Detroit >> Sounds crazy now, but as late as the final week of spring training, the jury was still out on what role and how big a role veteran third baseman Gio Urshela might play for the Tigers this season. Coming off a serious injury the year before (fractured pelvis), signing late and joining camp a week late, it seemed like he was fighting an uphill battle to get back to game form.

Was he going to be the regular third baseman? Was he going be another one of manager AJ Hinch’s chess pieces, slotting in certain situations depending on matchups?

Well, here we are, eight games into the season and Urshela took a four-game hitting streak into the game Saturday, slashing .471/.471/.586 with a 1.059 OPS. He delivered a clutch two-run single against the Mets in the 11th inning Thursday, and in the home opener Friday against the Athletics, delivered the game-winning double to right field.

A lot of questions have suddenly been answered.

“The slow-to-warm spring for him was more about signing late than it was the injury,” Hinch said. “I think he had cleared the injury before we signed him. The late start to the everyday grind of the spring I think was a challenge for him and I think that’s what we saw early.”

Urshela agreed.

“It was a process, for sure,” he said. “Coming back from the injury, like physically, I put a lot of work in that. Like (strengthening) my hips and working to get the flexibility back. It was a lot to come back from and then to get the body ready again to play. Especially after I show up a week into camp. It was tough.”

His elite bat-to-ball skills were unaffected by the injury. He’s always been able to put balls in play. But it’s taken him some time to get the thump back in his swing. He got 15 hits in 51 plate appearances in spring, all but four were singles. The hard-hit rate so far this season is also down (21.4%) but the eight-inning double, on a high, 99-mph fastball left his bat at 93 mph.

He’s getting there.

“His baseball acumen, his baseball timing, his feel for things,” Hinch said. “Yesterday was a good example. We always say ‘good job of hitting’ when a guy hits it the other way. But when (Spencer) Torkelson hits a ball down the left field line, no one says that’s a great job of hitting — but it is.

“Gio gave himself a chance to adjust (in that eighth-inning at-bat) to a lot of pitches in that situation. He didn’t try to overswing and he smokes a ball down the right-field line. That’s part of his baseball IQ. So in big moments, why does he get hits? Because he gives himself a long chance to continue the at-bat.”

Hitting fastballs, though, has been Urshela’s forte throughout his career. Eliminating the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Urshela has hit .308 with a .358 weighted on-base average against fastballs since 2019. For his career, his 21.7% whiff rate is better than the MLB average (24.8%) and his contact on pitches in the zone, 84.5% is also better than the MLB average (82%).

“I’ve always been able to do that, even in the minors,” Ushela said. “It’s sometimes good but sometimes it can play against you, too. Because it puts you in a position where you think you can reach every ball. You have to minimize the strike zone.”

Signing a player with his pedigree for $1.5 million seemed like a bargain in spring training. He’s making it feel like a steal now.

“The balance he has in the batter’s box and at third base is the same balance he has behind the scenes,” Hinch said. “I didn’t start him on opening day (in Chicago) and I had a little bit of anxiousness going to talk to him about it because he’s a veteran player.

“But he put me at ease right away and said, ‘I’ll be ready off the bench.’ He just an easy-going guy and a cool dude to have on the team.”