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Tigers’ drastic roster move just brought out every Scott Harris critic

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Motor City Bengals

Chicago White Sox v Detroit Tigers / Duane Burleson/GettyImages

The Detroit Tigers did not exactly get rave reviews for their work at the trade deadline this year. In the middle of stretch where they were arguably the best team in baseball, the front office led by Scott Harris went the "buy in bulk" route and acquired a number of arms of questionable qualty. One of the most high profile additions from that group was veteran Charlie Morton.

It wasn't that long ago that Morton was an extremely reliable rotation arm that missed bats and was a lock to give you five to six innings in every start. Unfortunately, Father Time seemed to catch up with Morton this season and he did not improve after Detroit swung a trade with the Orioles for him and gave him a change of scenery.

After a nightmarish start against one of his former clubs, the Braves, Morton's future became murky and unfortunately, he would not survive the weekend on the roster as the Tigers just designated him for assignment and recalled Tanner Rainer to take his spot on the roster.

Tigers mercifully designate Charlie Morton for assignment, recall Tanner Rainey

It is a sad end to Morton's time with Detroit and, honestly, we may have seen the last start of his big league career. The soon-to-be 42 year-old righty had a tough time with the Orioles earlier this season and was somehow worse with the Tigers with a 7.09 ERA across nine starts. Assuming the Tigers make the playoffs (which is not a sure thing), the odds he would have made the postseason roster were extremely small and one wonders any team would be willing to pay Morton enough going forward to keep him from retiring.

However, what this move does do is remind all Tigers fans of just how bad the front office fumbled the trade deadline. Yes, prices at the deadline were garbage, but that didn't stop a number of contenders hungry for the playoffs from making impact moves whereas Detroit simply assembled the Island of Misfit Toys as a pitching staff.

The red flags were there from the beginning with Morton (as well as the other trade deadline additions that have been flops) and ignoring them is costing the Tigers dearly right now. Hopefully they can get things back on track enough to make it to the playoffs because right now, everything seems to be going wrong.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.