From the moment the Tigers embarked on their rebuild, general manager Al Avila has been careful not to declare an end date. It will take patience -- and there will be pain -- is about as close as he's come to a timeline.
Avila did provide one clue last winter when he said the Tigers would be prepared to spend again in 2021. And he provided another Monday at the Winter Meetings when he told reporters, "We feel good about being able to build this back up in the next three years."
That feels like a long time, especially with three years of dreadful baseball behind us. It also feels right. The Tigers aren't going to be competitive in 2020; Avila has already acknowledged as much. And while they're primed for a jump in 2021 with a number of top prospects in the bigs, it's hard to see them making any sort of run at the playoffs.
That brings us to 2022. By then, we should be watching winning baseball in Detroit. We'll just have to endure some more losing first. The bright side, Avila wants you to know, is that the worst of it is over.
"The mindset here is to move forward and build back up," said Avila, via the Detroit News. "We've made a lot of trades. We've traded everyone we needed to trade and we're at the point where this team is very young and we need to build it back up."
After an 114-loss season, Avila said the focus for the Tigers next season is getting the arrow aimed in the right direction.
"We are looking to make the team better for 2020. This is what we've talked about," said Avila. "First day of spring training, let's go. This is your time to step up. We're in a situation now where we feel good about being able to build this back up in the next three years.
"Are you going to be part of this or is it going to be somebody else?"
To bolster their roster, Avila said the Tigers are eyeing a catcher, first baseman and corner outfielder in free agency. A starting pitcher and middle infielder will be on their radar as well. Catcher, he said, is the "top priority," after the Tigers moved on from John Hicks and didn't see enough from Jake Rogers last year in Detroit.
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While the Tigers want to give their young players opportunity, they also want those players to earn it. That didn't happen in 2019, and it resulted in one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
The idea next year is to raise the bar for everyone.
"You have the same guys coming back, but we're going to try to add to that to make the offense better and give those young guys more competition," Avila said. "Hopefully that whole process makes the team better going into 2020."
