Scott Harris trying to give Detroit Tigers a chance to win this fall. And again next fall
It’s not about money. Not now. Not really.
It’s about the future, and how it’s interpreted.
The Detroit Tigers don’t have to spend to improve their bullpen, at least not much. To swing a deal – or two – before MLB's July 31 trade deadline, they’d have to give up ... prospects.
That’s a different kind of spending. A riskier kind of spending, too. Shipping off a future star for a minimal return in production is more painful than forking over cash for a player who doesn’t produce.
And for a franchise that still considers itself on the come-up? Gambling with prospects can feel even scarier.
Last month, Scott Harris, the Tigers’ president of baseball operations, told WXYT-FM (97.1) that he and his front office were preparing to add to the team before the deadline as long as the team kept winning.
Other than the season-long four-game skid entering the All-Star break, the Tigers have. It shouldn’t be surprising then that Harris could be interested in a couple relief pitchers within the division – right-handers Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax, two high-leverage relievers with the Minnesota Twins – according to Paste BN's Bob Nightengale.
Both Duran and Jax would add to the payroll: Duran for what’s left of his $4.1 million contract this year – he’s under team control until 2028 – and Jax for what’s left of his $2.3 million contract (though he would also be under team control until 2028). Both pitchers are eligible for arbitration next season.
Duran and Jax throw swing-and-miss stuff. Either would fit nicely with current Tigers Tommy Kahnle and Will Vest. So would Pittsburgh right-hander David Bednar, another high-leverage reliever who can strike hitters out. Bednar, for what’s it worth, would be a tad more expensive; his salary is $5.9 million this year.
Celebrate 125 seasons of the Detroit Tigers!
Like the Twins pitchers, Bednar would come with team control, but only for another season – he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in 2027. Even if the Tigers traded for all three, their prorated salaries would cost Tigers owner Christopher Ilitch not much more than an additional $6 million for the rest of the season.
That’s hardly “big swing” money and would move the Tigers up just a few spots in MLB’s payroll rankings – they currently rank 18th. The Tigers aren’t going to trade for all three, obviously. But they could do it financially and remain firmly in the middle of the payroll hierarchy.
Luck hits almost as big as talent in the playoffs
Again, money isn’t the issue.
Prospects are.
Which is to say, the future is. And before you say “(expletive) the future; we want to win now,” remember how often championships are won with luck.
A ball down the left-field line that hits chalk, say, and drives in an eighth-inning run in Game 4 to swing a series. Or a pitch that falls an inch out of the strike zone for ball four. Any number of fortuitous – or not – bounces in the playoffs so often determines where a parade marches down Main Street.
This isn’t to say teams shouldn’t try to improve at the trade deadline (or in the offseason, as Harris did this year). It's to say this: Teams want to give themselves as many chances as possible at a playoff run when a winning core begins to develop.
The Tigers have that core. Harris acknowledged that. Clearly, he is ready to buy and has said as much. It just depends on the price.
The right price is a matter of perspective. The Tigers were among the best teams in baseball the first half of the season. They also need to plug a few holes in their suddenly leaky bullpen.
Taking multiple swings at the World Series
Harris sounds intent on threading the fine line between bulking up for a run this fall and making sure his team can make another run next fall, and for a few falls after. Here is what he told WXYT-FM on June 11:
"I set out to build through development and create a critical mass of young players that can help us win at this level but also are going to stay together and play together for a long time. I think we have that at the big leagues.”
And?
"We're going to do everything we can to try to win the World Series this year.”
But?
“There's a real feeling here that we're hopefully going to keep doing our jobs, keep playing at a really high level, and have multiple opportunities to try to win the World Series."
He didn’t say “win multiple World Series,” although what franchise wouldn’t aim for that? He said, “have multiple opportunities to try to win the World Series.”
Even the Los Angeles Dodgers, big spenders that they are, needed eight trips to the playoffs – beginning in 2013 –before they finally won it all in 2020, and another four postseason berths before they won again, in 2024. That run included consecutive losses in the World Series in 2017 (to A.J. Hinch's Houston Astros) and 2018.
The Tigers don’t swim in the Dodgers’ waters. Nor do they swim with the New York Yankees or New York Mets or even Dave Dombrowski's Philadelphia Phillies. But they can – and should – spend more as this team evolves, and that’ll begin with paying a few of their own blossoming stars in the not-too-distant future.
To make up the gap with the top spenders, the Tigers will have to continue to draft and develop and occasionally use the homegrown talent in trades to add big-league pieces. By all accounts, this is what the Tigers are trying to do now.
They can give themselves a chance in October. Then give themselves another chance next October.
Because the odds are it’ll take a few swings to connect.