This story was excerpted from Jason Beck's Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
While the Tigers warmed up for their series finale against the Guardians on Wednesday, general manager Al Avila vented a little in the press box. He stated the obvious: He’s not happy with the way the season has unfolded so far.
“I’m very angry, as a matter of fact, with how things have turned out,” Avila said. “We expected to have a better record and we’re working towards that. Nobody’s happy right now. We’re happier now, lately, I’d say the last few games.”
He sees signs of hope in the way the Tigers have played lately, especially their four-game series sweep against Cleveland.
How the Tigers play from here, whether or not it makes a big difference in the standings, could have a huge impact on how they proceed, both in their organization and on the market.
Avila tackled a range of topics in Wednesday’s informal session with Tigers beat writers. Among them:
Everybody bears responsibility
“I think it’s a plethora of different things,” Avila said of the season. “You’re looking at not one player, not one situation. It’s been all over, across the board. Right now we’ve won a few games in a row, so you’ve got [Jonathan] Schoop producing, you’ve got [Eric] Haase producing. We bring up Riley Greene -- producing. [Miguel Cabrera] is getting like three hits a game. So all of a sudden, if your players are producing, you’re going to win some games.
“It’s not one player. It’s really been a plethora of players and the situations of injuries that have compounded. And when you get into this situation, where you’re getting the good pitching that we’ve been getting even though we’ve had a series of injuries, with a lack of hitting, it’s going to be a problem. And then all of a sudden, you get some guys getting their hits and then the pitching starts to leak a little bit and you lose a few games like that.
“It’s been that kind of a season. It’s been a little bit of everything, and we’re all responsible. The players have to be accountable. The coaching staff has to be accountable. The front office has to be accountable. And it all starts with me. Now, our job is to get it back together. Our hope is that we’re playing more like we’ve played the last few days, because that was the expectation coming into the season. And that’s what we need to get back to. Come the Trade Deadline, hopefully we can make some improvements along the way.”
Trade Deadline could be interesting
“The Trade Deadline this year, kind of like last year, we’re not a rebuilding team anymore,” Avila said. “We want to be better than where we’re at right now, but that doesn’t mean that we have to take a step backwards. The step backwards was at the beginning of the season and the record that we have. We’re going to try to make the team better as we move forward. Whatever that means, whoever we can acquire, whatever it takes, then we’ll have to consider every option that we have.”
Tigers waiting to hear from Eduardo Rodriguez
The Tigers have not had recent contact with Rodriguez, who remains on the restricted list as he deals with a personal situation.
“We’ve reached out,” Avila said, “but obviously he hasn’t reached out back, so we’re just kind of waiting it out. It is unusual, but we have no choice but to wait it out right now and see what develops as we move forward.”
Asked about the possibility of voiding Rodriguez’s five-year contract, which he signed as a free agent last November, Avila said, “I’m not going to get into that at this point, because obviously that’s a private situation on his part. I won’t get into those legalities.”