Writer: Gage O'Leary
Disappointing season comes to an end:
The Detroit Tigers didn't live up to expectations this season and although it's extremely frustrating, we raised the bar to high this season, and although I say that, there is still no excuse to be a worse team in 2022 than we were in 2021. Al Avila needed to be fired, that did happen earlier this season, but rather than put all the blame on Avila the person I look to in this situation is owner Chris Ilitch. After the sad passing of former team owner Mike Ilitch (Aka MR. I) a few years back the Detroit Tigers have fell apart. My bottom line is, there is no excuse for a seven year rebuild, especially for one of baseball's original power houses when the Tigers were founded in 1903. I personally believe that Ilitch should take a lot of heat for this disaster... Which, for the most part he has. Now time to get back to the present. Detroit is being led by a new face in the front office, his name is Scott Harris, which most of you are well aware of. Scott is well respected around the leauge, he played a big role in the Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series, and as GM of the San Francisco Giants he led them to a season where they had 107 wins, beating the power house LA Dodgers in their division. San Francisco went onto lose to LA in the postseason. If your trying to figure out how long it might take for the Tigers to return to meaningful October Baseball I'll try to break it down as well as Matt Shepard, the voice of the Detroit Tigers on Bally Sports Detroit did... The time should be now for Scott Harris and AJ Hinch to get this ship rerouted to postseason baseball. This division is not unbeatable for the Tigers... The Chicago Whitesox, who expected to run away with the division, didn't not only lose to the Cleveland Gaurdians in the division race, they failed to make the postseason and they'll be looking for a new manager this off-season as 77-year old skipper Tony La Russa retires due to health concerns. It appears that Chicago is heading towards a rebuilding era... Now let's look at the division winning Guardians... Yes, they won the AL Central but if we are looking at them as unbeatable than we are doing everything wrong. They have some strong pieces in Jose Ramirez and Shane Bieber, as well as young guys like Triston McKenzie, Steven Kwan, Andres Gimenez and if he reaches his potential Zach Plesac, but I think we can absolutely come out of this winter with a much more well rounded team then Cleveland, if anything they are a lot like us except... They find ways to win ball games... If they play the off-season right, the Minnesota Twins could be the biggest threat to the division next summer... Luis Arraez may be one of the most unappreciated hitters in the American league, he just took home the Batting Title finishing ahead of Yankees OF Aaron Judge who everyone knows just made history recently. Arraez is one of the most consistent hitters in baseball and he usually makes pitchers go to war with him as he has great plate discipline. That's great and all but it's even better when you have guys named Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa at the top of that lineup as well. The Twins front office always does a good job putting together a pretty good pitching staff and moving forward can be the strongest team in the AL Central if they play their cards right... Last and certainly least lol... The Kansas City Royals who entered the headlines recently with the news that they have fired Manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred. They find a way to create nail biting matchups with the Tigers making each game come down to the wire most of the time. Regardless, it's gonna take some time for KC to climb back to the top of the AL Central but they are pretty much on the right track with young star infielder Bobby Witt Jr as well as other younger ball players they hope can play a bigger role down the road. I don't think they'll be a threat to the division for a few years however... Detroit's in for an interesting winter but one thing for sure is they will need production next season from guys like Javier Bàez, Spencer Torkelson and Eduardo Rodriguez, all finsihed pretty strong in the final month of the year. El Mago finished his first season as Tigers SS with 17 Homeruns, 67 RBI's, a .238 batting average, .393 SLG%, .671 OPS, .278 OBP, 26 walks and the worst area in his game is how often he strikes out... He went down on Strikes 147 times more than any other Tiger this season. Rookie Spencer Torkelson came into opening day with a ton of hype around him as the former 1st overall pick in the MLB Draft back in 2020. It wasn't the season he was hoping for but he finished strong having two Homeruns vs the Mariners and the expected slugger finished with 8 HR's on the year after having two stints with the big leauge club in 2022... Eduardo Rodriguez came into this season as one of Detroit's biggest additions adding some veteran depth to the Tigers young starting rotation and many considered him as the Ace. Rodriguez would miss a lot of time in 2022, in the end, Rodriguez finished with 17 appearances, a 5-5 record, 4.05 ERA, 72 K's, 1.33 WHIP, in 91.0 innings pitched. As far as the Tigers being injury prone, it's gotta be next man up. The injuries to Mize, Manning, Skubal, Rodriguez and other members of the Tigers pitching staff hurt, but the pitching side of the ball for the Tigers was a much brighter side than offensively. Some would say it was promising, especially the bullpen. Injuries can't be an excuse in 2023, not that it was in 2022 but you get the point. Now I'm gonna dive into what Scott Harris's game plan could look like, and if it may involve saying goodbye to players we've grown customed to seeing in the old English D in the last few seasons...
Time to say goodbye?:
Saying goodbye is sometimes easy, depending on how you feel about the players impact on your favorite sports teams and other times it's difficult. The players I will mention in a moment will bring mixed emotions. At the end of Game 162, the Detroit Tigers broadcast team, which on the final day of Tigers baseball consisted of Matt Shepard, Jack Morris and Dan Petry, got together to look ahead to the new era of Tigers baseball to come. I love what both Shepard and Morris had to say, but in this case, Jack's comments really stick out... "Change is necessary, and they know it, you finish the season strong but then you face a team that's going to the postseason and lose 3 out of 4 games and that's the way the season ended, and I think Shep's (Matt Shepard) right on, he'll address the coaches first, he'll announce that on Friday and after that it'll be what him and Scott Harris decide to put together this team, from this point on to spring training" said Jack who went on to add... "What about the bullpen, right, obviously we have seen reasons why people are gonna have to move, and yet, the bullpen has been the strength of this team overall for the whole year, so how many pitching changes will be made?. I think there will be some but how many?"... This came right after a bad outing from closer Gregory Soto in which he blew the game in the ninth... That was nothing new for Tigers fans this season... The whole do we need to move on from Soto thing will receive many different opinions. My opinion is it's time to move on, it shouldn't be to hard to replace him with another closer, infact, I'd love to see the Tigers try to persue resigning LHP Andrew Chafin this off-season to try to move him into that role, or atleast keep Chafin as a setup guy in the late stages of the game to hand it off to the closer, whoever that may be. Soto's inconsistency and lack of control has made him untrustworthy to many Tigers fans but that hasn't seemed to affect AJ Hinch and that's one of the reason I don't see Soto leaving this off-season, although I'd really like him to... Now let's back track a little bit and look back at the post game discussion between the Tigers broadcasters after the finale in Seattle. Dan Petry took a much more conservative route saying things like he doesn't think AJ & Scott will just tear this team apart and start over... Well we don't have to tear it completely apart to contend and that's where Matt Shepard and Jack Morris come back into the conversation, Shep had this to say about Petry's comments... "I love my broadcast partner Dan Petry but I'm going to disagree, I think you gotta expect to make the playoffs, ok, this a great franchise, a proud franchise, a original American league franchise who have won 4 world series (championship's) not since these guys (Jack Morris and Dan Petry) suited up in 1984 that's unacceptable, St Louis have 11, the Dodgers have won 10 straight division titles for crying out loud, the Braves have won 6 in a row. It's ridiculous, the bar has to be set higher for the Tigers and AJ Hinch admits it. He don't want to cover a losing team any longer, he wants to play meaningful baseball. Detroit has to get back to expecting bigger things from this baseball team and I think Scott Harris will bring that and AJ Hinch will relay that for certain."... Somewhat of a rant from the Tigers voice on Bally Sports. He takes heat from time to time but Matt Shepard had to watch in agony all season like the rest of us as this team crumbled, and this perspective from Shep is certainly refreshing to hear and he's absolutely right, 1984 was the last time this team won a World Series, sure, they've been somewhat close throughout the years, but in the last 7 or 8 seasons Detroit hasn't even been considered a contender for a WS title. That cannot happen much longer, we have to hope Scott Harris is ready now to compete and I think what Jack said is the perfect statement heading into this winter for the fan base to think about.... "From where they are at is it really realistic that can happen in one year, it can happen, but it's highly unlikely, so for me it's let's make this team better next year, but with this in mind... We have to draft, and we have to develop, those are our future guys, those have to be the ones Shep just mentioned in my mind, it can be 1 year (Before making the playoffs) but it can't be 2 years"... He also said we gotta be tough that's what makes a winning organization and to do that we have to part ways with players we've built relationships with, and that was one of the most intriguing point of views for me because we do expect to much out of guys we probably shouldn't at times and it showed this season with players like Robbie Grossman, Akil Baddoo, Eric Haase, Jonathan Schoop, and Jeimer Candelario among others who had breakout seasons in 2021 and didn't have the same offensive power in 2022. We relied on guys who before last year wasn't really looked at as a good enough group for a playoff run and the additions we made this season wasn't enough with the players we had returning from the 2021 team. That's why I think it's time to part ways with players like Jeimer Candelario and Jonathan Schoop... During the tougher times of the Tigers rebuild Jeimer Candelario looked like a great 3B but part or most of that was because he was surrounded by very little talent. He put up really good numbers for what we expected from him after the trade. Thing is, Jeimer Candelario is not the best option at 3B moving forward for the Tigers he's barely even a top 10 option in my opinion when you look at some of the upgrades that could be available for the Tigers. Later on I'll dive into some of those options. Jonathan Schoop, who came over from Minnesota in free agency along with CJ Cron in 2020 was brought in as a veteran infielder who had plenty of Major League experience. Schoop was once one of the American league's best infielders when he was with the Baltimore Orioles. He played well in 2021 and had good moments at times in 2022 but it was all to streaky and he was just inconsistent. I believe his time as a Tigers is coming to an end and this may be the time to make the move. The Tigers have an opportunity now with Schoop and Candy possibly on Scott Harris's chopping block to have a major upgrade to their infield and batting order until the arrival of young 2B prospect Jace Jung further down the road. Another person some may say is on the block is Eric Haase who I'm all aboard on keeping in Detroit. Tucker Barnhart was extremely underwhelming at the plate and will probably be gone as Jake Rodgers returns next season. You have to imagine that Rodgers and Haase will be the go to guys behind the plate next season and if needed Dillon Dingler could be ready if an injury comes up. We'll see soon who else will be out the door but this article is focusing on Schoop and Candelario so what moves could be made to upgrade the Tigers lineup?...
Additions Tigers could make this winter:
1.Brandon Drury:
Drury probably wouldn't be a massive upgrade over Candelario and Schoop but I do believe it'd be a noticable spark to the offense. Drury was traded to San Diego at the Trade Deadline earlier this year. He's posted a .263 batting average with an impressive 28 Homeruns, 87 RBI's and an OPS of .812... I'd be really excited if Scott Harris pulled off this addition and Drury would make a great addition to a lineup with Riley Greene, Javier Bàez and hopefully Austin Meadows at the top of the order.
2.Dansby Swanson:
This would be a more unlikely move than Drury but if pulled off would be massive for the team. Dansby doesn't bring with him a ton of power but he has put up great numbers with a .277 batting average with 25 Homeruns, 96 RBI's, and an OPS of .776 and with that he has 18 stolen bases. If Scott Harris pulled this off it'd be a huge sign that the Tigers are heading back to where they belong, the postseason.
3.Rafael Devers:
This would be a doozy, but with our farm system there's no reason we can't pull it off. Devers is under club control until the end of 2023 with Boston making him one of the best trade targets out there for either the deadline mid season or possibly he could be moved this off-season and personally I'd be all in on this move. You sign him and then extend him and you have one of the best 3rd baseman in the leauge. Devers would be a massive improvement over Jeimer Candelario at 3rd and can change the direction of this team in an instant.
Thanks for reading have a great weekend
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