Detroit — It’s not even June 1, and the Tigers — heavy favorites to win the American League Central and among the handful of preseason contenders to make the World Series — are dangerously close to having to at least consider throwing in the towel.
The Tigers have lost 17 of their last 20 games, all since getting the news earlier this month that their ace, Tarik Skubal, would need to undergo arthroscopic elbow surgery.
They’ve fallen to 13 games below .500 (21-34), 10½ games back in the division. They haven’t won back-to-back games since May 2-3. They haven’t won three consecutive games since winning six straight from April 10-16. In the last three-plus weeks, the Tigers have been swept by the Red Sox (who fired their manager and are in last place in the AL East), Mets (who are in last place in the NL East) and Guardians (a rare four-game wipeout), and also dropped series to the Royals, Blue Jays and Orioles (who are a combined 19 games under .500).
Now, the Tigers need to win Wednesday and Thursday or they’ll drop another series, to the woeful Angels, another last-place team who most thought were the worst team in the league, if not the worst team in all of baseball. Now, we’re not so sure.
The Tigers might be just as bad, or, gasp, maybe even worse.
The Tigers, despite a franchise-record payroll, are abysmal.
How in the world did this happen?
Injuries
It always seems like a copout to blame injuries for a team’s struggles, but facts are facts, and the Tigers are among the most-impacted teams in baseball when it comes to players — especially impact players — on the injured list. The slide coincided with the loss of Skubal, who may return earlier than expected, though perhaps not early enough to save this team’s season.
But the rotation also missed Casey Mize and Troy Melton until recently, and is missing Justin Verlander, Jackson Jobe and Reese Olson (he’s out for the season), as well as swingmen Ty Madden and Beau Brieske. The bullpen hasn’t been decimated nearly as much, but it’s without Brant Hurter, Bailey Horn and Burch Smith. Back-end relievers Will Vest and Kenley Jansen are pitching but have battled ailments, too.
Offensively, there have been significant blows, with expected starters Gleyber Torres, Kerry Carpenter, Javier Báez and Parker Meadows still out of action.
Add it all up — at one point, more than $100 million in player payroll was on the injured list at the same time — and that’s a lot to overcome. In the Tigers’ case, it’s too much to overcome, it seems.
Offense
For yet another offseason, the Tigers opted to not do much to address the offense, despite strong evidence — like the extended swoon late in 2025 — it needed reinforcements. The only “addition” to the offense this offseason was extending a $22.025-million qualifying offer to Torres and seeing him accept it to return for Year 2 in Detroit.
Tigers president Scott Harris decided to spend big on the pitching, while largely rolling with much the same cast on offense, believing solid 2025 seasons by the likes of Torres, Báez and Zach McKinstry (all All-Stars in 2025), as well as Spencer Torkelson, could be replicated. Two are hurt, McKinstry has been awful, and Torkelson, outside of a five-game homer streak, has been, too, on pace to challenge Riley Greene’s single-season club strikeout record.
Matt Vierling hasn’t been much, Colt Keith still doesn’t have a home run. Wenceel Perez, Jake Rogers, McKinstry, Zack Short and Jahmai Jones all have an OPS under .540, but are starting way too many games because of injuries. The team’s .685 OPS is the worst in the AL, and their 47 homers are fifth-worst in baseball. They have three active offensive players — Kevin McGonigle, Dillon Dingler and Greene — with a positive WAR.
Bullpen
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before …
The bullpen, long an Achilles’ heel for the Tigers (in the bad times and the good times), has reared its ugly head again in 2026, despite preseason expectations that a back three of Jansen, Vest and Kyle Finnegan would be just what the doctor (and AJ Hinch) ordered. It hasn’t materialized. Vest has been up and down, the biggest down being the grand slam he allowed in Tuesday’s 10-6 loss to the Angels. Finnegan, who signed a two-year, $19-million contract to return to Detroit, has walked 19 in 24⅔ innings. And Jansen, who signed a one-year, $11-million contract (with a club option for 2027), has blown four saves and given up three walk-off homers. At 38, he’s looking eerily similar to the Joe Nathan debacle back in the day — a legend, until he put on a Tigers uniform.
Tyler Holton’s innings have caught up with him. Enmanuel De Jesus has been no great find. Pretty surprising that Drew Anderson, so bad early, actually has become the team’s best reliever. More telling: The team’s best bullpen ERA — and this is true — belongs to Rogers (0.00). He’s negative-WAR as a hitter, positive as a pitcher.
The Tigers have had 23 save opportunities, and have 10 saves, a brutal conversion rate. They’re not the worst bullpen in baseball, not even close based on most metrics. But given the expectations, it’s been a big problem.
Defense
Defensively, as it turns out, the Tigers are pretty darn atrocious there, too — and few things frustrate a fan base more than whiffing on what they view as the baseline fundamentals.
The Tigers, based on the advanced-analytics stat out of Outs Above Average (which factors in the number of plays made by the defense, as well as the degree of difficulty), are tied for the worst defense in Major League Baseball, with the Seattle Mariners. The Tigers’ runs prevented is a negative-16.
OAA doesn’t measure catchers, and, obviously, with Gold Glover Dingler, the Tigers are a plus there. Of the other positions, the Tigers have one where they’ve been better than league average, center field, which was a strength before Meadows and Báez went down. They have one position where they’ve been net neutral (zero runs saved), and that’s second base. Every other position is below league average. Every. Other. Position. And that includes shortstop and third base, despite how much better rookie McGonigle has looked there than we all anticipated.
The defense was a big culprit again in Tuesday’s loss, when Perez’s blunder on a catchable ball in right field extended the inning long enough for Vest to cough up the grand slam.
OK, so, what else?
There are other reasons that have played into the Tigers’ plummet to the bottom of the barrel, when only the Rockies have a worse record in baseball. There have been too many base-running blunders in recent weeks. Jack Flaherty can’t throw strikes. Framber Valdez has reinforced some of the big red flags about him — he can be inconsistent, and he can lose his mind. The Tigers’ minor-league depth, apparently, isn’t all that deep.
Add it all up, and 2026 has been an absolute disaster for the Tigers — just about on par with that 2008 team that was supposed to score 1,000 runs, but finished 74-88 and last in the division.
Harris, despite the Tigers making back-to-back playoff appearances in 2024 and 2025, doesn’t get a free pass here. He knew offense was an issue (again), and didn’t do much (again). He knew players from 2025 hit high-water marks that would be tough to repeat, and ran it back anyway. Remember when Harris said this winter that while the names might largely be the same, the team would be different? Nobody really knew what the hell he was talking about. Well, now, maybe we know.
Turns out, this isn’t the same team. It’s worse. Much worse.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: How are the Tigers this freaking bad? As it turns out, lots of reasons
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
