What the Detroit Tigers’ 2022 roster looks like entering ’20-21 offseason

The Detroit Tigers’ 2022 roster is going to have some holes.

Today we’re going to take a far-too-early look at the Detroit Tigers‘ 2022 roster.

Looking to the future might seem a bit like a fool’s errand — and it is. You can plug in names and you’re going to be wrong. That’s expected.

But it’s also a bit useful, because trying to build your team’s roster one year at a time is not necessarily the most efficient or ideal way of tackling things either.

A player available this year might be perfect for your team two years down the line, while the players available a year later might be completely ill-fitted for the job.

That’s why I think it’s a bit silly when people think it’s too early to spend money without thinking about the big picture and how the pieces fit together over the years.

With all that in mind, I thought I’d try to put together a glance at the Tigers’ roster two seasons from now so we can start to think about what players available now might go a long way to making the team a contender in the future.

I’m going to use two of my favorite sources for this: Cot’s Contracts (via Baseball Prospectus) and Roster Resource (via Fangraphs). Spotrac is also valuable to look at for this exercise.

I am going to put together the roster based on players already in the organization. We will assume the Tigers do the bare minimum this offseason, generally signing rebuilding projects to one-year deals to fill out their 2021 roster.

We will also try to make reasonable assumptions about which prospects will rise and perform at the major league level, and which ones are just keeping the position warm because somebody has to.

Projected Detroit Tigers 2022 rotation

SP — Casey Mize (RHP)

SP — Matt Manning (RHP)

SP — Tarik Skubal (LHP)

SP — Spencer Turnbull (RHP)

SP — ???

It does not take a big leap to say that the potential to have a stable of young, high-quality starting pitchers is where the Tigers hang their most hopes.

We all witnessed the shortened 2020 season, of course. We know they didn’t exactly hit the mound to a chorus of oohs and ahhs. In fact, even with the exciting young starters getting plenty of time, the Tigers have one of the worst rotation ERAs in the majors.

In this case, stuff should win out. We all just have to acknowledge (hope) that the strangeness of the preparation time for 2020 and the shortness of the season means we should take the numbers with a grain of salt.

That said, not every prospect is going to stick around, and the likelihood of either Matt Boyd and Michael Fulmer anchoring 2022 seems unlikely. It seems far more likely that they’ll bounce back enough to become tradeable, or they won’t and that will make them strong non-tender candidates rather than paying them.

If neither of those things happens, I’d give the edge to Fulmer remaining with the team.

For now, let’s just assume at least one veteran signing occurs. They could probably use another left-handed starter.

Projected Detroit Tigers’ 2022 starting lineup

C — Jake Rogers

1B — Jeimer Candelario

2B — ??

3B — Spencer Torkelson

SS — Willi Castro

OF — Riley Greene

OF — Victor Reyes

OF — Jacoby Jones

DH — Miguel Cabrera

The chief problem the Tigers are facing, and fans are well aware of, is that they seem to have a bit of a logjam of prospects for the left side of the infield but a bit of uncertainty on the right.

Fans have called for Isaac Parades to get some work in at second base, but so far the team hasn’t seemed overly keen on the idea. In fact, he’s actually spent a little more time at third, a position covered at least twice over with Jeimer Candelario (the Tigers’ 2020 player of the year) and Spencer Torkelson (the prospect we can’t wait to see in the big leagues).

In the end, second base just seems like such a position of need if nothing is done all you can do is project they’ll find someone to fill the hole.

And then there’s the question of Miguel Cabrera. Frankly, everyone would have been best served if he’d been moved to DH years ago. Of course, it’s easier for us to say than for the team to tell its sometimes irritable face of the franchise that he’s not going to be working the infield any longer.

And then there’s the problem at catcher. Jake Rogers did not really avail himself well in the first looks. Like many prospects acquired during the great selloff of 2017, he just hasn’t lived up to the hype at the time of the deal. So we pencil him in because who else do the Tigers really have to put there? But we do so knowing he’s got a long ways to go to make everyone feel comfortable with giving him a daily spot behind the plate.

Projected Detroit Tigers’ 2022 bench

C — Random veteran

INF — Isaac Paredes

Util  — Niko Goodrum

OF — Daz Cameron

There’s really no one in the system worth considering as a backup catcher. In reality, if Rogers is the starter they’ll have to find one. And if Rogers is the backup it’s because they found a starter.

Because we could find no home for Paredes in the starting lineup and he’s shown at least a little ability to move around the diamond so far in his minor league career, we’ve got him penciled in coming off the bench here.

The same can be said of Niko Goodrum, who’ll be in his second year of arbitration. Infield, outfield, you name it. Coming off the bench doesn’t mean he lacks value. Winning teams need players like Goodrum to really be the glue that can hold things together.

Cameron is another of those prospects who has sort of fizzled with time. His OPS across two seasons in Triple-A is a rather disheartening .691. His time in Detroit wasn’t really all that much better. So this is another roster spot that you can kind of project going to someone getting bumped out of the current starting lineup or to a crafty veteran.

Drawing conclusions from the Detroit Tigers 2022 roster exercise

The roster looks more fun, compared to what we’ve seen as fans lately. But it doesn’t look like a team that is going to have the strongest claim to bringing home the division title, either.

There’s been an idea among some people that the Tigers aren’t going to compete in 2021 and their top prospects are still another year out, so there’s really no reason to try too hard.

After all, losing just means another nice draft spot. Their abysmal 2020 season netted them the No. 3 overall pick in next year’s draft. That’s just another chance to get a highly regarded prospect to plug into the system and have ready to go down the line.

The problem with this line of thinking is that a team is not going to be able to go out and fill all of its spots all at once.

Taking a look at the upcoming roster, reason for excitement (like the young rotation, Torkelson, Greene) has to be offset by the lack of likely star players up the middle.

And those middle positions (catcher, second base, shortstop, center field) really are key.

It’s clear the Tigers aren’t going to have to carry a lot of money in payroll. They’re stuck with Cabrera’s $32 million, sure. But without any key signings, their next most expensive player would be Boyd, in his final year of arbitration, at maybe $8 million.

It’s hard to find anyone who will cost more than $4 million for the year, and much of the roster will be filled at around the league minimum.

So they have the money. They have the need. Now is the time to begin spending.