'There aren't any shortcuts to contention': Tigers president Scott Harris staying on course

Detroit — To put into perspective where the Tigers are going into the offseason, Scott Harris offered a reminder of the conversations we were having at this time a year ago, when he first took over as club president.

“Instead of talking about and openly asking where the bats are and are these young hitters ever going to hit in the big leagues, now we’re seeing a group of middle-of-the-order bats emerging right before our eyes,” he said, referencing Kerry Carpenter, Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene. “Instead of talking about where are the prospects that can help us, the conversations we’re actually having now are, 'Are there players in Triple-A now that should already be here?'”

Meaning, of course, prospects Colt Keith, Justyn-Henry Malloy, Eddys Leonard, Justice Bigbie, Keider Montero and others. And that’s on top of the fleet of prospects who contributed at the big-league level this season: Sawyer Gipson-Long, Parker Meadows, Reese Olson and Andre Lipcius.

“Instead of openly worrying about 'Are we ever going to have enough innings in a rotation to cover 162 starts after we watched 17 pitchers make starts in 2022?' we are debating who and where the starters we have in the big leagues and those coming through the minor leagues are all going to fit into a five-man rotation,” Harris said.

Nobody, Harris said, is saying the job is done. Nobody is satisfied.

“I’m not saying we are, as an organization, where we want to be,” Harris said. “But it is a moment in time where we can reflect on both the path and pace we’re on right now and to appreciate some of the good things that are happening and the progress we have made.”

The culture of development that Harris spoke of at his introductory press conference is real. The examples of it range from Michael Lorenzen, a veteran pitcher who came here can got better, to the growth of players like Carpenter, Andy Ibanez, Olson, Tyler Holton, even Torkelson and Greene, who took steps forward.

Look also to the development made throughout the minor leagues, specifically with how far prospects like Malloy, Keith, Jackson Jobe, Jace Jung and Bigbie have come.

“That’s not to suggest we have it all figured out,” Harris said. “I’ll be the first one to say we don’t have it all figured out. There’s a lot of work to do and a lot of hurdles to climb, many of which will take some time to overcome.

“But at this moment in time, it highlights how development isn’t this abstract concept that sounds good as a talking point. It creates real tangible gains that change the look and feel of the organization and it helps us get a little more out of the most important individuals in the organization — the players.”

The path forward

Harris said he plans to take the month of October to fully prepare for the offseason, and he said both trades and free agency are possible paths to improving the team of 2024. But there is a very large caveat with that. And it has nothing to do with payroll flexibility.

“What I think about this offseason is that it’s important to remind ourselves there aren’t any shortcuts to contention,” he said. “Recent history in this game will tell you. Certain organizations have either over-estimated their proximity to contention or they have tried to take a shortcut to contention by spending heavily in free agency, and it hasn’t worked.

“It hasn’t pushed them forward and, in fact, in some cases, it set them back.”

The Tigers can look to their own foray into free agency before the 2022 season, when they paid out more than $200 million for Javier Baez, Eduardo Rodriguez and Jonathan Schoop and regressed to a 66-win season.

“We can spend to complement a core,” Harris said. “We can’t spend to build a core. That’s not a viable strategy in this market. We are, going to walk the line of being active in free agency and trades to find outside additions that can help us without blocking our young players.”

Harris has been unwavering on this from the start. The core of this team isn’t fully developed, Harris said. But the plan is to give players like Meadows, Greene, Torkelson, Matt Vierling and eventually Keith, Malloy and Jung every opportunity to be at the center of it.

“When I wake up in the morning, the reason I’m really excited about this organization is we have young talent coming and we have young talent already in the big leagues,” Harris said. “I’m really bullish on the young talent and anything we do this offseason and in free agency, we have to be mindful of walking the line between finding outside additions that can help us without blocking some of the young talent that may prove to be the best solutions we can find.

“We owe it to our organization and to those individuals to give them enough runway to demonstrate they can be solutions.”

 Twitter/X: @cmccosky