Detroit Tigers Clips Friday, October 21, 2016 Detroit Free Press Mike Rabelo 1 of 2 Detroit Tigers minor league managers promoted (Fenech) MLive.com West Michigan Whitecaps land another catcher as manager in Mike Rabelo (Woodbery) MLB.com Avila, Tigers keeping 'window' of contention open (Beck) ESPN.com Ultimate Standings: After down year, Tigers stay steady (Stark) Daily Transactions 1 Mike Rabelo 1 of 2 Detroit Tigers minor league managers promoted October 21, 2016 By Anthony Fenech/ Detroit Free Press The Tigers have promoted two minor league managers. Going from rookie short-season Connecticut to Class A West Michigan is former Tiger catcher Mike Rabelo, and taking a step up from West Michigan to Class A Lakeland is Andrew Graham. “I’m excited to be coming back to Lakeland where I began my professional baseball career,” Graham said in a statement. “I look forward to working hard and bringing a Florida State League championship back to the city of Lakeland.” Under Graham’s watch, the Whitecaps made the Midwest League playoffs in each of his three seasons. In 2015, they won the league championship. His record was 228-177. Before his time with the Whitecaps, Graham served three seasons as Connecticut manager. Rabelo, a fourth-round draft pick of the Tigers in 2001, played parts of two seasons with the team in 2006-07 and was part of the trade that acquired Miguel Cabrera from the Marlins in December 2007. His playing career concluded in 2010 with Triple-A Toledo. Rabelo climbed the coaching ranks before joining Connecticut as manager. The Tigers went 118-107 in three seasons. “Mike Rabelo brings a competitive and high-energy managerial style to the ballpark every day,” Tigers vice president of player development Dave Littlefield said in a release. “With three seasons as manager at Connecticut under his belt, we know that he is prepared to take on the promotion to West Michigan. Being a former Whitecap, Mike knows what the expectations are and he is excited to get back to Fifth Third Ballpark.” Out as Lakeland manager is Dave Huppert, who managed the team for six seasons. Joining Rabelo with the Whitecaps as hitting coach will be Mike Hessman, the minor league home run record holder who played parts of five seasons in the major leagues. 2 West Michigan Whitecaps land another catcher as manager in Mike Rabelo October 21, 2016 By Evan Woodbery/ MLive.com The West Michigan Whitecaps, who fared well the past three seasons with a former catcher, will try another one.. The Class-A minor league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers will have Mike Rabelo as manager next season, succeeding Andrew Graham. Rabelo, who served as the manager of short-season Connecticut, is the second former player – after Graham - to manage the Whitecaps. He was a catcher with the 2002 and 03 Whitecaps. Meanwhile, Graham will be promoted to Class-A Lakeland. Graham managed the Whitecaps to three consecutive playoff appearances, including the Midwest League title in 2015. He went 228-187. The Whitecaps will also get a new hitting coach in Mike Hessman, also from Connecticut, and a new pitching coach in Jorge Cordova, who had been in Lakeland the past two seasons. Graham will be joined in Lakeland next season by Mark Johnson, who spent seven of the last nine seasons as the Whitecaps pitching coach. Rabelo was hitting coach of the rookie short-season Gulf Coast League Tigers' in 2011. In 2012, he advanced to the Connecticut Tigers (short-season New York-Penn League) as hitting coach, and in 2014 he was named that team's manager. He went 118-107. As a former fourth-round draft pick, Rabelo made his Major League debut with the Tigers in 2006, then played 51 games with the Tigers in 2007 as backup catcher to Ivan Rodriguez. His final season was in 2010. 3 Avila, Tigers keeping 'window' of contention open October 21, 2016 By Jason Beck/ MLB.com DETROIT -- Comerica Park will open its 18th season next April. The home of the Tigers might never have encountered such discussion about the size of windows. They have nothing to do with the glass panels enclosing the Tiger Club or press box. From the February 2004 press conference introducing free-agent signing Ivan Rodriguez, beginning the build- up from the AL Central cellar to the World Series, the Tigers have never put a date on their window of contention. Once the Tigers made it to the Fall Classic in 2006, their goal was to compete for a postseason berth every year. With the exception of last-place finishes in 2008 and 2015, and an injury-plagued fade to .500 in 2010, Detroit has managed that. As general manager Al Avila discussed his plan Tuesday to make the Tigers a younger, leaner team, their window came into question. And Avila acknowledged the challenge with another analogy. "That's a tightrope we have to walk," Avila said Tuesday. "We certainly want to stay competitive. We certainly want to be able to try to get back in the playoffs. But at the same time, this organization has been working way above its means for many, many years." Does that mean the window is closing? "I wouldn't say the window's shut," Avila said. The window of contention became a topic of discussion with the plethora of deals last winter. Though Jordan Zimmermann signed a five-year contract, Mike Pelfrey and Mark Lowe signed two-year deals through 2017. So did J.D. Martinez, on a contract extension to take him through his arbitration years rather than past free agency. Justin Upton's six-year contract includes an opt-out after next season, allowing him to hit the open market again if he wants. At the same time, long-term deals for Ian Kinsler and Anibal Sanchez also run out next winter, though both have club options for 2018. Cameron Maybin and Francisco Rodriguez would be free agents next winter as well, if the Tigers pick up their options for '17. Even if there wasn't an acknowledged window, the structure for one was there. "The two-year window, I don't know exactly how that became a real big story last year," Avila said. "But I like to look at it as a window of opportunity, wherever that opportunity takes us. So I'd like to keep the window open as long as it makes sense for the Detroit Tigers. That's really my goal, is to have a larger window of opportunity to move forward for many, many years to come." Avila acknowledged that the expiring contracts could further that process by themselves. "That's a good thing that as we move along year to year, just naturally, some contracts come off," Avila said. So why start the transition this winter, especially with a team that stayed in contention for a postseason berth until the last day of the regular season? "I'm not saying that we're going to force that issue," Avila said. "I'm just saying if it makes sense from a financial perspective, from a competitive perspective, then we're going to have to look into it very, very hard and make decisions based on what we find." In other words, with a thin free-agent market -- especially for starting pitchers -- and what has the potential to be a busy trading winter, the Tigers are exploring. Players a year away from free agency could attract interest from teams seeking short-term help and long-term flexibility, though trading Lowe and Pelfrey seems unlikely, since they are coming off struggling seasons. In other cases, the Tigers are poised to weigh the potential return of one extra year against letting free agents walk next winter. Just as Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd helped the Tigers stay in contention this year after being part of the David Price and Yoenis Cespedes trades, the Tigers will see if there's anything close to that out there. "We're going to go out and talk to 29 other clubs and see how we can start, little by little, making this team leaner, younger, more efficient, and at the same time, staying competitive, trying to get to the playoffs," Avila said. "That's where the tightrope is that we're walking on." 4 Ultimate Standings: After down year, Tigers stay steady October 21, 2016 By Jayson Stark/ ESPN.com This story is part of ESPN The Magazine's Oct. 31 NBA Preview Issue. Subscribe today! Detroit Tigers Overall: 49 Title track: T45 Ownership: 28 Coaching: T106 Players: 53 Fan relations: 44 Affordability: 45 Stadium experience: 32 Bang for the buck: 59 Change from last year: -3 We're now 11 seasons into what we would argue is the greatest period of sustained excellence in Tigers history, a period that includes five trips to the postseason, two appearances in the World Series and just two losing seasons. Only five franchises in baseball have won more games than the Tigers since 2006. But is their window closing? Ultimate Standings As we have for the past 13 years, we asked fans to vote on their favorite teams, then ranked all 122 sports franchises from top to bottom. Full rankings: 1 to 122 | MLB ranks | NBA ranks | NFL ranks | NHL ranks What's good Comerica Park is gorgeous, and its attendance hasn't slipped below 2.4 million in a season since 2006, so it's no surprise that one of the Tigers' best rankings comes in stadium experience (32nd overall). This is still a team with star power on the field -- Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton -- and that constellation is complemented by a group of younger players who could be the stars of the next generation, from J.D.