VISIONS – AND CONTRADICTIONS

By: Holly Horning

What a difference a year makes.

Last year at this time, the Tigers were stuck in neutral once again with a team that was making no in-roads on rebuilding to a competitive level  which started (generously) in 2016.  A manager and an assorted cast of hangers-on who were along for the ride – and pretty much nothing else given that the majority of them were plucked off the unemployment line.

Flash forward to this year and the Tigers have actually hired a manager and coaches in high demand.  And we’re seeing the results that top talent creates.

We’re also hearing the players, almost on a daily basis, sing their praises.

Yes, this is the best move the Tigers have made in a looooong time.

Promising?  Yes.  But in true Tiger fashion, this organization moves at a snail’s pace.  Al Avila is definitely no Farhan Zaidi, now leading the San Francisco Giants, who has taken his team back to competitiveness in just over 2 years.

Nevertheless, hiring Hinch and allowing him to bring in his own coaches was a solid first move.  And more than a few fans see a glimmer of promise for the future.

Al Avila has been remaking the roster and now he’s remade the coaching staff.  What’s next?

Does our GM have an improved vision? 

Does he have a concrete plan for taking this team to the next level? 

And does he have a willing partner in owner Chris Ilitch?

That remains to be seen.

The small step forward with Hinch is promising but will the addition work effectively with what else is going on within the organization? 

Will the manager and coaching staff be synced with player development, the Front Office and others? 

Will they share the same vision for competing as all of the other components of the organization?

In other words, is everyone saying, believing and doing the same thing? 

Is everyone’s work complementing and bolstering the work done by the other departments?

Maybe not.

And this is what concerns me right now.  The Tigers aren’t yet showing a consistent vision between all of their departments.  In fact, there are some major contradictions between some of these groups.

And this is very important because every organization that wants to be successful must have a singular vision.  They have to pull their oars in the same direction and at the same time.  Each department has to have an operating procedure that is also identical to all of the others.

You can’t have different visions of how to get there.  You can’t have different philosophies that fight each other.

Yet, in some instances, the Tigers have just that.

There are some major contradictions going on within this organization.  And quite frankly, I don’t understand how they can co-exist with one another and create a culture of winning.

Here are my top 5:

SPENDING

Chris Ilitch and Al Avila have stated that they will spend “when the time is right.”  But they aren’t spending at all now and evidence shows that cost-cutting lives on.  Even when they have glaring holes and not even a warm body to put in that slot.    Last year’s payroll (before the Covid-related adjustments) was $107 million and this year sits at $79 mill.  Another $28 million slashed.

The Tigers were MLB’s only team to not sign a full-time first baseman for this year.  And you have to ask why.  The talent was out there but the wallet was not.  And signing Renato Nunez to a minor league contract with the hope that he would make the team on the cheap didn’t work out.  It was a Hail Mary move.

DEFENSE

The organization keeps saying that defense up the middle is what saves games but in the same breath, the Front Office puts Wilson Ramos, a utility player, several centerfield question marks and Jonathan Schoop together.  Schoop is the only one remaining. 

And that SS position?  They went into the season without a viable candidate and still have no one who can even adequately fill that role.  No surprise that the Tigers rank dead last in MLB for the SS position with a -15 DFS and not a single prospect anywhere close to coming up to solve the problem.  (See Spending.)

LEYLAND

He’s still around, still a daily presence and still has Al Avila’s ear.   The same guy who doesn’t believe in analytics or any advanced theories about how to evaluate talent despite the organization’s development and expansion of their analytics department.  He just returned from a trip with Avila to Toledo to evaluate talent and discuss Matt Manning.  He is the oil to A. J. Hinch’s water.  How can the two of them possibly co-exist and both have Avila’s attention?

THE CATCHER

The Tigers are bringing up a number of talented pitching prospects, so why does the team sign a catcher known for his defensive struggles?  He was signed for his bat, not his glove or strategy skills.  So who is going to lead Mize, Manning, Skubal and Turnbull?  While Rogers has stepped up, the Tigers spent $2 mill for Ramos to play 35 games before receiving his unconditional release.  It was a very strange move.  Who exactly made that decision?  It wouldn’t have been recommended by Hinch.

TRADING TALENT

Once again, we’re reading in multiple publications that Tigers are on the trading block.  Top talent that has either gotten too expensive or too good.  I’m not the only one who thinks this has become an endless cycle that only serves to spin the wheels of this organization in perpetuity. (And btw, it keeps certain people employed when you keep moving the goal line.)

Sources report that Matthew Boyd is being shopped (for salary reasons) but what will the Tigers do for their rotation given all of the injuries and the need to plan weekly bullpen starts because they don’t have enough starters? 

Jonathan Schoop is a highly desirable trade candidate but who will fill in at second base if he departs?

Robbie Grossman also makes the rumors list.  If he also leaves, who will take his spot, especially as a leadoff man and clubhouse leader?

And believe it or not, Spencer Turnbull is in the trade mix according to multiple sources.  Because he’d fetch a really nice return.  This is a whole new level of crazy.

When does all this craziness stop?  When will the Tigers stop the rebuild and start working with the proven talent they already have on the roster?  It’s an endless cycle of constant tearing down and developing that will never meet the goal of authentically competing.

Hinch can only do so much.  He can only work with the talent he is given.

Maybe this is why he has an opt-out clause.  Can you imagine the headlines if he were to leave the organization after 2022?  The embarrassment?  The shame placed upon this organization?

Maybe this forces the Tigers to solidify their vision and address their competing and contradictory elements at the end of this year.

Let’s hope so.

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