Detroit Tigers Made Mistake Relying On Shane Greene and Alfredo Simon To Fill Voids In Rotation

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Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Over the offseason, the Detroit Tigers acquired Shane Greene and Alfredo Simon in a pair of separate deals to round out their new-look starting rotation. Earlier in the season, it was looking like the Tigers may have captured lightning in a bottle.

Although it now seems like a lifetime ago, Greene went 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA and an 0.74 WHIP through his first three starts before he came crashing back to earth and ultimately wound up in Triple-A Toledo for a while. Simon’s streak of excellence last even longer, as he went 7-3 with a 2.58 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP over his first 12 starts before everything quickly went downhill.

Now, on Jul. 21, Greene is 4-7 with a 6.32 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP, and Simon is 8-6 with a 4.63 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP. Despite the stellar efforts of David Price and lately Anibal Sanchez, the Tigers’ starting staff currently ranks 25th in MLB with a 4.52 ERA. They desperately need help at the back end of the rotation.

For as disappointing as Greene and Simon have been lately, there were many fans who were able to see this coming. Sure, Greene and Simon each showed promise in 2014, but it was a roll of the dice from the get-go.

Greene had a relatively solid rookie season with the New York Yankees last year, going 5-4 with a 3.78 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP in 15 games (14 starts), but he went only 29-43 with a 4.39 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP over six minor league seasons, which may have been a red flag that regression was coming.

Simon had a good first half with the Cincinnati Reds a season ago, which earned him All-Star honors for the first time in his career, but he went 3-7 with a 4.52 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP in the second half. After spending a good chunk of his career as a reliever, perhaps that may have been a warning sign that Simon’s arm simply isn’t built for the long haul that comes along with being in the rotation. Now he is once again experiencing the same type of mid-season struggles.

Obviously, it was pretty clear from the beginning that the Tigers were not going to give Max Scherzer the “mega-bucks” that the Washington Nationals gave him, but there were still better options than Greene and Simon. One guy they may have been wise to look at is Francisco Liriano, who has been quite the bargain this season after returning to the Pittsburgh Pirates on a three-year, $39 million deal. They may have also been wise to simply keep Robbie Ray, who has gone 3-4 with a 2.29 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in nine starts with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With the Tigers now sitting 9.5 games back in the AL Central and four games out of an AL Wild Card spot, it is now looking like selling at the deadline is a very real possibility. While it may now be time to start looking ahead instead of thinking about what could have been, relying on Greene and Simon could very well go down as one of the great mistakes of the Tigers’ 2015 campaign.

Brad Faber is a Senior Writer and Sabermetrics Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Brad_Faber, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on LinkedIn or Google. 

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