The Detroit Tigers believe they can do a better job of syncing philosophies, routines and specific messaging across the organization, spanning from the lowest level of the minor leagues to the major leagues.
The bridge isn’t strong enough yet.
The next step toward fortification is building a hitting department, something new president of baseball operations Scott Harris is working on. These days, teams often focus on swing characteristics and swing traits based on the data available to them. The Tigers lack an identity on the hitting side, but that is going to change.
Strike zone control and swing decisions will be crucial.
“You look yourself in the eye and have accountability,” outfielder Akil Baddoo, who had 12 walks and a .363 on-base percentage in his final 23 games, said last week. “When you got a new guy telling us stuff like that, it picks everyone up. We want to change. What we were doing really wasn’t clicking. When we have that new GM telling us stuff like that, it goes around the whole team, and we all build from that.”
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The Tigers have certainly progressed in certain areas underneath the hood of their organization over the past year, especially since hiring vice president of player development Ryan Garko in September 2021. On the pitching side, the messaging is seamless from the top down. Pitching coach Chris Fetter and director of pitching Gabe Ribas ironed out their plan for the pitching department during last February’s minor-league minicamp in Lakeland, Florida.
The revamping of the pitching department paid off.
Many pitchers in the big leagues suffered injuries, forcing the use of 17 starting pitchers. The Tigers received significant contributions and positive results from unproven youngsters Matt Manning, Beau Brieske, Garrett Hill, Alex Faedo and Joey Wentz, though most of those players ended up injured, too. Brieske, a former 27th-round draft pick, posted a 4.19 ERA over 81.2 innings in 15 starts. He should compete for a spot on the 2023 Opening Day roster.
Ribas deserves as much credit as Fetter.
“Pitching and hitting is a little different,” manager A.J. Hinch said Friday. “Pitching is a very controllable skill. You control your grip, you control your delivery, the things that you can enhance. Hitting is reactionary. It’s hard to get too scientific in the hitting department. We’re reacting to 98 (mph) with sink and cut, and he might slide it, he might change it, or he might have a split. There’s a lot that goes more into it than the simple science of swing mechanics. It’s a reaction part of our sport, which is difficult. It’s the most volatile job in baseball, the hitting department.”
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In 2022, the Tigers understood they had other areas to grow, so throughout the second half of the season, several minor-league leaders — Garko, Ribas and director of coaching Ryan Sienko — visited the big-league team for meetings. By September, Triple-A Toledo hitting coach Adam Melhuse and Toledo first base coach Alfredo Amezaga joined the Tigers’ coaching staff for the remainder of the year.
Amezaga will return to the Tigers as the first base coach in 2023.
The Tigers have two hitting coordinators in the minor leagues: Jeff Branson and Max Gordon. Branson has been with the Tigers since December 2018, when the club first tried to overhaul their organizational approach to hitting; Gordon, a Garko hire, joined from Driveline Baseball in January 2022.
The Tigers aren’t necessarily trying to develop the same hitters — every player is different, like Jace Jung holding his hands low and Izaac Pacheco holding his hands high — but the roster in the majors needs to reflect the organization’s philosophy spread throughout the amateur and international scouting departments, the pro scouting department and the player development department.
On Friday, Hinch announced he fired hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh. Assistant hitting coach Mike Hessman, known for home runs and strikeouts in his minor-league playing career, was reassigned and offered a job in the minors.
“Offense is really hard to do that with, from the very beginning of development in the Dominican all the way through the big leagues,” Hinch said. “There’s various degrees of strengths that you need at stops along the way.
“In the big leagues, I can assure you this person would believe in zone control. That was very well articulated by Scott. I’ve been trying to talk about this for a number of years. Your roster has to match your philosophy. I think we’re open for any structure.”
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Controlling the strike zone allows a hitter to adjust their swing while surviving, and advancing, in the minor and major leagues. Since 2019, the Tigers rank 30th in walk rate (7.1%), 30th in strikeout rate (25.5%) and 30th in OBP (.297). The thing is, however, all 30 MLB hitting coaches preach strike zone control.
“We all use the same phrases,” Hinch said. “It’s the implementation that’s really the secret sauce, and obviously getting player performance, connecting with players is the No. 1 responsibility.”
The primary message for the organization’s hitting department would ideally run through the hitting coach at the major-league level. To find the “secret sauce,” the Tigers will interview candidates and eventually call around the league to learn about their true influences. If a candidate is already employed, permission to interview — or a promotion — is typically required before moving forward in the process.
That’s for Hinch and Harris to sort through.
But the Tigers won’t settle for the same miserable results in the future.
“I think we have an opportunity to build something interesting and good for the players,” Hinch said. “It’s important to reach every angle. As you guys know, in the clubhouse, we have 21-year-old Riley Greene and 40-year-old Miguel Cabrera. If one hitting coach can get both of those guys, that’d be like a unicorn. It’s important for us to blend it.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.