Detroit Tigers: 3 underperforming players who need to improve to stick around

OF Robbie Grossman

Grossman is coming off a career year in 2021, so to expect a repeat performance may have been a bit much. But I don’t think anyone expected him to be this bad, either.

Grossman is slashing .199/.315/.243 with a .558 OPS and no home runs at the time of writing. His power has completely evaporated, not unlike many of his teammates.

He hit a career high 23 homers last season, more than double his previous career high of 11. His average launch angle is only down a degree and a half according to Baseball Savant, but his barrel rate, hard hit rate, and slugging % are all down significantly. Grossman was so good last year, and now he looks like a shell of his former self.

He’s still walking a ton, and Savant has him in the 98th percentile in chase rate, but he’s striking out the most since his rookie season in 2015.

I’m not sure what’s going on here. I don’t if he’s a victim of Scott Coolbaugh, or it’s just a mental thing. But one thing’s for sure, he needs to pick up the pace. He’s a free agent at the end of the year, and he’s not a owed a lot of money. If he hasn’t figured it out by the time the likes of Riley Greene, Austin Meadows, and Victor Reyes are healthy, the Tigers could just decide to cut him loose.