DETROIT – Is the vision of team president Scott Harris finally starting to come together for the Detroit Tigers?
On Monday night, the Tigers polished off a four-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox to get back to .500 on the season. It’s the first time they’ve reached that benchmark post-All-Star break in eight years.
Hot streak after trade deadline
Look, nobody should take victory laps for beating up on this White Sox team, which is on pace to have the worst 162-game record in MLB history. The Tigers essentially just swept a Triple-A roster.
But their success didn’t begin in Chicago. The Tigers just took five of six games from the playoff-contending Mariners, and then they won a series against the first-place Yankees.
In fact, after dropping five straight games by four or more runs from July 28 through Aug. 2, the Tigers have a 14-7 record.
Detroit deserves a lot of credit for how the month of August has played out. After Jack Flaherty was traded at the deadline -- along with Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin, and Carson Kelly -- I thought there was a good chance the Tigers were going to nosedive at the end of the season.
Reese Olson is injured. Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter were out. The only two starting pitchers on the roster were Tarik Skubal and Keider Montero.
But instead, the Tigers have put together an impressive run against mostly legitimate competition.
And what’s even better than the success itself is the way the Tigers are winning.
Young bats
It’s no coincidence that the Tigers’ hot streak coincides with the injection of young bats into the everyday lineup.
Canha, Kelly, and Gio Urshela are no longer taking up at-bats. Javier Baez is done for the season.
Instead, the Tigers are getting their first looks at Jace Jung, a top-100 prospect, and Trey Sweeney, who was acquired in the Flaherty trade.
Jung hasn’t exactly dominated his first 10 games, striking out 14 times in 36 at-bats. But he does have a .341 on-base percentage, and most of his plate appearances are competitive.
Sweeney, meanwhile, is hitting the ball exceptionally hard -- a 93.1 mph average exit velocity and 44.4% hard-hit rate -- while playing strong defense. That’s more than the Tigers got from Baez.
It’s not just the newbies, either. Parker Meadows and Spencer Torkelson are back from Triple-A and making noise.
Meadows has been Detroit’s best player since his Aug. 3 return, hitting .333 with six doubles, three triples, two homers, five stolen bases, and only 12 strikeouts in 76 plate appearances.
If he can even come within 200 points of his .952 OPS over that stretch, Meadows will be a star for the Tigers, thanks to his reliable center field defense and elite speed.
Torkelson’s return looks very similar, though it’s only been nine games. He’s hitting .333 with a 1.039 OPS, two homers, three doubles, four walks, and nine strikeouts.
I mean, just check out the lineup the Tigers used in Monday’s win:
- Parker Meadows
- Kerry Carpenter
- Matt Vierling
- Colt Keith
- Jace Jung
- Spencer Torkelson
- Zach McKinstry
- Trey Sweeney
- Dillon Dingler
Six of those guys are younger than 26 years old. Carpenter is 26 and Vierling is 27. Everyone is under team control for at least three more seasons.
OK, so maybe McKinstry isn’t a big part of the future. But it just as easily could have been Wenceel Perez in his place. Or Justyn-Henry Malloy at designated hitter. Both have shown flashes at the MLB level this year, and both are 24 years old.
For the first time, it’s starting to feel like maybe there’s hope for the offense, and perhaps this was Harris’ vision all along.
Moves from Scott Harris
I haven’t agreed with all of Harris’s moves since he took over the Tigers.
He should have traded Eduardo Rodriguez at last year’s deadline, and I believe he could have gotten more from Flaherty this year.
But other than that -- his resume is pretty solid.
Harris set two major goals during his introductory press conference:
- He wanted the Tigers to have better control of the strike zone.
- He wanted the Tigers to be an organization where players could come and reach their full potential.
Let’s start with the first goal: There’s no doubt the Tigers placed a heavy emphasis on plate discipline over the past two years.
Greene is sporting a .355 OBP and 11.9% walk rate. Jung, Meadows, and Malloy are examples of players who were moved through the upper levels of the system understanding the importance of drawing walks.
It’s not just about the physical act of drawing a walk, either. For hitters, everything starts and ends with mastery of the strike zone. Even the best hitters in the world can’t reliably do damage on bad pitches. If you can draw a walk, that means you can also work yourself into favorable counts and put yourself in position to do damage.
If you don’t think that’s important, look at the MLB averages in 1-0 counts, ass opposed to 0-1, or how poorly hitters perform when they’re down 0-2.
Harris understands that, and he was right to build this foundation.
As to his second goal: Not many teams have done a better job developing mid-level free agents than the Tigers, especially from a pitching standpoint.
Michael Lorenzen was an All-Star last season because the Tigers helped revitalize his career. Flaherty reverted to his old ace form as soon as he put on the Old English D, after years of mediocrity.
Nobody expected Kelly to be a player worthy of a trade at this year’s deadline, but the Tigers had him looking like perhaps the best offensive catcher available.
Matt Vierling is another developmental success story. He was acquired in Harris’ first major trade, and he’s turned into a 2.7-WAR player (so far) with elite speed, a balanced offensive arsenal, and versatile defense.
Vierling stays in the strike zone and has found a way to maximize his middling power by pulling the ball in the air. That’s why he’s got a career-high 15 homers to go with 23 doubles and five triples.
Harris didn’t draft Jung, Keith, Greene, or Meadows. But for the first time in decades, the Tigers seem to be able to develop bats, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it started happening over the past two years.
Again, not all of Harris’ moves have worked out. But did anyone expect Kenta Maeda to turn into a pumpkin overnight? Or Willi Castro to become an All-Star? And does anyone care about the Nick Maton miss, considering how Vierling has worked out?
This is only one step
Let’s be clear: Reaching .500 is not enough. The Tigers appear to be taking one step on the journey back to the postseason, but next year can’t be another setback.
We’ve seen so many stretches like this that ended up fizzling out. Think about the disappointing 2022 season after a strong finish to 2021. Or the way Torkelson flopped in the first half after a scorching hot finish last season.
The Tigers need this success to carry over to next year, when they have a chance to make a playoff push.
The offseason to-do list for Harris includes finding a way to compliment this young group, likely without the ability to spend big in free agency.
It’s not an easy task, but based on how his young players are performing right now, I wouldn’t bet against him.
