There’s an old saying that applies to this perilous moment for the Detroit Tigers: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
And yet, here were the struggling Tigers, doing the same thing once again, losing their fourth straight game to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday, May 21 – and sixth straight overall – after dropping a 3-1 game in Comerica Park.
It’s the same thing over and over, and it’s time to face facts: It’s not working.
Yes, the Tigers are still beat up. Yes, they have players coming back at some point. And I still think this team, when fully healthy, can fight for the playoffs.
But in the short term, the Tigers have faceplanted into a horrible hole. In dropping to 21-30 entering Friday, they’ve lost 14 of 16 games. Over that span, they’re averaging less than 2.4 runs a game (2.375, actually), They need offense desperately, especially from the bottom of their lineup. At the top of the order, Kevin McGonigle is still getting on base, even as his batting average has slipped. Riley Greene is on fire, hitting like crazy. And Dillon Dingler has jacked nine homers.
But after that? Ugh.
It’s hard to find anybody else who is doing squat.
Now, here’s the truly wild part. Even though the situation is dire – and falling 9 ½ games back with a week and a half left in May qualifies as a desperate moment in my eyes – it’s not like they are getting blown out, game after game. Of their 14 losses over the 16-game skid, eight have been by one run. (And that doesn’t count their two-run deficit on Thursday, which felt winnable.) That means a single swing could have won one of those games. Despite the bad record, this team doesn’t stink. It’s just stink right now, with the current roster configuration.
“It’s not like there’s a huge margin,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s a small margin.”
A tiny tweak could help this team start winning. So, here’s my idea. It’s time to shake things up. Send a shockwave through this roster. Make everybody realize you gotta produce to stay.
Everything should be considered. Because something has to change.
Time to bring up somebody from Toledo
First thing I would do is send Wenceel Pérez back to Triple-A Toledo – he is hitting .162 in more than 100 big-league at-bats this year.
They could bring up 26-year-old outfielder Ben Malgeri, who is hitting .291 and has a .387 on-base percentage. At one point this season, he reached base in 36 of 37 games, going on four separate hitting streaks of five games or more.
And he already has six homers. Considering he had seven in 2025, it’s a significant improvement.
“I feel like I’ve always had it in there,” Malgeri told me this week in Toledo. “I think it’s showing up more just based on having a better approach … working with all the coaches here, just refining my game, kind of tapping into that a little bit more.”
Or they could bring up 30-year-old outfielder Corey Julks, who has hit .295 with seven homers at Toledo.
And that’s after a spring training in which he made a tremendous impression, hitting .333 with three home runs, three walks and three strikeouts across 16 games.
“The message is be ready,” Hinch told reporters after cutting Julks in spring training. “He had a really, really good camp. He was arguably as productive as anybody. It does open eyes to him being a viable option for us in a roster that’s constructed with the right-handed bat that’s needed.”
Well, he’s ready all right. And a viable option. I sure would take even a little production right now.
“Definitely kind words from the skip,” Julks told me in Toledo. “You try to just build off of that, build off a good spring, carry it on and into the season, knowing it’s going to be ups and downs, but just try to stay levelheaded and ride the waves, just go compete each and every day.”
“How do you think you’ve changed since you’ve been with the Tigers?” I asked him.
“I like the defensive work that we focus on a lot,” he said. “I feel very comfortable out there in the outfield, and then each and every day, as far as hitting, it’s just the same thing. Do the routine, hone in on your craft, and just be a pro.”
Or how about bringing up 27-year-old outfielder Tyler Gentry, who the Tigers signed after the Kansas City Royals gave up on him? At the time, it seemed like a depth move. But he has figured out his swing and is producing. He’s hitting .296 with three homers and a .415 OBP.
Don’t look at his old stats. Because he has fixed his swing.
“Once I started to slowly fixing everything, my natural swing, the one I had pretty much my whole life up until a couple years ago, just kind of slowly started coming back to me,” he said. “It started becoming easier and easier and more natural.”
Or how about Cal Stevenson, a 29-year-old who is hitting .292 with a .416 OBP?
“It’s just being consistent every day,” he said. “Just swinging at the right pitches, controlling the strike zone, and finding ways to get out of base if you’re not getting hits. You got to find a way to work the at bat and work your walks.”
Yes, getting on base sure would be a good thing right now.
Trouble at Short
Another player they have to look at is Zack Short, who was brought in after Javier Báez was injured in an outfield collision. I understand why they brought the journeyman infielder back. It seemed reasonable. Short is a great guy. Great teammate. And somebody Hinch is comfortable with defensively. But at this stage, the Tigers are trying to find runs. Trying to find one swing that could win one of these games.
And Short’s lack of production is one of the glaring weak spots in the batting order. Short enters Friday hitting .067, thanks to his first hit this seaso coming Thursday. To be fair, he does have a .300 OBP (buoyed by four walks) – but that’s still below average in the majors; MLB hitters have posted a .319 OBP this year.
The Tigers don’t have a lot of options to replace him. It would take a big, bold move. Like bringing up Max Anderson, who could play second. Then, you move McGonigle to short full-time (with a little Zach McKinstry).
I sure would rather see Anderson, even as a rookie breaking into the big leagues without a lot of experience at Toledo, striding to the plate rather than Short, in any situation.
Anderson, the Tigers’ 2023 second-round pick, is hitting .338 in Toledo after recovering from a quad injury.
Hinch says you have to string hits together to score runs.
Which is obvious.
But it seems crazy to think you are gonna do that if you don’t have guys who can actually, you know, get some hits.
Track records vs. reality
There are several players with better track records than they have showed.
Like Jahmai Jones, who is scuffling along at .175 despite mostly having a platoon advantage vs. lefties.
Yes, I know he has produced in the past – the fact that he hit .287 in 2025 is the only thing saving him right now.
But at some point, he’s gotta produce to stay.
If the Tigers don’t make a move, Hinch will be left trying to squeeze what he can out of this offense. Trying to make some lemonade through encouragement and patience.
“These are tough to explain,” Hinch said. “We’re getting it handed to us. We got to wear it, and we have to endure it. We have to continue to trust that the work is going to pay off. Then you have to go do it on the field, and our guys are working. They’re trying. They’re getting after it, but it’s tough.”
Then, he added an important point: “That track record will take you only so far, and then you got to see results.”
That’s where I am right now.
The results haven’t been there –it’s time to make a change. This is starting to feel like one of those “in case of emergency, break glass” moments.
And it’s not a forever situation. At some point, Kerry Carpenter will return. So will Báez and Gleyber Torres.
So, in the short term, making a few changes doesn’t sound so crazy to me. Just to try to change this.
Or … they could just keep doing what they have been doing.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Watch another game go down the drain.
Which sounds insane.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Solution to Tigers’ hitting woes might be in Toledo; it’s worth a shot
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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