Do you know the difference between the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates?
Both teams finished in the 60s when it comes to 2022 victories and have been rebuilding for a while.
How are they different, then?
Well, the Pirates at least have a top-ten farm system and the Tigers, well, don’t.
In fact, if you thought the present was bleak, the future may be worse for them.
.@keithlaw ranked all 30 MLB farm systems.
Once again, the Dodgers rise to the top.
Read more: https://t.co/4SsKP7io96 pic.twitter.com/YTgh3uf53b
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) February 2, 2023
Keith Law’s article on The Athletics is behind a paywall, but he describes the situation in Detroit as “lean times.”
Tarik Skubal was able to develop into a quality MLB starter, and Riley Greene looks promising.
A lot has gone wrong, though: Spencer Torkelson didn’t look good in his first MLB exposure, Matt Manning has been inconsistent, Casey Mize has been injured, and Alex Faedo was underwhelming last year.
The organization’s performance over recent international free agency periods has been disastrous, to put it nicely.
Their drafts have also been bad as of late.
As a result, the current existing prospects pool looks bad.
The Tigers new player development staff took over recently and still needs time to prove if they are going to do a better job than their predecessors.
There is a lot of work to do, though.
The MLB team has made some questionable free agent decisions in recent years, like signing Javier Baez.
The team is bad now, but it could be monumentally worse in the future if it doesn’t start to make better decisions and help its players improve.
It’s a shame, since Detroit is a traditional franchise with a rich history.
NEXT: Tigers Add A Veteran With A Key Depth Move
They will lose 100 games this year with a little luck. I was hoping they would sign a decent
outfielder/first baseman. Torkelson will fail again this year.
Wish they would sign Jose Iglesias for short and move baez to third. Iglesias has had several
good years with the bat and is as good as they come defensively. Trey Mancini would have
been a good choice because he has power.
The tigers need power and offense.
Seems new GM is a cheapo like Avila