Detroit Tigers: A simulation of the 2020 season as it would have been
By Tyler Kotila
As most would expect, the Detroit Tigers would finish the year dead last in the division just like in 2019, but they did improve.
After running the simulation, the Tigers limped into the 2019 All-Star Break at 30-67, thirty games back of the Cleveland Indians who were 1.5 games ahead of the Minnesota Twins. Things would not get much better in the second half of the season, either.
The Tigers would finish up the 2020 season with a 54-108 record, forty-nine games behind the Indians who won the division. The Indians would take home the division with a 103-59 record, and the Twins would get into the playoffs as well with a 98-64 record.
As mentioned in the previous slide, the Tigers would trade Greene to the Twins for Javier, but here are the other trades the teams made, with the transaction dates:
- April 5th- Traded 3B Daniel Pinero to the Arizona Diamondbacks for LF Yasmany Tomás
- June 26th- Traded C Austin Romine and 2B Jonathan Schoop to the Twins for 3B Miguel Sanó
- July 5th- Traded SP Daniel Norris to the New York Yankees for 2B Hoy Jun Park, LF Esteban Pacheco, and 1B Chris Gittens
- July 16th- Traded SP Franklin Perez to the Tampa Bay Rays for RP Phil Connor
- July 17th- Traded SP Matthew Boyd to the Boston Red Sox for 3B Jake Scheiner and SP Jay Johnson
- July 20th- Traded 1B CJ Cron to the Los Angeles Angels for SP Michael Santos
Looking at these trades, they all brought in some less than notable players besides Sanó and Tomás. After doing some further research, Pacheco, Connor, and Jay Johnson were players who were not listed in Baseball-Reference, meaning they are most likely draft prospects from the “fake” draft class.
The AI ultimately moved players who they could presumably bring in prospects for. The two notable names that they brought in with Sanó and Tomás were shocking to me. Trading away Perez was also shocking for the game to give up on him.
Especially giving him up for a relief pitcher who was a draft prospect, Connor (a made-up player) was listed as a reliever with closer upside. But moving players like Boyd, Schoop, and Cron is not the most surprising as the team started to dissipate into the depths of the division.