The Detroit Tigers Should Be Better Than This By Now

The one thing we can say with certainty right now is that the Tigers are approaching a point where something’s gotta give. Whether you view the rebuild as starting in 2015 or ’17, we’re far enough in that we should be seeing glimmers of hope for the future, but instead the Tigers seem to be on track for another historically bad season, in a line of dismal, disheartening seasons. Were the franchise still under Mike Ilitch, it would be a good bet that there would be a midseason leadership change. In 2017, Dave Dombrowski was fired in early August as the team struggled through the latter part of summer. Al Avila has been given ample opportunity to prove himself at this juncture, and his job seems the likeliest to be in jeopardy.

What makes it difficult to put a target on Avila’s back, though, is the general sense of indifference from the team’s ownership. Chris Ilitch, for all his statements about wanting to win, has also been very much the opposite of his father in terms of how he approaches the franchise. Last year he said of the rebuild, “I know we are building this the right way. I know that because I lived it through the Red Wings years and I lived it at the beginning of this century with the Tigers. Now we are trying to do it again and I know we will do it again. We’re going to keep working away. Be patient, be disciplined and we’re going to get there.”

But the Tigers fans, and indeed its players, have been patient. They have waited, hoping to see something that might indicate a shift towards improvement and better days ahead. Instead what they’re seeing is a team with a .333 win percentage, at the bottom of their division yet again, and stumbling towards another worst-case scenario year. R.J. Anderson wrote about the fumbling rebuild this week as well, highlighting that it might be time for the team and its fans to start worrying. He’s not wrong. There’s only so much comfort fans can take from knowing there will be another first-round draft pick in it for the team.