Tigers' problems cannot be solved with a quick fix
http://www.detnews.com/2005/tigers/0510/05/D06-338256.htm
Tigers' problems cannot be solved with a quick fix
Trades, luck would be part of any strategy to add pitching and
find a left-handed hitter.
By Lynn Henning / The Detroit News
There is more to fixing the Tigers than changing managers.
Pitchers and players -- not Alan Trammell -- were the Tigers'
ongoing problems in 2005. They would be viewed as such today
even if every starting player had avoided injury and played
every game.
The Tigers cannot go into the 2006 season assuming a healthy
Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez will make them contenders,
or even a .500 team. They cannot conclude a new manager will
turn a team that finished 20 games beneath .500 into a winner.
So much revamping is necessary -- and likely -- before 2006
that the offseason looms potentially as one of the most
tumultuous in recent Tigers history.
The problem for general manager Dave Dombrowski is how to make
the changes and gain the additional personnel he needs when the
Tigers have limited blue-chip minor league talent and tradable
players. Payroll, likewise, might have reached its ceiling, not
that big free-agent contracts have shown to be a cure-all for a
team lacking in so many categories.
So what do they do? Act boldly. And hope for some overdue luck.
Trades will need to be made. Position changes -- at least of a
part-time nature -- could be coming for a couple of prime-time
infielders.
The Tigers also might be left to take a necessary risk coming
out of spring training in 2006. They might conclude, as they
did with Jeremy Bonderman in 2003, that inserting Justin
Verlander and Joel Zumaya into their rotation is the only way
to give the frontline pitching the boost it must have if the
team is to break through next season.
Another equally pressing issue must be dealt with: Pudge
Rodriguez. He all but poisoned the Tigers clubhouse in 2005 and
looms as priority No. 1 for a team that must change the
chemistry if baseball in Detroit is to be a different story in
2006.
It will not be easy to solve the Rodriguez problem, which is
one more piece of evidence in how risky it can be for a bad
team to take on expensive free agents over the long term. He
has more than $20 million remaining on a contract that runs
through 2007. He will be 34 years old next month, and his 2005
numbers were embarrassing for a man headed to the Hall of Fame:
.276 batting average, 50 RBI, .290 on-base percentage.
That could make it all but impossible to trade Rodriguez,
unless the Tigers were willing to absorb some of his fat salary
-- a move owner Mike Ilitch seemingly would have a difficult
time doing following his courtship of Rodriguez and heavy
investment 20 months ago.
Getting rid of Rodriguez also brings on another problem: Who
works as Tigers catcher?
Brandon Inge won't appreciate it -- and the Tigers won't want
to do it -- but if Rodriguez were to depart somehow, it would
likely force Inge to return as catcher, at least part time.
In such a scenario Carlos Guillen would most likely shift to
third base when Inge was catching, with Omar Infante setting up
at shortstop. The Tigers ideally would then want to add a
left-handed-hitting catcher (not an easy acquisition) to give
them platoon capabilities and enable Inge to return to third
base, and Guillen to shortstop, against right-handers.
Radical? Yes.
But the Tigers are at a point where the radical is perhaps a
necessary approach to shaking up a team that doesn't have great
prospects for improving unless the landscape changes
significantly before 2006.
Problem areas
Other areas in need of revamping or restocking are the bullpen
and outfield.
Bullpen: The Tigers' decision to spend big on an aging Troy
Percival can be defended, given their scary bullpen situation a
year ago. But the price tag on Percival was incredibly steep
($12 million for two years, plus the loss of a second-round
draft choice) for a pitcher whose Tigers career might have been
confined to a handful of appearances before arm problems
shelved him.
The terrain isn't any more reassuring in the fall of 2005,
given that Percival might never pitch -- or be effective --
again. Ugueth Urbina and Kyle Farnsworth are likewise gone from
a relief-pitching corps that at midseason was one of Detroit's
strengths.
Farnsworth would be a solution -- if the Tigers could get an
impending free agent to do in November what he wouldn't commit
to ahead of July's trade deadline: Sign a long-term Tigers
contract (three years, $10 million offer). That could be doubly
difficult now that he is with Atlanta -- essentially his
hometown team -- and headed for the National League playoffs.
The Braves aren't likely to be stingy and could make it
impossible for the Tigers to pursue a right-hander who would
help nail down the late-innings lineup for 2006. No matter what
becomes of Farnsworth, the Tigers almost certainly will shop
for bullpen help.
Outfield: Curtis Granderson stands as the best position-player
news from Detroit's farm system since Inge arrived with his
ultimate versatility.
Granderson looks as if he will fill, capably, the Tigers' hole
in center field. He has more power than most scouts projected,
he is a vital left-handed batter in a heavily
right-handed-hitting lineup, and he is steadily adapting to
center field.
He could be an All-Star in the making. He also has the capacity
to join Bonderman as a future clubhouse leader. Granderson is
serious, smart and a prime example of the homegrown
superstructure the Tigers require if they hope to contend down
the road.
Elsewhere, particularly in left field, the lineup might change.
Craig Monroe led the team in RBI in 2005, but he is not a
game-breaker and the Tigers need a bigger bat to complement
Ordonez in right field. Monroe figures to be the kind of player
the Tigers would likely package in a trade for more outfield
horsepower.
A name that makes sense for the Tigers is Cincinnati outfielder
Adam Dunn. He also would be expensive. The Tigers undoubtedly
would be obliged to part with a prized young pitcher such as
Zumaya as part of any package the Reds might consider for Dunn.
Dunn, however, would be precisely what the Tigers are seeking:
a powerful left-handed bat to lock in at a corner-outfield post.
Ordonez is a separate concern. He never hit like the old
Ordonez after hernia problems that cost him half the season. He
will be 32 in January and is still in his prime. He should be
in line for a big 2006, given that his formerly damaged knee
has healed.
Ordonez, though, is slow in the outfield and on the bases. He
also likes to win, and observers can speculate as to how happy
he is -- and will be -- with a challenged Tigers team.
He is also signed for at least four more seasons, and possibly
for six, at an enormous salary. He needs to have a big 2006,
and the Tigers need to win, if this marriage has any shot at
lasting.
What else?
The Tigers have other, more serious agenda items as Dombrowski
and his staff sit down and begin planning for 2006:
Starting pitching: Bonderman should be Detroit's ace in 2006,
but beyond him, the forecast is cloudy.
Jason Johnson's contract has expired and he almost certainly
will not be back, perhaps more by his choice than by the
Tigers'. He threw 210 innings in 2005 and must be adequately
replaced -- a tall order.
Verlander could be the answer and is likely to start the season
in Detroit's rotation if he is reasonably effective during
spring training. But even if he makes the club, other questions
remain.
Who becomes the fifth starter? A strong spring by Wilfredo
Ledezma could get the Tigers out of the soup there, but
counting on Ledezma -- as the Tigers discovered in 2005 -- can
be risky.
Will the Tigers be obliged to trade Mike Maroth or Nate
Robertson to get a better corner outfielder, or catcher, should
Rodriguez change addresses?
That would leave it up to Zumaya to bust loose in the spring,
which isn't the kind of expectation the Tigers can yet place
upon a 20-year-old pitcher.
They might, of course, decide on pursuing a blue-blood starting
pitcher via free agency -- A.J. Burnett or Kevin Millwood.
Without naming names, Dombrowski has made it clear that the
Tigers plan to replace Johnson with a similar workhorse.
Verlander and a reliable free-agent starter could make it
possible for the Tigers to lose Johnson and trade one of their
left-handers. It remains perhaps the Tigers' best recipe for
taking care of personnel needs that must be upgraded.
Carlos Pena: Do they hang onto him and pay him $2 million to
work as a part-time first baseman who hits lots of home runs
and strikes out far too many times?
Do they try to include Pena in a trade package to a team that
regards him as having value sufficient to warrant a trade?
Do they decide not to offer Pena a contract and thereby say
farewell to one of the most frustrating and baffling players
ever to have worn a Tigers uniform?
There are questions in abundance as Dombrowski and his staff
huddle in their conference rooms this month. The answers, at
least at this point, aren't as plentiful.
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