DALLAS >> The Minnesota Twins’ Rocco Baldelli probably isn’t the only manager who’d like to clone Tigers reliever Tyler Holton.

Who wouldn’t want a left-handed pitcher who can and did pitch in every inning, including extra innings last season, who opened nine games, finished 14, with eight saves and 14 holds and led all Major League pitchers (minimum of 90 innings) with a 0.87 WHIP, a .173 opponent batting average, a .222 opponent on-base percentage and a .500 opponent OPS?

Baldelli saw Holton pitch against his team three times last year. His hitters were 1 for 16.

He was asked if there was a pitcher on his staff that could play that role.

“A big part of that question is not just the physical element,” he said. “The biggest part of it is probably the mental hurdles that go along with that. I think a lot of Major League players, and especially pitchers, they like to have a role and know what it is. In their opinion, it allows them to do their job in the best possible way.

“I don’t think there are many guys that volunteer for a role like that. I really don’t.”

He hadn’t given much thought about who could pull it off on his roster, but he thought Louie Varland might have a shot.

“What I would say is I think more guys are capable of it than they believe,” Baldelli said. “I think there are a lot of guys that could do it, but I think it is a hurdle, and I don’t think you’re going to find too many guys that are really jumping up and down to do it.

“So when you find a guy — if you’re looking for a guy that can do it and you find him — I think that can be very valuable.”

Tigers manager AJ Hinch agrees on both fronts: Holton is very valuable, and more pitchers probably have the capability of playing the same Swiss Army knife role.

“Listen, I don’t doubt players, ever. I think guys can do a lot of different things if you just give them the opportunity,” Hinch said. “I don’t know how guys would respond to his versatility, the lack of knowing when he comes to the ballpark what part of the game he’s going to pitch in, the variety of lineups that are thrown at him.

“He’s a special pitcher for us because I know coming to the ballpark that I have a valuable player to put in the game when we need it the most. That’s a unique skill set.”

Holton, counting the playoffs, worked 100 innings last season. And since joining the Tigers in 2023, he’s made 63 multi-inning appearances, second most in the game. In his nine starts last season, he allowed just three runs in 17 innings. And with a six-pitch mix and the ability to dominate hitters on both sides of the plate, Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter often have kicked around the idea of using Holton as a starter.

But not this year.

“The natural thought is he could do whatever is asked of him,” Hinch said. “There hasn’t been a ton of conversation about that given the depth that we have and, quite honestly, how good he’s been in the role that we’ve had him.

“He’s not going to be in the starter competition.”

Holton’s role, as Hinch said, is to pitch in winning games.

“Either he bridges to other guys in the bullpen or he closes out games,” he said. “For a manager, the guys that pitch in wins, the guys that can close out wins, the guys that can get you out of tough jams to lead you to a win — my definition of value is going to be how do we create more wins for ourselves?

“Given how comfortable I’ve become using Tyler in any role, he’s pretty valuable to me where he’s at.”

Rogers sighting

Since he lives about 10 minutes away from the Hilton Anatole Hotel, the site of the winter meetings, Tigers’ catcher Jake Rogers popped by on Tuesday. He had dinner with Hinch, said hello to president Scott Harris and general manager Jeff Greenberg and met with his agent.

Rogers, who is arbitration eligible for the second year, had an interesting thought about how to settle his salary for 2025. Inside the hotel, part of its Christmas display, is a huge slide that caught his attention.

“Me and Scott Harris,” Rogers said, laughing. “First one down gets to pick the arb number and I said I was going to pick the far-left lane, grease it with spam and beat him down to the bottom.”

Rogers, who caught every postseason inning for the Tigers and hit .273 with a .360 on-base percentage, is probably in line for a sizable pay increase. Not only did he catch every inning of the postseason, he also caught every pitch of Tarik Skubal’s Cy Young season.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “We were both there for literally every pitch. The All-Star Game was the only one we didn’t have. Every pitch, the whole year, just me and him. That was an awesome experience.”

He and the Tigers avoided arbitration last year, agreeing to a one-year deal worth $1.7 million. Entering his age-30 season, Spotrac estimates his arbitration number this year to be $2.2 million.

“I’m pretty involved in it,” Rogers said of his negotiations. “It’s fun to go through it. It’s definitely different than what we went through last year. That was a hard case for both sides, just because I had a good platform year (in 2023), but I didn’t play the year before (coming off Tommy John surgery).

“Their side is trying to get the number as low as they can and our side is trying to it as high as we can.”

On a white board in Harris’ hotel suite was ball diamond with only one position filled in — Rogers behind the plate.

“Jake did that,” Harris said, laughing.

Empty Rule 5

For the second year in a row, the Tigers opted not to make a selection in the Rule 5 draft Wednesday.

They did lose two prospects, though.

Double-A catcher Liam Hicks, who the Tigers acquired from the Rangers last July, was selected by the Miami Marlins and infielder Gage Workman, a fourth-round pick of the Tigers in 2020, was selected by the Cubs.

Additionally, they lost three players in the Triple-A portion of the draft — reliever Eiker Huizi (Padres), catcher Josh Crouch (Angels) and right-handed pitcher Sadrac Franco (Giants). Huizi and Crouch played at High-A West Michigan last season. Franco was at Low-A Lakeland.

The Tigers made one selection in the Triple-A portion, taking shortstop Junior Tilien from the Mets organization. Tilien, from the Dominican Republic, is 22 and slashed .231/.302/.343 in 142 games at High-A Brooklyn over the last two seasons.