The Detroit Tigers are the worst team in baseball. Maybe you expected this. Maybe you didn’t.
What you weren’t expecting, it’s safe to assume, is that the Tigers could end up as one of the worst teams ever, both in won-loss record and offensive metrics.
Entering Tuesday night’s game against Boston, the Tigers had lost 15 of their last 17. Last week they failed to score in 22 straight innings — 22! And if some hitters don’t at least find their way back to their career averages, this team could shatter the record for the lowest batting average in the game’s history.
Not that batting average tells the full story of this offense’s ineptitude. No, we’d need room for pages and pages of FanGraphs and Baseball Reference to capture the Tigers’ futility at the plate.
DOWN ON THE FARM: Ranking the Tigers’ top 15 prospects entering minor league season
So, for brevity’s sake, let’s focus on batting average. Because no team has ever been worse.
Before Tuesday, the Tigers were hitting .195, or 15 points lower than the weakest hitting team in history: the 1910 Chicago White Sox (though Cleveland and Seattle are also hitting .210 or below). And last year’s Cincinnati Reds hit just .212.
Still … .195?
It’s unfathomable, especially since the Tigers hit .245 year ago, up slightly from 2019, which is partly why some thought the team might show a bit more progress this season, considering the starting pitching was supposed to be solid — it has been — and a winning manager (AJ Hinch) would be running things.
There isn’t much Hinch can do, however, when he’s got three players with on-base percentages of less than .200. To put it another way, general manager Al Avila could have purposefully signed or traded for a half dozen of the worst hitters in baseball last winter and the offense might be better.
Some of you may think that’s exactly what Avila did, because team owner, Chris Ilitch, doesn’t want to spend. This is true, he doesn’t, and if he were willing to spend like his father did, this team would be more competitive.
Not that anyone expects the Tigers to be chasing a postseason berth this summer.
But this?
EVAN PETZOLD: In Year 5 of rebuild, this Tigers product is unacceptable. Here’s why
This is stunning, and demoralizing, and confusing, because the Tigers are in the fourth full year of a rebuild and the horizon looks awfully dark.
“At the end, when you start seeing it all come together, you can see the light,” Avila saidof the rebuild. “But right now, in the middle, it’s like the darkest hour. That’s what we’re going through right now.”
The problem here is the timeline. These words are from two years ago, a few days after Ilitch extended Avila’s contract. Back then, the quote made some sense.
The farm system was getting better. There was still hope for the prospects that arrived when Avila traded off the team’s most valuable assets: Justin Verlander, J.D. Martinez, Justin Wilson, Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton, Nick Castellanos.
Only one of those trades — Justin Wilson and Alex Avila for Jeimer Candelario and Isaac Paredes — has worked out, as Candelario has become the team’s best hitter and looks like he could be a nice piece on a competitive team.
But it’s not just the “losing” of the trades that stings. If you look at the team’s best prospects from four years ago, only Candelario and pitcher Matthew Boyd have truly developed. Almost everyone else has either been hurt or is stagnating for some reason or the other.
[ AJ Hinch: Alex Cora and I don’t let scandal ‘define our relationship’ ]
Finding and developing prospects is difficult, obviously. Most never get to the big leagues and stay, let alone to an All-Star Game.
But the drought of developing hitters under Avila is stunning. And while he deserves some credit for stabilizing the pitching rotation and for stocking the farm system with high-end prospects, he deserves criticism for the lineup and the bullpen.
His record looks worse in comparison. To the general managers who have rebuilt their teams during the same time — San Diego, Kansas City, Toronto, San Francisco. To the fellow general managers in Detroit, who already are making quick work of similarly difficult tasks.
Now, the Lions may fall flat this fall and the next and the sheen that Brad Holmes currently carries will fade accordingly. But Holmes just gave his fan base hope with his first NFL draft. Steve Yzerman has done the same for Wings’ fans — his Anthony Mantha trade, for example, appears smarter by the game.
Then there is Troy Weaver, who took over the Pistons last year and upended the roster immediately, finding gems in free agency — Jerami Grant and Josh Jackson — and starters in the draft — Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart, Killian Hayes.
THE FUTURE: With Double-A assignment, Riley Greene is on the fast track to joining Tigers
The challenges are different from sport to sport. Projecting a prospect’s skill isn’t as easy in baseball as it is in basketball, or even football. And, for whatever reason, Ilitch hasn’t wanted to spend on his baseball team like he has on his hockey team — hiring Yzerman wasn’t cheap.
Despite the financial handcuffs and some tough injury luck, Avila’s trades and developmental system haven’t been good enough. That could change a little this summer as several of the team’s best prospects get their chance in the minor leagues. If, say, Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson show promise, that would help.
And offer a smidge of hope.
Until then, the team is headed toward ignominy in the batter’s box and potentially the record books.
The proof is in the numbers.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.