Al Avila's Detroit Tigers

Al Avila has all but cemented his horrific assignment as General Manager of the Detroit Tigers. Since Avila took the position in 2015 some could argue the Detroit Tigers had one of the best offenses in baseball. With Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez leading the way as the RBI producers. Ian Kinsler had some of his most productive years in Detroit until his injury ridden 2017 season. Where did it all go wrong?

The 2017 Detroit Tigers were like a burning, on fire 2000 Chevy Silverado. You want to know more, but you're afraid to get too close. The Tigers finished with the worst record in baseball at 64-98, and won just six games in their last month. Not good.

Once the deadline ended, many fans felt underwhelmed by the returns of Wilson, and especially JD. The Tigers also traded our lord and savior Justin Verlander.

But, has Avila been that bad? Should we send him as far away from Detroit as possible? Well, if you're going to fire a man, you need to first need to remember what type of situation he entered in.

The State of the Tigers, April 2016

The 2015 Tigers missed the playoffs but were highly successful in their "retooling." As a result, the Tigers had young rookies in Fulmer, Norris, Boyd, and a couple of other solid prospects. They still had Miggy. JV himself was about to enter a Cy-Young caliber season.

However, baseball doesn't work like the NBA. You can't win it all with a couple of good players. You can’t even win it all with a bunch of great players. You need a team. You need MLB regulars at every position, and you need as many talented backups as you can get. The Tigers 2013 lost in the ALCS because they didn't have enough depth.

So, did the Tigers have enough depth in 2016?

They had McCann, Miggy, Kinsler, Iglesias, and Castellanos in the infield. J-UP, Maybin, and JDMart in the outfield. They had the runner up MVP in Vmart at DH. On paper, that looks pretty good. But how was their depth? What happened if someone got hurt?

Behind the starting lineup, we had Romine, Alives, McGehee, Aybar. I think you get the idea. There was no Javier Baez to fill in for anyone who got injured. Pitching was the same way, with the great Buck Farmer and Kyle Ryan as reserves.

Now, you might be asking, "If our depth sucked so much, why didn't Avila get anyone?!" The answer is simple: We were out of resources to acquire additional players.

In baseball, there are two forms of currency: prospects and actual money.

  1. The 2016 Detroit Farm system: ranked in the bottom 5 for farm systems by basically every prospect evaluation you could find.

  2. The 2016 Detroit Tigers Payroll: started with a payroll of $198,593,000, and finished the year with a total payroll of $212,044,266 (ref: baseball prospectus Cots), which ranked third in all of baseball.

With our limited resources, here are the moves the Tigers did make in 2016:

Jordan Zimmermann:

Signed for $110 million over five years, Zimmermann was supposed to be the marque' signing of the offseason. Many in the media speculated that he would sign for six years and about $130 million, but he ended up taking less to be in the Midwest, near his family. Unfortunately, he had shoulder issues in his first and second season in Detroit and has not lived up to expectations. He did have an injury history (Tommy John surgery in 2010), but he had averaged over 200 innings in his last fours seasons. If you anticipated Zimmerman developing neck issues, you should buy a lottery ticket.

Other SP options that year: David Price (signed for 217M and now has elbow issues), Zack Greinke (signed a 6-year $206M deal as a 32 year-old at the time), and Johnny Cueto (signed for $130M-was great for 2016, but isn’t looking pretty from 2017-on: 4.52 ERA in his second year and didn’t opt out).

J-UP:

Our late, dear Mr. Mike Ilitch wanted another bat in January. He was determined to get one last star for a championship in Detroit by any means necessary. As previously reported<a href="https://www.blessyouboys.com/2016/10/8/13214702/mike-ilitch-chris-davis-200-million-contract-detroit-tigers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">, Ilitch was about to sign Chris Davis for $200 million, but Avila stepped in and influenced Ilitch to take his money to Upton instead. When his agent offered Avila to do a 7-year deal with Upton or a 6-year deal with an opt out, Avila took the opt out without hesitation.

Other options: Jason Heyward (signed an 8-year deal for $184M, and has an .ave of .239 and a .309 OBP since joining the Cubs), Chris Davis (as discussed above- signed to a crippling 161M over 7 years), and Yoenis Cespedes (who signed a 1-year deal for that probably wouldn't have been available to Detroit, and subsequently signed a $110M deal over 4 years the following deal-which is more of what we would have been offered; Yoenis is two years older than Upton, as well as more injury prone)

The 2018 Tigers look to be one of the bottom few worst teams in baseball. Ron Gardenhire will look to be on the hot seat come seasons end. The tigers have a bottom 5 farm system, aging super stars Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. Jordan Zimmerman has been a complete disaster of a signing. The Tigers best assets could be dealt by all-start break in Michael Fullmer and Nick Castellanos. The Tigers could be in a full blown rebuild next winter and mirror a lot of the Marlins fiasco we have witnessed since November.

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports