4 difficult roster decisions the Detroit Tigers must address ASAP

The Detroit Tigers find themselves in a position where they have to make a lot of really difficult choices regarding their roster both in the short-term and long-term. The biggest issue they face is that with the sheer number of injuries they have on their roster, projecting who is going to be back and when along with figuring out how good those guys are actually going to be upon their return is basically impossible.

Another factor here is that while they are 11 games below .500 and haven't been playing particularly well lately, the Tigers are still in contention in the American League Central. That is more an indictment of how bad the Central has been this year, but the Tigers are only 5 games back in the division somehow. At least some amount of thought has to be given to whether or not the Tigers need to not punt the 2023 season away even if going on a buying spree at the deadline doesn't make a ton of sense.

The problem here is that the Tigers' issues are both varied and uncertain. If Riley Greene and Akil Baddoo come back soon and look good, that changes the decision-making calculus. The same is true of pitchers like Eduardo Rodriguez and Tarik Skubal. We'll have more answers soon to those questions, but there is still work that should be done over the next month or so on this Tigers roster however things turn out.

Here are the difficult roster decisions the Detroit Tigers need to make soon

Because of the Tigers' weird in-between state of kinda contending for a playoff spot but not really, the goal here is to provide context for the roster decisions that need to be made in both worlds. The needs of the roster at this moment don't necessarily change whether they decide to be primarily sellers or try to stick around in 2023, but the ways in which they go about handling those needs do change.

It will make more sense as we go along, so lets get into the Tigers' tough roster decisions coming up.

The Detroit Tigers need to make some decisions about their rotation

One of the bigger challenges the Tigers have faced in trying to put together anything resembling a run this season is the performance of the starting rotation. Eduardo Rodriguez had been excellent to be sure, but he got hurt and the group has a whole has been a bottom six unit in MLB in 2023. The good news is that things should improve rapidly soon as both Rodriguez and Tarik Skubal are on track to return in the next week or so.

The question now is how do the Tigers move forward with handling their rotation the rest of the way? If Rodriguez and Skubal look good upon their returns, there is a strong argument that the Tigers shouldn't move a guy like Rodriguez at the deadline because we are about to see the best version of this Detroit pitching staff with Matt Manning having just returned as well.

Conversely, if the Tigers struggle even more over the next couple of weeks, trading Rodriguez to a real contender makes a lot more sense. If that is the path Detroit chooses, they should try to get at least one starting pitching prospect back that could feasibly be ready for the 2024 season. Eduardo is going to be in high demand so it isn't unreasonable Detroit could get a nice pitching prospect in return that would allow them to hedge a bit against some of their other pitchers not working out.

The Detroit Tigers need to target offense at the trade deadline one way or the other

Whether or not the Tigers go into full sell off mode or not, they need to take a long look at this offense. Sure, Riley Greene should be back pretty soon, but he and Baddoo aren't going to solve the fact that this Tigers offense is the 27th ranked group in all of baseball. They are going to need at least a catcher, second baseman, and an outfielder who can actually hit in the short-term and that is accounting for Colt Keith getting promoting AND being good this season or next.

Prospects that play those positions should be high priorities for returns in any trades with contenders if Detroit sells. The Giants and Reds seem like interesting trade partners there at first glance. If Detroit goes for a mild retooling of their roster at the deadline that could involve going after guys with some team control, Elias Diaz, Brent Rooker, Tommy Edman, and Amed Rosario make varying degrees of sense as trade options to give the offense a boost.