State of the Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers, who finished last season 5th in the American League Central and 30 games back from the Cleveland Indians, are entering a new phase in their franchise history. Like a few other teams, this period is some what of a transition for the Tigers as they look to put the next best, competitive team on field and implement positive organizational culture changes that will hopefully lead them to success later on down the road in a few years.

Part of that transition period started last year when the team announced that Brad Ausmus would not be returning after the conclusion of the regular season. As a replacement, the Tigers hired former Diamondbacks bench coach, Ron Gardenhire, to be the team's new skipper and allowed Gardenhire to bring in his own set of coaches. Among some of the other coaches are: Lloyd McClendon, former Mariners skipper now turned hitting coach, Chris Bosio, former Cubs pitching coach, and Steve Liddle, who will serve as Gardenhire's bench coach.

With the hiring of Gardenhire, the Tigers not only chose a manager that is capable of leading in the clubhouse and driving his team to success, like he did during his days with the Minnesota Twins, but a skipper that has the ability to relate to players. Gardenhire is a long respected figure throughout the game and someone that a lot of people look up to for knowledge and expertise about the game. Furthermore, Ron Gardenhire was able to learn a tremendous amount of information, about the role that analytics play in the game today last year with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which will only help him as he leads the Tigers transition into a new era.

After many years of putting their foot on the pedal and trying to bring another World Series Championship to Detroit, the Tigers decided to start parring back their team at last year's trade deadline. That's when they traded outfielder slugger, J.D. Martinez, to the Diamondbacks for three prospects and sent catcher, Alex Avila, and reliever, Justin Wilson, to the Chicago Cubs. In addition, the Tigers didn't stop there as they made two other major trades at the non-waiver trade deadline in August: shipping their ace starting pitcher, Justin Verlander, to the reigning World Series Champion, Houston Astros, and outfielder, Justin Upton, to the Angels for right-handed pitching prospect, Grayson Long and cash. In all, this roster blowup was more than overdue and something that the Tigers had to embark upon given the landscape of the American League Central division.

Looking at their division now, the AL Central will likely be won easily by the Cleveland Indians, but Cleveland might find themselves in a close race with the Minnesota Twins depending on if Minnesota is able to add another legitimate starting pitcher or not and build upon the success they experienced last year. On the other hand, the White Sox, who are basically in year two of their rebuild project, will be better and could actually surprise many fans and analysts alike given the fact that many of their prospects are surging and developing quicker than originally anticipated. Ultimately, that leaves the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers likely fighting it out for the 4th and 5th spot in the division. The Royals are in the same position as the Tigers as both teams just started their rebuild process and still have a ways to go before they will be relevant again.

Michael Fulmer

Looking ahead to this season, the Tigers are going to have plenty of losing streaks throughout the season which will result in poor attendance at Comerica Park and will likely have a tough road ahead of them. However, that doesn't mean that they don't possess some exciting pieces on their 25-man major league roster. One of those is right-handed starting pitcher, Michael Fulmer, who missed time last season with a right elbow ulnar neuritis, but has solidified himself as the true ace of the staff. Over the past two seasons, Fulmer has combined to put up a 3.45 ERA over 323.2 IP and has a .237 Batting Average Against in that span. Considering that he is only 24 years old right now, he should only continue to get better assuming he's able to stay healthy.

Another part of the Tigers roster that provides some excitement for fans is first baseman, Miguel Cabrera. "Miggy" as many fans around baseball refer to him as, had a disappointing year last season and will look to bounce back from an offensive standpoint. With that being said, he is a true MLB veteran and someone that the Tigers can look to in tough times as an individual who can provide leadership to the younger players. After all, Cabrera has been one of the best first baseman in the game over the past 10 years and has cemented himself as a true franchise icon for the Tigers.

In addition, two other players, who Tigers fans can look forward to watching this season are catcher, James McCann, and third baseman/rightfielder, Nick Castellanos. Over the past four seasons, McCann has been the Tigers part-time catcher and will look to take on more of a full-time role this season, but provides a lot of value offensively. McCann finished last season hitting: .253/.318/.415 over 391 plate appearances with 89 hits, 13 home runs, 49 RBI, and 26 walks. As he gets more playing time, McCann should be able to develop an even better bat and continue to be one of the better hitting catchers in the game.

Nick Castellanos

As for Nick Castellanos, he is probably the one player that the Tigers view as sort of a building block during this time of transition. Castellanos, who will turn 26 next month, is another big bat for the Tigers and, his ability to play third base or right field, helps make a case for why he is a useful piece moving forward. In his age 25 season last year, Castellanos finished the season with 26 home runs, 101 RBI, 41 walks, and a .490 slugging percentage over 665 plate appearances. In addition, last year marked the year that Castellanos appeared in the most games during his 5-year big league career and he finished the season with a career high 10 triples.

During this transition period, as with any team, the Tigers are going to be auditioning players in various positions and roles to see who fits the organizational plan of the franchise moving forward. In part, the team will likely spend a lot of time evaluating it's farm system and looking at potential impact prospects that they currently have in the system or ones that could be drafted in the future. Right now, the Tigers have a bottom third farm system, ranking 21st in the league, which is up from last year when they were 25th and up 9 spots from three years ago when they had the worst farm system in the game.

Going into this summer's draft, Detroit will have the number one draft pick in the league and should be able to add some impact. After that pick, the Tigers do not have another draft pick until the 43rd pick during the second round followed by the first pick of the third round meaning they have three picks in the Top 100 slots of the draft. It has yet to be determined which players the Tigers will target, but they will likely focus on building up their system through pitching. According to MLB Pipeline, Detroit currently has 5 pitching prospects within the Top 10 in their system.

While the Tigers are coming off a terrific era of winning and trying to bring another World Series Championship to the Motor City, now is the time for the franchise to endure the long road of rebuilding and trying to find a new direction or vision. Every team goes through it at some point and now it's the Tigers turn amid what will probably be the worst division in baseball this season, the American League Central. Now, the Tigers have to hope that they hit on their rebuild plan and it brings a fruitful future upon the franchise in the coming years.