theathleticuk
DETROIT In the ninth inning of Wednesdays series finale against the Houston Astros, the Tigers trailed by two runs.
Spencer Torkelson was at the plate.
Behind him in the lineup, left-handed thumper Kerry Carpenter waited.
Rather than Carpenter grabbing a bat and stepping into the on-deck circle, another player emerged from the dugout.
It was Jahmai Jones, a right-handed hitter who is 0-for-21, 4-for-57 and hitting only .129 this season.
Advertisement Jones is a positive presence, a beloved teammate, a terrific human story with deep ties to Detroit.
Unfortunately, he has also become a symbol of a Tigers season that has gone off the rails.
Torkelson struck out to end the game, but the sheer fact Jones was on deck in yet another crucial spot this time against fearsome Astros closer Josh Hader, who dominates lefties and righties alike is telling.
The Tigers pinch hit more than any other team in the league.
It is a philosophy seemingly grown out of president of baseball operations Scott Harris time in San Francisco.
The Giants led the league in pinch hitting every year from 2019 to 2023.
The Tigers now operate similarly.
Detroit led baseball with 209 pinch hit plate appearances last season.
The next closest team was the Guardians at 168.
This year, the Tigers again top the league with 105 pinch hit appearances.
No other team has more than 94.
Though Tigers pinch hitters have largely thrived in the past they generated a 106 wRC+ last season, seventh in the league the results have dried up this year in stunning fashion.
Their overall output, based on their 22 wRC+, ranks 29th in MLB.
| Year | PA | AVG | OPS | wRC+ | |---|---|---|---|---| 2021 | 72 | .266 | .808 | 124 | 2022 | 85 | .169 | .430 | 21 | 2023 | 174 | .203 | .627 | 67 | 2024 | 185 | .231 | .657 | 86 | 2025 | 209 | .243 | .727 | 106 | 2026 | 105 | .126 | .443 | 22 | The striking failure of Detroits strategy is part of a season where so many things have gone wrong.
Yes, the Tigers have been one of the leagues most injured teams.
They also went from one of the best base-running teams in the league to one of the worst.
They once prided themselves on outfield defense.
Now, they rank 29th with minus-19 Defensive Runs Saved in the outfield.
As players in difficult situations often entering with runners on base to face nasty leverage relievers continue to struggle, it brings up a deeper philosophical question.
What do you do when something that once worked no longer does? Do you tie yourself to the mast and hope things will eventually turn around, or do you abandon ship completely? In this case, neither one feels like a satisfying answer.
Advertisement Jones has become the biggest lightning rod for the fan base.
Because he is out of options, the Tigers can only remove him from the roster if they designate him for assignment, giving other clubs the chance to claim him off waivers.
Last weekend in Cleveland, manager A.J.
Hinch gave a long and winding answer that started with expressing support and belief in Jones.
I know hes still a real threat, Hinch said.
We believe in him.
Hes doing a ton of work to figure out his timing and the ability to get on the pitches he needs to.
Part of the strategy of having a weapon off the bench is to have a counter move to anything that (the opposing team does).
The fact that the Tigers have not yet moved on from Jones reveals a few things.
One, it speaks to their injury-riddled roster.
Had Gleyber Torres not gone on the injured list for a second time, the Tigers might have had to choose between Jones and rookie Hao-Yu Lee this week in Houston.
One of the confounding things about the teams allegiance to Jones is the fact that he scarcely plays the field.
The Tigers clearly have little faith in his ability to defend.
He is essentially a platoon DH, a one-dimensional chess piece on a team that otherwise prides itself on versatility.
Much of that positional versatility was borne from the desire to give Hinch endless in-game options.
When the Tigers were at their peak last summer, they thrived on being unpredictable, bringing players off the bench and having multiple ways to reconfigure their defensive alignment.
It became almost a trope: One player would enter as a pinch hitter, come through with a timely hit, and the player who just got subbed out would cheer for their teammate on the bench.
This season, it hasnt mattered who enters the game or what buttons Hinch presses.
Almost nothing is working.
Advertisement As FanGraphs noted this week, the Tigers get the platoon advantage at the plate roughly 60 percent of the time, which ranks 13th in the league.
The fact that the team has played with only one switch hitter, Wenceel Perez, perhaps limits the platoon advantage from being higher, like it is for the division rival Guardians.
Its also worth noting that the platoon advantage against left-handed pitching has been on a notable decline across the league.
In 2019, righties hit left-handers to the tune of a .787 OPS.
This year, righties have hit lefties for a .728 OPS.
The alternative to playing someone like Jones is sticking with left-handed batters against tough left-handed starters or dastardly lefty relievers.
Carpenter is the player Tigers fans most often bring up in this vein.
He has a career .863 OPS against right-handed pitching.
His power is a legitimate, top-end tool.
But even though year-by-year samples are relatively small, Carpenter has a career .599 OPS against left-handed pitching in 190 plate appearances.
Worse, even Carpenters performance facing mostly right-handed pitchers has left something to be desired.
He ranked in the bottom 2 percent of MLB hitters in walk rate last season.
He is in the bottom 3rd percentile in strikeout rate this year.
Is putting him in even more difficult matchups a path to success? If there is a player more worthy of same-sided at-bats, it is perhaps Colt Keith, the infielder the Tigers signed to a pre-debut extension only two years ago.
Once touted as an everyday player, Keith hit .305 with minimal power in 82 at-bats against left-handers as a rookie.
Last season, he hit .163 in 43 at-bats.
This year, Keith has hardly seen left-handed pitching.
He is 1-for-10 in such situations.
It is fair to wonder whether lack of experience has stunted the development for players such as Carpenter and Keith against left-handed pitching.
It also shouldnt be hard to see why the Tigers adopted the approach they did.
On a team that has largely lacked star hitters, Jones had a .970 OPS against left-handed pitching last season.
Hinch has often described his propensity for pinch hitting as being less about any weakness of the player getting hit for and more about the strength of the player entering the game.
Advertisement The real question centers on what the Tigers should do now.
Highly respected for most of his tenure in Detroit, Hinch is getting crushed for his in-game moves nightly.
Hinch is also operating only with the ingredients he has been given.
We need Jahmai to do his part for it to truly function the way the strategy is designed and how the roster is built, Hinch said.
Continue to give him opportunity because we believe in him, but clearly we need production in order to continue that and walk into those exact situations that we know are coming.
The Tigers front office under Harris has leaned in heavily on creating a versatile roster constructed to facilitate in-game moves.
In 2021, Harris Giants pinch hit an eye-popping 406 times.
The Tigers have trusted Hinch with the keys to this engine.
They have also done little as the vehicle has sputtered.
Other options, of course, arent necessarily great.
If the team truly believed in Triple-A prospect Ben Malgeri who is hitting .273 but also whiffing 40 percent of the time against pitches 95 mph or above he would likely be here by now.
The same could be said for outfielder Corey Julks, a minor-league signing this winter who has posted a 1.020 OPS against left-handers in Triple A.
The corresponding move for switch hitter Trei Cruz this weekend is not yet known.
As Hinch mentioned, Jones still has decent batted-ball metrics, perhaps part of why the team has stuck with him.
But with the Tigers backed into a corner with a 30-44 record, the questions are growing louder, and its also interesting to consider what the future looks like.
Under Harris, the Tigers have been intentional in using early-round picks on left-handed hitters, a way of one day creating a roster built to sustain a platoon advantage.
Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, Bryce Rainer, Jordan Yost and more.
The hope is that these players can succeed as legitimate everyday bats, as McGonigle has already proven.
With McGonigle now graduated from prospect lists, the Tigers highest-rated farmhand is Clark.
He is a talented 21-year-old going through ups and downs in Triple A.
All things considered, his development is going quite well.
Advertisement Against left-handers in the minor leagues this season, Clark entered Thursday hitting .279, but his OPS is more than 100 points lower against lefties than it is against righties.
Facing southpaws, Clark has no home runs, no triples and only one double.
So when Clark is eventually in the majors, what will the Tigers do? Give him at-bats against tough lefties, believing he can flourish into a dynamic all-around player? Or turn to a pinch hitter, hoping they can recapture the magic that has quickly faded?.