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Detroit Tigers: Did team make a mistake in letting James McCann go?

By Brad Faber

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - JULY 20: James McCann #33 of the Chicago White Sox hits a home run off of Emilio Pagan #15 of the Tampa Bay Rays in the ninth inning of a baseball game at Tropicana Field on July 20, 2019 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - JULY 20: James McCann #33 of the Chicago White Sox hits a home run off of Emilio Pagan #15 of the Tampa Bay Rays in the ninth inning of a baseball game at Tropicana Field on July 20, 2019 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /
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Last offseason, the Detroit Tigers parted ways with James McCann who is now having a breakout season with the division rival Chicago White Sox. Should they have kept him?

Back in 2015, there was a certain amount of excitement among Detroit Tigers fans when James McCann cracked the Opening Day roster out of Spring Training. The club’s other catcher at the time, Alex Avila, was coming off of three rather disappointing seasons after a breakout 2011 campaign. McCann was an obvious choice to become Avila’s successor.

McCann played in 114 games with the Tigers in 2015, hitting a very respectable .264/.297/.387 with seven homers and 41 RBI. He also showed an impressive arm behind the plate, throwing out 41 percent of would-be base stealers.

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The next season, McCann took a step back at the plate, hitting just .221/.272/.358, though he showed a bit more power with 12 homers and 48 RBI. He had his best offensive season in 2017, hitting .253/.318/.415 with 13 homers and 49 RBI, but regressed to .220/.267/.314 with eight home runs and 39 RBI in 2018.

Last fall, the club decide to non-tender the arbitration-eligible McCann. However, the 29-year-old catcher is now having a breakout season with the division-rival Chicago White Sox, hitting .283/.334/.466 through his first 76 games.  He also made his first All-Star team this season. So did the Tigers’ made a mistake in letting him go?

Well, it might be too early to say. Although Tigers catchers catching trio of John Hicks, Bobby Wilson and the currently injured Grayson Greiner has been a bit underwhelming this season, help may be on the way. Many regard Jake Rogers, who was acquired from the Houston Astros in the Justin Verlander deal back in 2017, to be the catcher of the future.

The Tigers also currently possess the worst record in baseball. They still need to collect 14 more wins in order to avoid having a record as bad as the infamous 2003 team’s. Obviously, McCann alone wouldn’t have made the Tigers contenders this year. However, if they still had him, the Tigers could have another trade chip that they could potentially even package along with Shane Greene, Matthew Boyd or Nicholas Castellanos.

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That being said, the Detroit Tigers should still be in good shape to continue the rebuild. Moreover, McCann was projected to earn $3.5 million in arbitration, per MLB Trade Rumors. For as good of a season as McCann is having, it simply didn’t make much sense for the club to hold on to him last offseason. One can’t truly fault the Tigers for making the decision they did at the time.

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