The 2022 Detroit Tigers are on a historic pace—and not the good kind

The Detroit Tigers are on pace to have one of the worst records in franchise history this season.

Yes, it’s not even Memorial Day. Yes, the team could theoretically get better as the season goes on. But as of this writing, the 2022 Detroit Tigers are on pace to win 54 games this season, which would be the fifth fewest in franchise history. That’s really, really bad.

It’s even worse when you consider the team had the goal of making the playoffs this season. Would a team that has playoff aspirations be on pace to score approximately 460 runs this season, well over 100 less than both the 2003 and 2019 Tigers?

This year’s Tigers have way more talent on the roster compared to these teams, which makes it all the more confusing as to why they are so bad. Yes, injuries have played a factor, but most of the injuries have been to the pitching staff, and they’ve still held up their end of the bargain.

It’s hard to compare a couple of the teams ahead of this year’s team in ineptitude because they played in different eras, but we’re still going to try. If there’s one thing all of these teams have in common, it’s that they were all terrible. Let’s just go in descending order, starting with the worst team in Detroit Tigers franchise history.

2019 Detroit Tigers: 47-114

Wait, this was only three years ago? Wow, this team hasn’t made as much progress as we thought, have they?

This was a tank job, plain and simple. When your best hitter is Brandon Dixon, you know there was no effort in trying to field a competitive team. Dawel Lugo, Jordy Mercer, Ryan Carpenter, Reed Garret, Daniel Stumpf…okay, maybe they have made some progress.

This season was where the animosity toward Chris Ilitch really started to kick in. The team’s biggest signing was Mercer, and he missed significant time with injury. Then halfway through this dumpster fire of a season, he signed Al Avila to an extension. Not a great look when the team still hasn’t had a winning season since 2016.

The team’s best player this season by WAR was Matthew Boyd (3.8), who was a hot commodity at the 2019 trade deadline, but was never dealt. Boyd had career high in strikeout rate that season,

Then-manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected a whopping nine times in 2019, which is actually pretty hilarious. But when you know you have so little talent on your roster, you’re going to fight for every break you can get.

Still can’t believe how recent this was. It feels like an eternity ago. Let’s move on because thinking about this season makes me sad.

1952 Detroit Tigers: 50-104-2

This is the oldest team on the list by far. So old, in fact, that the league still allowed ties. They tied the Washington Senators in 11 innings on May 8 and with the Philadelphia Athletics in the second game of a doubleheader on July 20.

Hall-of-famer Hal Newhouser was this team’s best player by WAR (2.2). He had a 3.74 ERA in 1952. Virgil Trucks was had a solid 3.97 ERA as well. One thing was clear when looking at this team’s pitching staff: they walked a lot of batters.

Maybe it was just the era, but my goodness, this team had a huge problem with free passes. Ted Gray walked a whopping 101 batters in 1952. Every starting pitcher had a strikeout to walk ratio under 2. Again, it may have been the time period, but that’s a lot of walks.

One of my favorite things to do when looking at baseball teams from the old days is seeing the amazing names, and this team has no shortage of them. They had a pitcher named Dizzy Trout, who actually had a solid big league career. He was a two-time All-Star who had a career 3.23 ERA and a WAR of 49.8.

This team actually wasn’t terrible offensively, ranking seventh in the American League in OPS. Outfielder Vic Wertz led the team with an .851 OPS, while first baseman Walt Dropo led the team in home runs with 23.

And less we forget, this team’s GM was Charlie Gehringer, who had been inducted into the HOF as a player just three years earlier. He was only the GM for two years, but he did sign the great Al Kaline, so his tenure wasn’t a complete wash.

1996 Detroit Tigers: 53-109

Speaking of teams that couldn’t pitch. The 1996 Tigers are kind of a stain in Detroit Tigers history for one reason: this was the start of the legendary Randy Smith era.

This was always going to be a transition year for the Tigers. Sparky Anderson had retired following the 1995 season and the team decided to clean house. Lou Whitaker had retired as well, and Alan Trammel retired following the 1996 season, so the roster was in need of an overhaul.

Well, did Smith ever overhaul it. He traded longtime Tigers slugger Cecil Fielder at the 1996 trade deadline and traded Travis Fryman following the 1997 season. None of the prospects he acquired in his trades ever amounted to anything. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Many fans like to compare Al Avila to Smith. They have both served a similar tenure both in terms of length and lack of success. Smith never had a winning season during his time as Tigers’ GM. He was fired after an 0-6 start in 2002.

Fan favorite Bobby Higginson was the team’s best player in terms of WAR (3.6), with career highs in batting average (.320) and OPS (.982).

The team allowed a whopping 1,103 runs in 1996, the most in franchise history, but keep in mind that this was right in the middle of the steroid era. Much like the 1952 team, they also walked a lot of batters.

This was also the first year of Buddy Bell’s unspectacular tenure as Tigers manager. One could definitely say that he got a raw deal, however.