Tigers starting pitching rotation does not look good heading into 2020

Daniel Norris (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)

The Detroit Tigers had the worst team in baseball in 2019. With a record of 47 wins and 114 losses, they were a whopping 53.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins for first place in the American League Central. The Tigers scored the fewest runs in Major League Baseball (582) and gave up the third most runs (915). The only two teams that gave up more runs than the Tigers were the Colorado Rockies (958) and the Baltimore Orioles (981).

In the offseason, the Tigers made some adjustments to improve their batting order. They even acquired two Twins in first baseman C.J. Cron of Fullerton, California and second baseman Jonathan Schoop of Willemstad, Curacao, along with catcher Austin Romine of Lake Forest, California who comes to Detroit from the New York Yankees.

When it comes to pitching, the Tigers did acquire Dario Agrazal of Aguadulce, Panama in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates in November. However, on January 13, the Tigers announced that Agrazal had been sent down to the Toledo Mud Hens of the International League, and the Tigers had signed Ivan Nova of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic to a one year deal worth $1.5 million.

There is no doubt that the acquisition of Nova should help, but the bottom line is he still led the American League with 225 hits allowed and had a high WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.46. Nova joins a rotation that includes Matt Boyd of Mercer Island, Washington (9-12, 4.56 ERA, and an American League leading 39 home runs allowed) Spencer Turnbull of Demopolis, Alabama (3-17 with 4.61 ERA, and an American League leading 16 hit batsmen), Daniel Norris of Johnson City, Tennessee (3-13, 4.49 ERA) and Jordan Zimmermann of Auburndale, Wisconsin (1-13 with a horrendous 6.91 ERA).

The five starting Tigers pitchers had a combined record of 27 wins and 67 losses. Improvement will be expected in 2020. Not only from Tigers fans, but management as well. For now the Tigers pitching staff looks abysmal with a very long road towards getting better.