The Tigers have signed 29-year old lefty swinging outfielder Matt Young to a minor league deal. Young played in 20 games for the Braves in his first taste of the majors last year and he was 10 for 48 (.208 avg, .498 OPS) with 4 runs scored and 1 RBI. He also played in 99 games in AAA-ball last year and he was 100 for 366 (.273 avg, .719 OPS) with 64 runs scored, 1 homer, 24 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. Young will probably start the 2012 season in the minors, but he could surface with them at some point this year.

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.

The Tigers have signed 26-year old switch-hitting infielder Niuman Romero to a minor league deal. Romero played in 75 games in AA+AAA-ball last year and he was 55 of 238 (.231 avg, .555 OPS) with 24 runs scored, 0 homers, 23 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. He last played in the majors back in 2010 with the Red Sox. Romero has played in 12 games in his first two years in the majors and he is 2 for 18 (.111 avg, .269 OPS) with 3 runs scored. I see Romero playing most, if not all, of the 2012 season in AAA-ball.

The Tigers have signed 28-year old lefty swinging 2B/OF Eric Patterson to a minor league deal. Patterson played in 47 games for the Padres last year and he was 16 of 89 (.180 avg, .564 OPS) with 8 runs scored, 2 homers, 8 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. He has now played in 226 games in his first five years in the majors and he is 110 of 508 (.217 avg, .637 OPS) with 65 runs scored, 10 homers, 50 RBIs and 35 stolen bases. Patterson will compete for a bench job this spring for the Tigers.