Whichever baseball sage said, “You never have enough pitching,” wasn’t envisioning the 2022 Tigers.
They’ve got arms. Lots of them. In Detroit, and sprinkled throughout the farm acreage.
What they’re lacking at all levels is bats.
So, some relatively simple math tells you this is about to change, with trades a likely pathway to getting the Tigers something they annually lack, at Comerica Park, and in the minors, which is offense.
Consider these names:
Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal, Tyler Alexander, Eduardo Rodriguez, Michael Pineda, Beau Brieske, and Alex Faedo.
Eight different pitchers have started for the Tigers in their first 26 games.
Now, ponder a few more gents: Elvin Rodriguez, Drew Hutchison, Joey Wentz, Reese Olson, Garrett Hill, Wilmer Flores, Ty Madden, Dylan Smith, Jackson Jobe.
A few of the above will make it to Detroit (or return to Motown), almost certainly, in 2022 because of the same issues that so far have turned manager AJ Hinch’s rotation into an octet: injuries and doubleheader pileups. Add in one Wily Peralta as a golden oldie who’s back in a support role, while another front-liner currently in Tommy John protocol, Spencer Turnbull, figures to reunite with the Tigers in 2023.
But no matter how many, or how few, of the above ultimately pitch in Detroit this season or later, the arithmetic doesn’t change. The Tigers have arms to swap. And they’ll need to part with some of those arms, perhaps some owned by pitchers fans today consider to be indispensable. That is, if they expect to compensate for this annually challenged Tigers offense.
Yes, yes — Riley Greene will help once his broken foot heals and he makes it to Hinch’s batting order, probably at some point in June. And even if he is a rookie — just look at Spencer Torkelson’s struggles to appreciate how tough rookie starts can be — Greene will be a boost, just as he was bound to have made a difference during this first month that has featured a malnourished Tigers offense.
Consider a few more personnel issues, because it’s not too early to mull what will happen at the end of this season and perhaps in the autumn of 2023.
Robbie Grossman is in the final five months of his Tigers contract. Jeimer Candelario and Jonathan Schoop become free agents at the end of 2023, and no smart-aleck remarks about Schoop, whose miseries during these first weeks of 2022 suggest his departure will be a blessing.
While we’re at it, Tigers fans are free to quake over the possibility that Javier Báez opts out of his Detroit deal at the end of 2023.
In a worst-case scenario, the Tigers could be looking at multiple, chilling, position needs that will need fortifying during the next 18 months.
Ryan Kreidler? He probably will be a boost, at some place in the infield, once his broken hand heals and he returns to polishing an act that could prove bountiful to the Tigers as early as next season.
Same for Colt Keith, the young hotshot at West Michigan who at the ripe old age of 20 is about to set sail for Double A.
Dillon Dingler is heating up at Erie and, oh, could the Tigers strike it rich there if a catcher on Dingler’s athletic scale shows he has a bat to match.
But bats will need instant delivery to Detroit, and the more instant the better, especially the way this star-crossed 2022 season with its offensive nightmares has begun for Hinch and Co.
Do not forget that a man named Miguel Cabrera will be departing Detroit no later than autumn of next year. Not only will that be a financial boon to the Tigers’ payroll, losing Cabrera’s salary, it will also empower the Tigers to replace Cabrera’s sub-level bat.
In other words, one more piece of offensive warfare will be required ahead of 2024.
If the Tigers believe they can get this done minus dealing away some dramatic arms, be our guests.
But I don’t see how it can happen.
By all means keep an open ear to increased trade chatter beginning next month as MLB teams move closer to the annual July shopping bazaar.
In the meantime, hope that Mize and Manning make it back, with full health, which will allow Tigers general manager Al Avila some proper wiggle-room as he readies — almost inevitably — to trade some pitching for offense the organization simply hasn’t been able to scout, sign, draft, or acquire.
That drought is on the front office, entirely. It’s up to them to figure this thing out. And, probably, to swap some pitching that’s one immediate way to bring aboard bats the Tigers otherwise can’t seem to produce.
Lynn Henning is a freelance writer and former Detroit News sports reporter.