn't even good enough to break camp with Houston. The Astros cut him during the final fortnight of spring training, as a poor spring training put him even further behind L.J. Hoes, Robbie Grossman and George Springer among corner outfielders.

We know how that ended -- the Tigers signed him to a minor league contract, earned a promotion after a torrid start at Triple-A, and ended up solving their gaping hole in left field.

But the Astros had their reasons to part ways. His plate approach deteriorated in the years following an encouraging MLB debut, the Astros were the only organization he'd ever played for, and he was 26 years old when Houston granted him a change of scenery.

There's no reason I'm bringing this up.

On a completely unrelated note, fresh off his unconditional release from the White Sox, Dayan Viciedo is starting to explore his options. Adding another layer of intrigue -- he's doing so without Scott Boras, which we learned from Jon Morosi after he initially spitballed a Boras-Tigers match.

On Saturday, the Reds were the first team to check in on him, but Cincinnati GM Walt Jocketty sounded like he didn't see a fit:

Jocketty backed off Viciedo report. Said he didn't see fit. Viciedo wants more PT than team has to give. But inquiry was made #reds

— Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) February 7, 2015

The first thought is that beggars shouldn't be choosers, but Viciedo might have better opportunities. The Reds were one of several teams Paul Swydan at FanGraphs saw as a potential fit as a bench bat. The others include the Giants, Braves, Phillies, Rangers, Yankees and ... Tigers.

The last one should be funnier to me, but it's not eliciting a laugh here. I can't quite put my finger on why.