Sports Illustrated - USA (2020 - Spring)

55

THE TIGERS MADE history in 2019, joining

the Pirates, the original Senators, the Orioles

and the Mets as the only franchises with

multiple 110-loss seasons. They also became

the first team in the 2000s to lose 110 games

twice, after bowing 119 times in ’03.

By one comprehensive league- and park-

adjusted measure (wRC+), Detroit’s offense

was the worst of the 21st century—the AL’s

worst since the 1972 Rangers’. In a record-

setting year for home runs in MLB, when

every other team had at least two 20-homer

hitters, no Tiger had more than 15. After

jettisoning the players from the franchise’s last

contender, in ’16, Detroit played last year in

the gap between the old, good Tigers and the

future, good Tigers. (Niko Goodrum was the

team’s best position player, with 1.6 WAR.)

The good news is that ’19 was probably

the low point. GM Al Avila has brought in

short-term upgrades, signing second

baseman Jonathan Schoop and first baseman

C.J. Cron, who combined for 48 homers

and played good defense in Minnesota last

season. Isaac Paredes hit .282 with 13 homers

and a .368 OBP as a 20-year-old in Double A

and could debut this year at shortstop or

third. Speedy outfielder Daz Cameron, part

of the Justin Verlander trade to Houston,

might arrive as well.

The real excitement, though, is on the

mound. The Tigers have three of the game’s

top prospects in righties Casey Mize (the

No. 1 pick in ’18) and Matt Manning (No. 9

in ’16) and lefthander Tarik Skubal, a

ninth-round choice in ’18 who was maybe

the best pitcher in the minors last year

(2.42 ERA, 13.1 Ks per nine between high

A and Double-A). By the end of ’20, health

permitting, Detroit fans could get a glimpse

of the rotation that can win, and maybe even

dominate, the AL Central in the mid-’20s.

With a lineup practically devoid of power, Detroit won an MLB-low 47 games last season.

58 A couple of veteran upgrades in the infield will yield two or three more wins, not 11.

MOVING UP

SPENCER

TURNBULL

| 2.2 WAR

MOVING DOWN

MIGUEL

CABRERA

96 OPS+ | 0.0 WAR

The future Hall

of Famer, 37 in

April, has hardly

anything left

in the tank. His

.282 average

in 2019 wasn’t

awful, but in

a juiced-ball

year, he hit just

12 home runs.

CASEY MIZE| SP | @kÊjeajpkf]fi^\kXYflkD`q\Êj`ek\id`kk\ek

TIGERS

AL CENTRAL

JEFF HAYNES

The good news is that ’19 was

probably the low point:

Avila has brought in short-term

upgrades in Schoop and Cron.