Detroit Tigers 2023 success put on hold due to injuries

The Detroit Tigers were not destined to win baseball's worst division, the American League Central; however, the roster assembled for the 2023 season was designed for some success.

Until the end of May, the Tigers had played watchable and sometimes exciting baseball. Then injuries to their ace, Eduardo Rodriguez, and star outfielder Riley Greene have really made things worse. 

Greene left the game early against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, May 30th. Since then, the Tigers have played six games, winning just one of those games and scoring just a total of nine runs. 

Late last night Eduardo Rodriguez was cleared to start light throwing. But pre-injury, Rodriguez had a 2.13 ERA and has been, without a doubt, the most consistent Tigers starter this season. 

Other injuries seem to get swept under the rug as these players haven't made as much of an impact this season, but they are definitely impacting this team's ability to win baseball games without them. 

Those players are Kerry Carpenter (on 10-day IL), Spencer Turnbull (15-day IL), Alex Faedo (15-day IL), and Matt Vierling (10-day IL).  

There are also a couple of players on the 60-day IL that the Tigers expected to play key roles this season, which includes pitchers Beau Brieske, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal, and Casey Mize. 

Now I am not saying that with all of these players healthy, the Tigers would be running away with first place in the AL Central, but the fact of the matter is this roster was built for success this season. This was the season when we were hoping to see some of the development come to fruition. A healthy squad that we thought we had on Opening Day could easily be competing at the top of the division better than the team is right now. 

Yet, even with all of these injuries to key pieces, the Tigers are 26-33 as of June 7th and only four games out of first place in the AL Central (third place).