Tigers: Clueless front office brings in more veteran pitching
By Tyler Kotila
Take a look at some other teams who were in similar situations, either rebuilding or having a good amount of young pitchers to notice they lack a plethora of inning eating veteran pitchers. Avila’s decisions to bring in more pitchers who are just as bad, if not worse, than Zimmerman shows the inept ability to run a rebuild.
It is simply impressive to see Avila bringing in another starting pitcher to join the mix of Zimmermann clone arms, looking at another pitching staff with some remarkable young talent, the San Diego Padres. Currently, the Padres have Chris Paddack, Garrett Richards, Zach Davies, Joey Lucchesi, and Dinelson Lamet as their big league rotation.
More from Detroit Jock City
- Tigers Sign Manager A.J. Hinch to Long-Term Extension
- Lions vs. Bears Week 14 Opening Odds Disrespect Detroit
- Former Tigers Celebrate Jim Leyland Hall of Fame Call
- This Pistons Team Could be the Worst in Detroit Sports History
- 4 Free Agents Tigers Should Sign During Winter Meetings
In the minor leagues, the only veteran player similar to Godley would be Jerad Eickhoff. The team is not stacking useless, starting pitcher depth in the basement of the farm system, taking innings away from prized pitching prospect Mackenzie Gore.
Now the Padres are geared to be a competitive team, so another example of a young pitching staff is the Miami Marlins. The Marlins’ big league rotation is composed of a decent amount of young pitchers with it consisting of Caleb Smith, Sandy Alcantara, Jordan Yamamoto, Pablo Lopez, and Elieser Hernandez. They have a few top pitching prospects in the minors like Sixto Sanchez, Robert Dugger, and Nick Neidert. They do not have a logjam of veteran arms clogging their rotation, long relief spots, or Triple-A rotation.
If those two examples were not enough, look at the Baltimore Orioles, who are in the same rebuilding situation as the Tigers, and they do not have an unnecessary amount of veteran pitching.
When looking into a team like the Kansas City Royals or San Francisco Giants, their rotations are filled with older starters, but their prized pitching prospects tend to be in the Double-A rankings still, meaning they are not “trapping” their prospects in the minors.
There is no need to see all the young arms in 2020, and having veteran arms is not a bad thing, but there is a point where there are too many of them. The Tigers do not need to have Zimmermann, Nova, Santiago, and Godley all on the same 40-man roster to just get lit up by the opposition.
This year should be a chance to bring up some of the prospect arms which are on the 40-man roster and get them a taste of the big leagues. With a plethora of pitching prospects, some of them will not pan out, so why not start giving out opportunities and figuring out which of the pitchers will stick around as starters or who may be best suited for the bullpen?
Trending. Projecting the 2020 opening day lineup. light
The clueless front office seems to be struggling with this concept; hopefully, they will figure it out before the 2020 season commences.