Recently, Scott Harris went on the "Have a Seat" podcast with Jason Benetti and Dan Dickerson. He made several comments about patience and ensuring space for young at-bats. In response, Tigers fans and media imploded at the reasonable approach, calling anyone who believes him "dumb." While Tigers fans grew accustomed to Dave Dombrowski's approach to building a baseball team (SPEND SPEND SPEND), there are other ways to build a baseball team.
In reality, the team has not been in a position to spend (this upcoming offseason is a different story). While the frustration surrounding the team's lack of success is understandable, Harris has shown brilliant restraint from repeating the mistakes of his predecessor, Al Avila. Avila spent a lot of money on the wrong players (the type of players the current critics clamor for) and traded many talented players for essentially nothing in return.
Harris could not work out in Detroit. Perhaps his draft selections, collection of solid prospects, and patient approach will fail, but the spend-with-reckless abandonment approach failed miserably. The immediate suggestion will be "SPEND ON THE RIGHT PLAYERS!" If only it were that easy. Projecting how talent transfers from one team to another or one organization to another has proven difficult.
Additionally, Detroit isn't exactly a go-to-market right now. Furthermore, failed contracts set rebuilds back several years. (See Javier Baez).
The next response is, "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE LIONS?!" Yes. The Lions became a destination after building a solid young core through the draft. Unfortunately, the Tigers need some prospects to make some noise in the major leagues before the team becomes a desired market.
Time To Transition
So, with all that said, the time for patience and evaluation is ending after this season. The Tigers should now know which spots they are comfortable with and which spots will need some of that precious spending. Depending on how the trade deadline goes, the team will need to shore up the rotation, rebuild the bullpen, and decide which young fielders project as MLB players and which need veteran replacements.
This task is much easier said than done. How many veteran baseball players have had steep dropoffs (Jonathan Schoop, anyone?)? Risk is part of the job, but pretending that adding a solid baseball player to the lineup ensures success shows either foolishness or spite. Harris added Mark Canha and Gio Urshela to this team, and both have underperformed. Is their underperformance a reflection of Harris's talent evaluation, or is it simply the reality of a cautious approach (low risk/low reward) in a season that was never going to produce a contender?
How about Carson Kelly's season? Does Harris not get credit for that addition? Kelly is slashing 245/323/388, with a .8 WAR. While this isn't world-beating, it is a respectable veteran production in a lineup that needs it.
Is this move a home run? No. It is too soon to tell if Harris has any home runs.
Alternatively, the Tigers have Javier Baez at shortstop. Baez slashed 189/209/247 before going on the IL, with a -1.4 WAR. He was in the midst of a historically bad season. Baez exemplifies the dangers of the SPEND SPEND SPEND approach. With three years and $73 million left on his contract after this season, it makes sense that ownership doesn't want to spend until Harris has proven his ability to add value or simply not set money on fire. So, Harris needs to show both patience and discipline.
Conclusion
The Tigers need a spark. Things are not good right now, but blaming Harris after years of terrible management just doesn't make sense. Franchises are rarely fixed overnight. The disciplined approach of rebuilding the farm system and cautiously spending will anger fans but yield long-term results.
Just for a bit of edification, Al Avila traded:
J.D. Martinez
Justin Verlander
Nick Castellanos
Isaac Paredes
Chad Green
and signed:
Jordan Zimmerman
Javier Baez.
This list isn't exhaustive and doesn't include the poor farm system development. Harris took the farm system from 26th to 5th in 18 months.
So, things will continue to be frustrating, and necessarily so. However, the current approach will need to transform this offseason. Scott Harris, A.J. Hinch, and the entire organization must transition to filling holes in the lineup wisely. The time for evaluation is closing.
Comentários