DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers don’t deserve any more patience from the fan base. What we’re seeing on the field is unacceptable.
The 2024 season hit a new low Wednesday, when the Tigers lost a series to the worst team in baseball. The Marlins came into Detroit with a 10-31 record, including 14 losses in their last 16 games that weren’t against the just-as-awful Rockies.
I know: Any team can win on any given day in Major League Baseball. But the Tigers haven’t been that team nearly often enough.
We’re more than a quarter of the way through the 2024 season, and the Tigers have already lost home series to the Athletics and Marlins, who might just finish with the two worst records in MLB.
This isn’t like the past seven years, when the Tigers were so thoroughly terrible that nobody had a real shred of hope. This version of the Tigers actually has a playoff-caliber pitching staff and a few legit arms in the bullpen.
But the pitching staff is being wasted by the most frustrating offense most of us can ever remember.
On Tuesday, second-year starter Reese Olson twirled an absolute gem: eight shutout innings with three hits allowed, no walks, and six strikeouts.
But the Tigers couldn’t score a single run in 10 innings. Ten freaking innings! MLB gives you a free leadoff double in the 10th, and the Tigers couldn’t even bring him home.
Ryan Weathers became the latest in a long list of bad starting pitchers to confound the Tigers. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the pitcher with the worst ERA in baseball just shut them down to clinch the series on Wednesday.
So now the Tigers have a losing record for the first time this season. They’re in fourth place in the AL Central and six games behind the Cleveland Guardians.
It feels completely hopeless, because this lineup is lifeless.
There was a stretch in late April when Riley Greene looked like a budding superstar, and Mark Canha played like one of the best offseason acquisitions in the league.
But both have cooled off, while the rest continue to struggle. The result is a team that can’t even get Olson or Jack Flaherty a single victory despite their 2.09 and 3.88 ERAs (and Flaherty has actually been a lot better than that).
On April 16, I wrote a story about the Tigers fan’s greatest fear, and to say it has come true would be an understatement.
“They’re gonna waste this pitching staff, aren’t they?” I wrote.
I think it’s safe to say the answer is yes.
Tigers fans have waited a decade for a playoff appearance, 11 years for a playoff victory, and eight years for any semblance of a competitive summer. On paper this absolutely should have been the team to break at least one of those streaks.
But as we head into the second half of May, it’s possible this team is more frustrating even than the seven that proceeded it.
Maybe the Tigers will suddenly catch fire and turn their season around. It wouldn’t be the first time they did that right after I decided to blast them in an article. But it’s really, really hard to see that happening, especially after watching this pathetic showing against the Marlins.
I know Scott Harris warned everyone that this team was relying on young hitters, and young hitters can be streaky.
But “streaky” implies that there are good times to go with the bad, and this offense has been punchless since Garrett Crochet threw the first pitch on Opening Day in Chicago.
Who is developing these young hitters? Yes, rookie struggles are more common across the league than ever, but the Tigers can’t seem to get anything right, with the possible exception of Greene.
Spencer Torkelson has turned into a light-hitting popup machine. What kind of mechanical tweak was made? Who is trying to help him work it out?
Parker Meadows couldn’t even hit .100. Despite his very obvious talent, elite speed, and superb defense, the Tigers couldn’t even develop his bat enough to keep him on the MLB roster.
Colt Keith has run into some bad luck, but a .438 OPS? It’s like MLB brought back pitchers hitting, but just for the Tigers.
And can we just come out say it? Get Javier Baez out of here. How much longer must we watch the worst hitter in MLB every night just because the Tigers didn’t want to pay for someone better in 2022?
While you’re at it, quit acting like the Rays or Athletics in free agency. We all know those Hot ‘N Ready pizzas are flying off the shelves.
And can someone please, please tell Joey Cora that a runner has to actually beat the baseball to home plate for a run to count?
I’m fed up with watching crappy baseball, and I know the rest of you are, too. The Tigers have been cheap and terrible for long enough.