Detroit Tigers: 3 players they should ditch before the All-Star break

These Detroit Tigers players’ days should be numbered

This season for the Detroit Tigers is already a lost cause. They are 12 games out of first place in the AL Central and 10 games out of a wild card spot.

The offense is historically bad and has shown no signs of improvement. It’s June 18. If the Detroit Tigers aren’t going to make any changes to the coaching staff, then they need to make some changes to the roster.

Some of these changes may be tough to swallow. Others should be seen coming a mile away. It’s hard to justify keep some of these players in the lineup everyday.

There are only a handful of players in the Detroit Tigers’ lineup that have been worthy of playing everyday. One of them is their 39-year-old future hall-of-fame DH, Miguel Cabrera. That’s…actually quite sad.

The Detroit Tigers need to make some kind of change to fix this offense. Getting rid of the following three players would be a start. Let’s get started.

OF Robbie Grossman

Things aren’t looking so hot for the 32-year-old veteran at the moment. Last season was a career year for Grossman, slashing .239/.357/.415 with a career-high 23 home runs. It appeared the Tigers had made a nice find, and Grossman would be a key contributor on an up-and-coming Tigers’ team in 2022.

Fast forward to present day, and things couldn’t be any worse. Grossman is batting just .191 and has yet to homer this season. He has just six extra-base hits on the season, all doubles, which has lead to a putrid .228 slugging percentage. He’s a far cry from what he was just one year ago.

His strikeout rate has jumped to over 30%, and he’s been swinging and missing a lot more. He’s still walking at an 11.1% clip, which is good, but’s it’s not nearly enough to justify playing him everyday.

Looking at his Baseball Savant page, it looks like teams have been throwing him more breaking balls this season, and Grossman hasn’t been able to adjust. He hasn’t been able to catch up to fastballs either, which suggests that teams have been doing a good job of mixing their pitches against him.

A.J. Hinch has begun to move him out of the leadoff spot in recent games in an effort to get him out of this funk, but so far it hasn’t worked. I’m not sure there’s anything they can do to unlock the 2021 version of Robbie Grossman.

Grossman has also dealt with a few minor injuries this season, serving a couple stints on the IL with strains to his groin and his neck, respectively. That hasn’t helped, but he’s still had a sizeable 189 plate appearances in 2022, so he’s still had time to figure things out.

Grossman seems to be a good clubhouse guy and is well-liked by his teammates and respected by the young players, but his performance this season has been abysmal. With Riley Greene now on the roster and Austin Meadows and Daz Cameron both recovering from COVID-19—and both players outperforming Grossman this season—it may soon be time to pull the plug on Robbie Grossman’s tenure as a Tiger.