There was a brief moment where it looked like the Tigers were about to come roaring back with a vengeance and stare down the rest of the AL Central, but right as they were about to reach .500, they went 4-14 to finish out August. And now they're so far out of the playoff race that Justin Verlander's swan song might just be an inning in September rather than an October sendoff. It got sad FAST in Detroit, and I think it was difficult for this team to do anything once Riley Greene got hurt. But he's back now...in time for the anticlimax I guess.
What I'm getting from this team is that all the people that are coming up now, like Max Clark, Ben Malgeri, Brett Callahan and John Peck, are put here to do the work that the actual depth guys [Matt Vierling, Kerry Carpenter, Wenceel Perez, Javier Baez, Parker Meadows, Jace Jung] REFUSED TO DO. In past years, the Tigers have had so many little guys who could jump in and shock you, or come in for a pinch hit and flip the game. None of them could do a damn thing this year, so the Tigers just brought up the next stage. Eduardo Valencia is now the backup catcher, he's a .312 hitter with a .636 SLG, 6 homers and 17 RBIs in 27 games, and even if Dillon Dingler is the guy right now, he's a very handy #2. Clark has more triples than homers right now but the future's still very bright. Malgeri's just a solid extra piece, he's an above average hitter with some real contact spark. Callahan might be something useful too. The hope is that when they make another run next year, and I think they well, just with Jackson Jobe and Troy Melton stepping up in the absence of Mize and Skubal, this bench depth and hitting armada will do everything this year's's could not.
The other thing that sort of screwed the Tigers over this year was losing Gleyber Torres for a couple months. Torres never became the superstar that the Yankees thought he'd be, but he's still an incredibly useful infield bat with tons of perks. Last year he was an all-star, and deservingly so at that. This year he's only played 79 games, but at least he's hit .261 with 8 homers and 36 RBIs, and has been relatively productive since coming back. The word's out on whether or not Torres will be resigned for next year, though Javier Baez and John Peck seem to indicate that some infield flexibility could be instituted if he signs elsewhere [which...there's a decent chance that he will]. The team is trying to go younger all over, Torres is pushing thirty, it all fits. Meanwhile, Colt Keith, Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, Brett Callahan and Hao-Yu Lee are all under the 25-year mark and can certainly make up the core for rest of the 2020s.
At the very least, this team has a definite Rookie of the Year candidate in Kevin McGonigle, a possible MVP candidate in Dillon Dingler, 7 more saves to get Kenley Jansen to 500, and the potential for that storybook ending for JV. It wasn't a pretty year, but at the very least they might end with some dignity, which is more than I can say for the Royals.
Coming Tomorrow- The Rays gave him up when they could have paid him, so instead he became a fan-favorite outfield bat for a different low-market team.
No comments:
Post a Comment