The Tigers look a lot different than they did going into last season. They traded a lot away and now are just a mix of aged-out veterans and replacement-level players.
I hate to throw Hall of Fame candidates like Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez in the ‘aged-out’ category, but age finally reared its ugly head last season. They are clearly on the downside of their prolific careers.
The Tigers fired manager Brad Ausmus at the end of the season and hired a manager with experience, Ron Gardenhire. He managed a rebuilding team during his 13-year tenure as the Twins skipper. He’s the perfect guy for this job.
Here is the 2018 MLB season preview for the Detroit Tigers.
2017 Win/Loss Record: 64-98
Key Additions: SP Francisco Liriano, SP Mike Fiers, OF Leonys Martin, C Derek Norris, C Brayan Pena, RP Johnny Barbato, 2B Alexi Amarista, SP Travis Wood, RP James Russell, OF Chad Huffman & 2B Pete Kozma
Key Losses: 2B Ian Kinsler, SP Anibal Sanchez, 2B Andrew Romine, RP Bruce Rondon, OF Alex Presley, OF Tyler Collins, 1B Efren Navarro & RP Jeff Ferrell
Interleague Schedule: NL Central
Projected Starters: James McCann, Miguel Cabrera, Dixon Machado, Jeimer Candelario, Jose Iglesias, Justin Upton, Mikie Mahtook, Leonys Martin, Nicholas Castellanos & Victor Martinez
Projected Starting Rotation: Michael Fulmer, Jordan Zimmermann, Matthew Boyd, Mike Fiers & Francisco Liriano
Closer: Shane Greene
Fantasy Sleeper: SP Jordan Zimmermann – It’s really hard to pick a sleeper on the Tigers. There aren’t many options, so I might be reaching quite a bit. Zimmermann has been about as bad as you can be after signing a big money deal with the Tigers. He used to be a nice source of strikeouts as a member of the Nationals, but his ERA just destroys any fantasy team. Zimmermann could be an AL-only starter as his spot is pretty safe in a bad rotation.
Prospect To Keep Your Eye On: SP Franklin Perez – Perez was in the package Detroit received when they shipped Justin Verlander to Houston at the end of August. He pitched in High-A and Double-A with a lot of success. He will probably start this season in Double or Triple-A. I expect the Tigers to bring him up at some point this season. They are a bad team and have space in their rotation to get him some experience.
Team Analysis: The Tigers dumped most of their tradeable assets at the trade deadline last season. They got some young prospects in return, but it may be a few seasons before they see those young player make a huge effort in the Majors.
The Tigers are just getting started with their rebuild, so they will be bad again this season. All of their good hitters are at the tail-end of their careers and the rest of the lineup are just Four-A guys.
The only asset the Tigers have that would bring in a nice haul would be young starter Michael Fulmer. He still has plenty of years of team control, so the Tigers will need to make a tough decision. You have to think that once the Tigers build their farm system up where they could contend, Fulmer will be late into his arbitration years. It may be worth trading him now to get a better return in a trade.
The AL Central are the Indians and Twins…and three lowly teams. The Tigers could be the lowliest of the lowly and could finish last in the division.
2018 Wins Over/Under Betting Line: 67.5 (Prediction: UNDER)
2018 Projected Win/Loss Record: 67-95 (5th in AL Central)
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.