The Detroit Tigers have not been too busy this winter, but that’s a good thing. They didn’t need to make sweeping changes for 2012 as they have a pretty good team already. Here is a look at the new faces for 2012 so far:

In the field: The Tigers went out and signed catcher Gerald Laird. He will be Alex Avila’s full time backup, allowing Victor Martinez to concentrate on playing some 1B, while DHing most of the time in 2012. The also inked IF/OF Eric Patterson to a minor league deal and he will compete for a backup job this spring.

On the mound: The Tigers signed Octavio Dotel to make the bullpen even more dominating in 2012. He will team with Jose Valverde and Joaquin Benoit to make the Tigers very hard to beat late in games. The Tigers also added righty reliever Collin Balester in a deal with the Nationals and he will work early in games out of the pen in 2012.

Overall: The Tigers are ready to win right now, so adding Dotel and Laird is really going to help them in 2012.