(Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images)
From 2011 to 2014, the Detroit Tigers were a powerhouse in the American League.
They had peak Miguel Cabrera, who carried the team offensively.
They had Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, Anibal Sanchez, and several other pitching assets.
They won four consecutive AL Central titles over that span and went to the 2012 World Series, which they lost.
After 2014, however, they haven’t even sniffed the postseason and have embarked on the world’s longest rebuild.
Codify Baseball posted, on Tuesday, a list of each team’s total wins over their last 1,000 games.
The Tigers are dead last with just 407 victories.
Wins, last 1,000 regular season games:
633 LAD
608 HOU
589 NYY
567 TB
562 ATL
560 CLE
552 BOS
543 MIL
535 STL
523 CHC
511 SEA
505 MIN
504 NYM
500 TOR
498 SF
492 OAK
486 PHI
481 ARI
479 WSH
475 LAA
470 SD
468 CWS
467 COL
453 TEX
449 CIN
430 MIA
428 PIT
413 KC
411 BAL
407 DET
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) June 20, 2023
That’s monumentally bad.
It speaks volumes about the Tigers’ scouting and player development departments.
Most of the prospects that were supposed to pan out in recent years, such as Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, Joey Wentz, Alex Faedo, Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, and others, have either fallen flat on their face or gotten injured.
To make matters worse, Cabrera’s contract has held them back for a few years now, as he hasn’t been productive since 2016.
And when they finally had some money to invest before the 2022 season, their main target was a flawed shortstop with MLB’s worst plate discipline in Javier Baez.
It has been bad decision after bad decision for years in Detroit.
Right now, they aren’t as bad as their catastrophic 2022 version with a 31-40 record, and while they are just four games removed from the first place in the AL Central, they would be buried near the basement in any other division.
Hopefully, 2023 can be the start of a turnaround for the much-maligned franchise.
The post List Highlights The Tigers’ Failed Rebuilding Project appeared first on The Cold Wire.