Imagine this scenario; last season, your team was 88 runs better than the lowest-scoring team in baseball. Following that season, your team adds sluggers, Javier Baez and Austin Meadows. There is no way that your team could possibly become the worst offensive team in the league now, right? Unfortunately for Detroit Tigers fans, this scenario is the actual reality we find ourselves in this season.
After Tuesday's 9-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox, the team now stands at 167 runs for the season. This is far and away the lowest total in all of baseball. The next lowest mark for runs scored in the league belongs to Pittsburgh, who has 204 runs.
How could this happen, you ask? Also, unfortunately, it's a culmination of many things going wrong for the Tigers this season.
The Detroit Tigers are struggling to score runs, and it is painful to watch.
Austin Meadows missed 19 games with vertigo and hasn't yet hit a single home run. Javier Baez has been consistently terrible at the plate since the season began. Through his first 49 games with the team, he's batting .193 with just three home runs. Spencer Torkelson, the team's prized prospect, has struggled mightily in his first year. Through 55 games played, he's sporting a .181 average. Just wait; it doesn't stop there.
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Robbie Grossman, who hit 23 home runs in 2021, has yet to hit a home run this year and is batting .205 overall. Perhaps one of the most disappointing cases is that of Jonathan Schoop.
Still widely regarded as one of the best defensive second basemen in the game, the bat has not been there this year. He finished last year with 22 home runs on a .278 batting average. However, this year, just a .188 average with five home runs through 59 games played.
With such a low number of runs scored, it's natural to assume that home run totals are low as well. You'd be right if you thought that, too. Through the team's first 60 games, they've teamed up to hit a staggeringly low 31 home runs. Oakland owns the next lowest mark in the league, which is currently at 44 home runs for the season.
Usually, we can get a good read on a team's makeup by the time June rolls around. Here we are about halfway through June, leaving us all with the same question. Is this team really this bad, and will it be this way the entire season?
The answer isn't very exciting, but it's honest. Unless something drastic changes, the remaining 100 or so games might not be very exciting for us as fans.
