Starting Friday, the Tigers have two weeks and change to potentially alter the plans of Scott Harris at the trade deadline.
In any other division, those plans would already be set in tone. But in the AL Central, the Tigers still have an outside shot at a playoff berth despite being on pace to lose more than 90 games.
They enter the second half 5.5 games behind the first-place Guardians, who are 45-45. With 17 games between now and the Aug. 1 deadline, 10 of them against teams under .500, there's a chance the Tigers could mount enough of a push to at least make their front office chief think twice about trading assets like Eduardo Rodriguez, Michael Lorenzen and Alex Lange.
"As far as the standings, yes, it’s going to impact our decision. If we get hot out of the break, it’s going to change our approach to the trade deadline. We are going to be responsive to the way the team is playing heading into the deadline and we’re going to try to make the best decisions we can for the organization," Harris said Thursday on the Stoney & Jansen Show.
The Tigers, to their credit, have shown what they can do when healthy. They went 16-11 in May, their first winning month in two years, led by the stalwart pitching of Rodriguez and Lorenzen and the hot bat of Riley Greene. Then Rodriguez and Greene hit the injured list and the Tigers stumbled through June (8-19).
With Rodriguez and Greene back on the field, joined by Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning, it's worth Harris' time to see what the Tigers can make of the next two weeks. Not that anyone needs the reminder, but the club's eight-year playoff drought is tied for the longest in the majors. Pursuing a division title, even in a division made of straw, wouldn't be the worst idea.
Any pursuit will start Friday night in Seattle, followed by four games next week against the last-place Royals.
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