DETROIT – Don't believe Detroit Tigers' president and general manager Dave Dombrowski.
There's no such thing as a "reboot" in baseball. Either you're trying to win a World Series or you're not. It's that simple.
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The Tigers' actions of the last two years make it clear. They are not. The run is over.
They tried to win the city's first Fall Classic since 1984. Dombrowski spent a ton of owner Mike Ilitch's money. The result? An epic fail.
It's probably why Dombrowski is a lame duck with no contract for next season in place yet.
The bottom line is so clear. When you let former Cy Young pitchers go, you aren't serious about winning.
Baseball is -- and always will be -- about pitching. The Tigers don't have enough in their rotation or bullpen to honestly compete.
Last year, it was Max Scherzer. He left via free agency after the Tigers gave him a low-ball offer. In the next day or so, it will be David Price. He will be traded to a contender.
Yes, he won't be staying with with a contender because the Tigers aren't contenders anymore. It's official.
After the Tigers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 on Wednesday in St. Pete, Dombrowski made a public statement that all the Tigers' potential free agents at the end of the season are now available.
The MLB trade deadline is 3 p.m. Friday.
It means Price, the team's ace, leftfielder Yoenis Cespedes, closer Joakim Soria, catcher Alex Avila, starter Alfredo Simon and outfielder Rajai Davis can be dealt for the right price.
"I would say that the process of where we are right now, we have to make decisions and that we're willing to listen to clubs offers on our free agent players," Dombrowski told the media in Florida. "When I say that, we're more in a position where we're not giving up in the sense that you go there and try to win every single day but, in our position, we look at it more as a rebooting going into next year."
Dombrowski is doing the right thing. This team is dead, losing 11 of their last 16 games.
Coming into their four-game series in Baltimore against the Orioles starting Thursday, the Tigers (49-52) are three games under .500 and 12.5 games behind the first-place Kansas City Royals in the AL Central.
This team, with its bad pitching, isn't winning the World Series. That's the goal, not just making the playoffs to lose.
Fans and some sports-talk radio show hosts have been living in the past. This isn't 2012 when they went to the World Series, or even 2013 when most thought they were finally going to win it all.
The Tigers aren't that team anymore. This team just hasn't been bad this year after their 11-2 start. In fact, they have played under .500 since June 2014.
"You watch your club play and you give yourself as much time," Dombrowski said. "We played well today and we have played well in the past game or two and we haven't been able to continually go forward. It's not easy for us to do that. Because we've really been trying to win on a yearly basis and again, stranger things have happened but really, that's the focus at this point."
Fans shouldn't really be surprised that this team is where it is. It may have a $170 million payroll, but was poorly constructed. It's top-heavy and thin everywhere else.
This is what I wrote back on April 6 when I previewed the 2015 season: First, the good news. The Tigers won't finish in last place in the American League Central. Now, the bad news. The Tigers will finish in fourth place and not make the playoffs.
Of course, some Tigers fans will dismiss this as an attempt to be negative and ruin the season before it even starts on Monday at 1:05 p.m. against the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park.
It's not. (This prediction is coming from the same columnist who picked the Kansas City Royals to make it to the World Series in 2014. Many pooh-poohed that prediction.)
The Tigers -- who were swept in the playoffs in 2014 -- simply have too many questions about their roster to win the division again and make it to the postseason for a fifth straight season.
This isn't the same team or the same division, in fact, that the Tigers have owned. The Tigers have won the last four division titles. That reign is over, though.
And it's the pitching that is the biggest problem on this 2015 team.
The Prediction: The Tigers will struggle and be just a .500 ball club at 81-81. White Sox win the division and Royals win a wild card.
I was wrong about the White Sox, but spot on about the Tigers.
The run is over. They aren't trying to win anymore. The Tigers are officially out. That's really what Dombrowski should have said.