Kenny Rogers, who went 9-13 with a 5.70 ERA in 30 starts for Detroit last season, turned 44 in November. He’s filed for free agency and Dombrowski isn’t sure if Rogers will retire or come back for another season – even if it isn’t in a Detroit uniform. Joining Rogers in filing for free agency was Freddy Garcia, who made three starts for the Tigers after they signed him to a minor league contract on Aug. 12.

Zach Miner, who appeared in 45 games, making 13 starts and going 8-5, could start or be used in the middle innings. To me he’s better working in relief.

The issues in the bullpen start with who will be the closer now that Jones has retired. For now Dombrowski says it’s Fernando Rodney, one of those called upon when Jones went down. Rodney blew six saves in 19 opportunities and he’s not a closer – not to me anyway. Put him in a setup role and the same goes for Joel Zumaya, who picked up only one save in five chances last season and whose right shoulder remains a question mark. Rodney and Zumaya could be very good seventh and eighth inning pitchers but they have a tendency to tighten up in the ninth so closing is not their strong suit.

Whether Dombrowski changes his mind on Rodney as the closer remains to be seen, but he needs to restock the relief corps either by trades or a combination of dealing and also signing some moderately priced free agents. Of course, there will be more than a few general managers looking to do the same thing. But the need for Detroit to do so is acute since only two AL teams had fewer than the 34 saves picked up by the Tigers last season and even more alarming is with Jones sidelined the other arms called upon blew 39 percent of their save situations.

The Tigers have a very good offensive team but what happened much too often to them last season is their starters dug holes and if the bats managed to dig Detroit out of those holes then the dicey work by the bullpen saw potential wins go up in smoke. Add in that the defense committed 113 errors (second most in the AL) and it’s clear how the season went bust.

Dombrowski has his work cut out for him this winter and how well he fares will answer the question of whether 2009 will bring another summer of discontent to the Motor City.

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