Scott Harris’ biggest regret from Tigers trade deadline isn’t what you might think

After their season ended in heartbreak with a Game 5 loss to the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS, the Detroit Tigers were left to pick up the pieces and determine where exactly things went south for this team after such a promising start to the year.

Almost immediately, critics pointed to the July trade deadline, when president of baseball operations Scott Harris took a conservative approach that came back to haunt him in more ways than one. The Tigers added six Major Leaguers at the deadline: starting pitchers Charlie Morton and Chris Paddack and relievers Kyle Finnegan, Rafael Montero, Paul Sewald and Codi Heuer.

The Tigers put all of their eggs in the pitching basket at the trade deadline, and all but one of them – Finnegan – turned out to be busts. They didn't add a single bat to a lineup that struggled to produce, especially down the stretch, and it wasn't for lack of opportunity or available players. But Harris doesn't regret that choice.

"It's important for us to remind ourselves of where we were at when we were making those decisions," Harris said (via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press). "We had the eighth-best offense in baseball across five months, and in order to add a bat, we would have had to displace a high-performing player who had helped us, and maybe we should have."

But perhaps, as Harris went on to suggest, the more pressing and fundamental question is this: "How does a top-eight offense for five months become a bottom eight offense in September?" In hindsight, one trade wasn't going to stop that collapse from happening, especially when no one saw it coming.

Scott Harris’ biggest regret from Tigers trade deadline isn’t related to the offense

Now, let's look at the pieces – all pitchers – that Harris did add at the trade deadline.

Morton, who was acquired almost exclusively for his postseason pedigree, was designated for assignment and released before the Tigers had even clinched a playoff berth. Paddack struggled so much that he was moved to the bullpen. Montero was a postseason liability. Sewald, who was on the injured list at the time of the trade, pitched all of four innings for Detroit. Heuer only pitched three.

After the trade deadline, the Tigers ranked 21st with a 4.75 ERA from their starting pitchers and 12th with a 3.83 ERA from their relievers. Of the six pitchers they added at the deadline, only Finnegan and Montero were added to the Tigers' 13-man pitching staff for the ALDS. Montero didn't even make it into the 15-inning Game 5 loss that forced the Tigers use eight different pitchers.

"Do I wish that we had added more productive innings to our rotation in the deals we did?" Harris said. "Absolutely, I definitely do. We needed more performance in our rotation, and we weren't able to do that, and that's on me. I should have done better in the rotation, but I do think it's a reflection on the actual markets that existed."

Essentially, there's no use in pondering all of the "what-if" scenarios if the Tigers had opted to add offense at the deadline; it was never going to happen. If they had focused on pitching quality over quantity, however – well, that may have been a different story.