Tigers hire former shortstop Josh Wilson as scout, add to analytics staff

A month before they truck equipment and uniforms to Lakeland, Florida, for the start of a new baseball season, the Tigers on Monday announced a slew of additions and promotions within their scouting and analytics staffs.

They hired former Tigers shortstop Josh Wilson as a big-league scout, replacing Don Kelly, who departed the Tigers to become first-base coach with the Astros.

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Wilson played in 21 games for the Tigers in 2015, which wrapped up an eight-year big-league career. He was drafted in 1999 by the Marlins, when current Tigers general manager Al Avila and assistant general manager David Chadd all worked in Miami.

The Tigers added two more big-league scouts, P.J. Jones and John Stockstill, as well as area scouts on the amateur side: Joey Lothrop, Steve Taylor, and Matt Zmuda, and Justin Henry and Dave Lottsfeldt as regional cross-checkers.

The team’s ever-broadening analytics department now includes analysts Beau Horan, Aidan Kearns, and Zach Wolf, while Jim Logue has been boosted to director of baseball analytics. Promoted to senior analysts are Drew Jordan, Maggie O’Hara, Shane Piesik, and Danny Vargovick.

Rafael Martinez, who last season was a batting-practice pitcher for the Tigers, is now director of Latin American player development. Joining the player-development staff as coordinators are David Allende and Jim McKew, while Wilfredo Crespo and Jimmy Ortiz become administrators at the team’s Dominican Republic Academy.

lynn.henning@detroitnews.com

Twitter @Lynn_Henning