Jim Bowden's latest cold take on Tigers’ greatest need is his laziest yet

Jim Bowden of The Athletic has never exactly been a favorite of Detroit Tigers fans. His takes often draw derision from fans around the league, but he was really in rare form with his recent cold take on what the Tigers need most heading into the trade deadline: to get healthy.

Wow, stop the presses. 

Yes, it’s no secret to anyone that the Tigers need to get healthier. Injuries are a huge reason why the team got off to such a dreadful start this season. Yet, after a recent sweep of the Chicago White Sox and some signs of improvement, the Tigers should "get greedy," as manager AJ Hinch put it, and start thinking about reinforcements rather than just getting guys back from the IL.

Bowden notes that getting ace Tarik Skubal back has been huge, and that his trade status depends very much on where the team stands at the trade deadline. So on one level his “getting healthy” stance makes a little sense because the Tigers are somewhat in a state of limbo. They need to prove by early August that they are indeed a contender otherwise president of baseball operations Scott Harris may decide to sell rather than buy. 

Tigers do have some clear areas of need due to injuries

Still, Bowden could have easily identified a couple areas of need for the reeling Tigers. Why not starting pitching? While the rotation was supposed to be a strength going into the season, injuries have derailed that dream. Justin Verlander looks likelier to retire than return to the mound for the Tigers, so if Detroit could add another arm or two, that would be extremely helpful.

Or what about another bat? The lineup can get hot at times but it also ran very cold during some of the team’s worst stretches. It certainly wouldn't hurt to add a little more offense to try to prevent some of those down spells.

Entering play on Friday, Detroit was 34-47 on the season. It seemed fair to stick a fork in them not all that long ago, but they’re only eight games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central and five games back in the Wild Card. Crazier things have happened. In fact, the Tigers saw something much crazier happen just last year, when the Guardians chased down Detroit in the standings despite a huge deficit.

Getting healthy should be every team’s goal, so Bowden’s cop-out answer is a lazy one. Maybe if the Tigers go on a bit of a run in the next month then Bowden will actually decide to identify some areas of need for the team going into the trade deadline.

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