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.

1B Spencer Torkelson

Earlier in the season, I was very much against the idea of sending Tork down to Triple-A Toledo. I thought there wasn’t anything he could learn down there that he can’t learn in the big leagues. But now, I’m not sure the Detroit Tigers have a choice. He may have forced their hand.

Torkelson currently has a slash line of .178/.277/.283 with a .560 OPS and a -1.3 WAR. He looks completely lost at the plate right now. He looks like he’s just up there guessing, watching fastballs down the middle go by at an alarming rate.

There’s no question Tork has a great eye. He’s a very disciplined hitter. But he’s been too disciplined. He needs to be much more aggressive. The Tigers didn’t draft him No. 1 overall in 2020 to take walks. They expected him to rake.

Whenever he does make contact, he usually hits the ball hard, and he doesn’t chase a whole lot, again speaking to his advanced plate discipline, but he’s pretty much an automatic out at the plate right now.

The one argument I can see for keeping him up here is his defense, and man has it been spectacular. He can make pretty much any play, and he can pick it with the best of them. He’s saved Javier Baez from numerous throwing errors over the course of the season. It’s been really nice having an athlete over there.

But it’s clear that Tork needs a mental reset. The Detroit Tigers should send him down to Toledo— just for a couple weeks. Get him some confidence. Let him experience crushing the ever loving daylight out of a baseball again. Harold Castro and others can split time at first base in the meantime.

This would be a tough pill for Tigers fans to swallow, but it may be the right move going forward.