Detroit Tigers 2018 season review

The Detroit Tigers were who we thought they were in 2018, a rebuilding team destined to lose nearly 100 games.

On the one hand, the Detroit Tigers were expected to finish dead last in the AL Central and actually finished third. On the other hand, they still lost 98 games, the same as last year, and only finished third because the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox were even worse than the Tigers.

The Tigers spent the first part of this decade desperately trying to win a championship for longtime owner Mike Ilitch. They won the AL Central four straight years from 2011 to 2014 and even made it to the World Series in 2012, but were swept by the Giants in four straight. Since that run of success, the team has finished below .500 three times in four years, including two straight 64-98 finishes.

Ilitch was a wonderful owner who cared deeply for the Tigers and for the city of Detroit. He bought the team in 1992 and suffered through 12 losing seasons in the first 13 years. This stretch included the truly awful 2003 season in which the Tigers went 43-119. Three years later, under new manager Jim Leyland, the Tigers went from 71-91 to 95-67 and a playoff spot for the first time since 1987. They made it all the way to the World Series, but lost in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ilitch was willing to lay out cash for long-term deals when the team was in contention, but when those players aged and regressed it all fell apart. Heading into the 2017 season, the Tigers had eight players making $11 million or more per season, including five players making $18 million or more. They had gone 86-75 in 2016 and felt very much like they should be contenders.

Ilitch died in February of 2017 without getting the World Series ring he so desperately wanted. When the Tigers struggled to compete in 2017, the rebuild began and many of those big contracts were shipped out of town. Two of the best players traded that summer were Justin Verlander and J.D. Martinez. Verlander won the World Series last year with the Houston Astros and Martinez is gunning for a World Series title this year with the Boston Red Sox.

Heading into the 2018 season, there were three high-priced players left in town—

Miguel Cabrera, Jordan Zimmermann and Victor Martinez. Cabrera still has five years and $154 million left on his contract. Zimmermann is still owed $50 million over the next two years. Martinez made $18 million in 2018 and retired at the end of the year.

The last game for Martinez was a nice moment for Victor and for the fans, but the end of his career is a perfect example of why the Tigers have sunk so low the last two years. They spent big on players who didn’t produce. Four years ago, Martinez was rewarded with a nice contract after having a terrific 2014 season. He hit .335/.409/.565 that year, with 32 home runs and 103 RBI. It was his best season since 2007.

He was also 35 years old. Despite his age, the Tigers signed him to a four-year, $68 million contract that would take him through his age-39 season. In those four years, he hit .262/.320/.397. After being worth 4.6 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in his excellent 2014 season, Martinez was worth -3.7 WAR over the next four years, while making an average of $17 million per season. He never came close to living up to his contract.

With three big contracts still on the books and a mix of cheaper players on the roster, the 2018 Detroit Tigers were generally projected to win around 66 games. For the first two-and-a-half months of the season, they looked much better than anyone could have imagined. On June 18, they were in second place in the AL Central with a record of 36-37. They were just 2.5 games behind Cleveland.

Then came an 11-game losing streak that kicked off a 28-61 record from that point on. They closed out the season by losing 14 of their final 19 games, including their last five. Their attendance dropped from 2.3 million to 1.9 million. Only three teams saw a bigger decrease in attendance from 2017 to 2018.

Tiger fans are hoping that the saying, “It’s always darkest before the dawn” rings true for their team in the years ahead. The 2018 season was dark, but even in a bad season there were good things that happened. Let’s take a look at what went right for the 2018 Detroit Tigers.