DETROIT -- Tigers President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris and manager A.J. Hinch have held a media session after the end of each season during their tenure to assess the campaign and look ahead to next year. Monday morning’s press conference, held the day after the regular season ended, rather than after a playoff run, set the tone for the conversation.
“We’ve got to get better in all aspects of the organization, starting with me,” Harris said in his opening remarks. “This season, and the fact that we're sitting here right now, is a missed opportunity for this organization, plain and simple. We’ve got to get better.”
That doesn’t make it a lost season. Through the wreckage of a 76-86 campaign that ended a run of back-to-back postseason appearances, the Tigers took steps forward in building a young nucleus in Detroit. They also corrected an imbalance in the farm system by adding pitching through the Trade Deadline and the Draft, both of which should pay dividends for the next several years. But with nearly every question, Harris kept coming back to a postseason return.
Here are five takeaways from the hour-long press conference:
1. May swoon came from lack of depth
“You can't go 6-22 in a month and expect to punch your ticket to the postseason at this level,” Harris said. “We woke up on June 1 and we were in last place. It felt like we had lost a player and a game every day for about a month. It felt like we were sunk in that moment, and upon reflection, our inability to overcome adversity in real time starts with me. I didn't build enough depth into this roster this year. Our vulnerabilities in this roster got exposed in May, and it cost us, and that's part of the reason why I have a huge pit in my stomach thinking about this season.”
Those issues, Harris said, centered on up-the-middle position players -- the Tigers lost Parker Meadows, Gleyber Torres and Javier Báez by May 3. Tarik Skubal’s elbow injury was a major blow to the Tigers’ pitching staff, on top of a plethora of bullpen issues. Harris said he’d counted on prospects filing the positional depth, but didn’t count on losing so many players so early in the season, before many prospects were ready. Pitching-wise, Harris counted on their starting depth with the eventual returns of Troy Melton and Jackson Jobe, allowing them to move some good arms to the bullpen before potentially adding at the Deadline.
“That was a design mistake, I think, of how we built the roster,” Harris said. “We didn't want to block young players. … In the end, we probably should have just strengthened our depth and made sure that we could get through April and May intact.”
2. More everyday players?
Under Hinch, the Tigers have been defined by their constant search for leverage, both in platooning and pinch-hitting. That lessened as the season went on, and could be changing further.
“I think we're going to probably start playing differently a little bit,” Harris said. “We're going to be less reliant on pinch-hit appearances. We're going to be less reliant on the mixing and matching, because we have more two-way players growing through the system that can help us both defensively and offensively.”
This was already clear with Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark, and became clearer down the stretch with Hao-Yu Lee. What that means for Kerry Carpenter, Zach McKinstry and Colt Keith, who have largely been platoon players the last few years, remains to be seen.
3. Greene extension coming?
Riley Greene finished the season with a career-best 135 OPS+ and 135 wRC+, and was the offensive focal point before his August hamstring injury arguably sank Detroit’s resurgent playoff hopes. He has two more years of team control before becoming a free agent. Harris didn’t comment on the chances of a contract extension, but didn’t downplay Greene’s importance either.
“Riley is an incredible player. He's a huge part of our team,” Harris said. “The presence that he has in the middle of our lineup is one of the engines that make our offense go. I know it's really annoying, but I'm going to stay with the policy of not talking about extensions publicly until they're done. I think for the sake of respect for Riley and all of our players, we're going to keep that stuff private.”
4. More high-end Tork
Spencer Torkelson's offensive drop off, though not as extreme statistically as it may have seemed, put his future in Detroit into question, particularly since he has two years until free agency. Harris seemed to put that uncertainty to rest.
“I think there were periods where [Torkelson] was an offensive force, including this month, where he was performing at a really high level,” Harris said. “We saw him swinging at the right pitches. We saw him doing a bunch of damage. We also saw him start to incorporate the opposite field, especially with two strikes, especially with runners in scoring position, ways to get back to the well-rounded hitter as opposed to just a damage-first type hitter. We’ve got to continue to work on that with him. We need to work on some of the finer things defensively at first base.
“But he's an incredibly talented player. He's a very popular figure in our clubhouse. We really value him and all the contributions he makes on and off the field. And we think he's a part of getting back to the playoffs. … He's probably sick to his stomach that he's not in the playoffs again this year, and we think he's going to help us get back to the playoffs.”