Tigers fans losing it on Scott Harris as season has fallen apart over the last month

The Detroit Tigers season has taken a stark turn for the worse, and fans are not having it. The level of vitriol toward GM Scott Harris seems to be growing by the day as the Tigers continue to fall further out of the AL Central race and into obscurity.

The biggest problem is that fans first had to sit through seven years of Al Avila's failures, hoping desperately for the Tigers' rebuild to come to fruition. Unfortunately, it never did. And now two years into Harris' tenure, fans are again growing impatient as the team struggles to keep its head above water.

On one hand, it is frustrating to watch the team seemingly waste away a Cy Young caliber season from ace Tarik Skubal. And Riley Greene is having the breakout season everyone hoped for, but he likely won't be rewarded much for his efforts.

However, on the other hand we have to acknowledge that Harris didn't exactly walk into a turnkey operation. Harris is responsible for building up the organization but the situation he walked into wasn't exactly ideal.

Scott Harris has yet to lead the Tigers to the promised land, but there are still traces of Al Avila's failure all over the roster

The Tigers finished over .500 just once in Avila's tenure and that was back in 2015, his first year with the club. In his final season, they went 66-96 and the team Harris inherited was deeply flawed.

It's fair to complain about Harris' failure to sign stopgap hitters for the 2024 season. Guys like JD Martinez and Rhys Hoskins would have given this offense a necessary boost. And even on the pitching side, we knew that the rotation depth would be challenged, and it has been.

But it's tough to blame Harris for things like Spencer Torkelson's failure to launch, Justin-Henry Malloy's inability to hit, or Parker Meadows' .433 OPS. And we know he didn't sign the Javy Baez contract, even though he's stuck with it.

This is an extremely frustrating year to be a Tigers fan, there's no doubt about it. Eventually, we might find out that Scott Harris was never the right guy for the job.

But at the moment, the only thing we can do is be patient and see how the trade deadline plays out. There are players on the roster, like Mark Canha or Jack Flaherty, who will likely be on the move within the next six weeks.

At this point, Harris needs to focus on how to get the 2025 team into competitive shape. Whether that means a larger batch of free agent additions, leveraging the trade market, or both, we have to trust that he can get the job done.

Unfortunately, some things really need to break right for him. If the current crop of prospects in Torkelson, Meadows, and Colt Keith never truly launch, there's only so much Harris can do in the short term to fill those gaps. And if that's the case, we're in for another difficult stretch of baseball.