The MLB owners’ lockout of the players continued into its 71st day Friday with few major changes in the two sides’ proposals.
The MLB Players Association, led by ex-Detroit Tiger Tony Clark, is in search of, among other things, higher pay for young players, a higher minimum salary, an end to service time manipulation and lessening tanking by noncompetitive teams. The owners, meanwhile, are seeking few to no changes in baseball’s salary structure while looking to expand the postseason and add advertisements to uniforms – both added money-making propositions. In other words, don’t expect spring training to open on time next week, much less Opening Day to hit its scheduled March 31 date.
But Thursday brought at least a sliver of movement from the owners, as commissioner Rob Manfred announced an agreement to eliminate draft-pick compensation tied to free-agent signings and — most importantly for the action on the field — adopt the designated hitter in the National League.
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It’s a change that was expected, especially after the NL used the DH during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and, well, life went on, with no Stay-Puft Marshmallow Designated Hitter Man terrorizing Citi Field in New York, or even Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where the Los Angeles Dodgers finally won a World Series with Will Smith at DH.
Nor will it have much of a change on the Tigers, who are locked into Miguel Cabrera at the position (most of the time, at least) through 2023. At the least, though, manager AJ Hinch’s job has gotten easier for 10 games — three against the Dodgers in L.A. on April 29-May 1, two against the Pirates in Pittsburgh on June 7-8, three against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix on June 24-26 and two against the Giants in San Francisco on June 28-29 — now that he won’t have to figure out an NL-only lineup or juggle double-switches in the late innings.
Still, it’s the end of an era, even for the Tigers, as we’ll no longer get tales of pitcher batting practice, hurlers pretending to be hammerers and woeful attempts at sacrifice bunts (mostly). And with that in mind, we look back at the Tigers’ best and worst pitchers with a bat in their hands, with 230 pitchers coming to the plate over the 25 seasons of interleague play from 1997-2021.
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Kings of swing: Steve Avery, Omar Olivares and Gregory Soto
With apologies to Avery (a Trenton native) and Soto, this award probably should go to Olivares alone. All three lead Tigers pitchers in the interleague era with a 2.000 OPS (for a stat in which anything over 1.000 is star-level), but Avery’s mark came in his only plate appearance with the Tigers — a pinch-hit single in the seventh inning June 4, 2003, in San Diego — and Soto’s was set in his start against the Mets in New York as he went 2-for-2 with singles in the second and fourth innings.
Olivares got to 2.000 the hard way: He went 2-for-3 in his start against the Montreal Expos on June 13, 1997 (also the Tigers’ first interleague matchup). First up, he singled with one out in the third inning. Next up, he tripled with two outs in the fifth inning — the only three-bagger by a Tigers pitcher in the DH era, and the first by an AL pitcher since Ed Rodriguez’s for the Brewers against Cleveland on Sept. 3, 1973, in the nascent days of the DH. His run ended in the seventh inning, though, with a groundout. Even in a loss, the Tigers had some hitting history to revel in: “Everyone was talking about the advantage the National League would have without the DH, but if anyone had the advantage tonight, it was us,” manager Buddy Bell said. “Omar has some real pop in his bat.”
Sultans of swat: Jason Johnson, Daniel Norris
Just two Tigers in the interleague era have homered, and both did it at iconic NL parks. Jason Johnson went deep (off former Tiger Jeff Weaver) on the first pitch he saw at Dodger Stadium on June 8, 2005. Johnson was only moderately impressed, as he was dismayed by the three runs he allowed over 6⅔ innings. “It was pretty cool,” Johnson told reporters. “The bottom line is we still lost.”
A little over a decade later, Norris waited a little longer for his blast: Pitch No. 3 off the Chicago Cubs’ Jon Lester, in the second inning at Wrigley Field on Aug. 19, 2015. The “Friendly Confines” on the north side of Chicago were just that for the rookie, as then-manager Brad Ausmus noted afterward: “It was kind of surreal,” Ausmus said. “There’s not many pitchers that hit a home run to center field in their first at-bat.”
Hit maker: Mike Maroth
Yeah, we wouldn’t have guessed the crafty lefty better known for being MLB’s most recent 20-game loser (21 in 2003) would lead all Tigers pitchers in hits during the interleague era. But there he is, with five hits (including a double in 2007) over 20 at-bats (for a .250 batting average, better than a few Tigers position players over the years, actually), to go with two walks and 11 strikeouts. That’s one more than Weaver, Rick Porcello and Justin Verlander (who we’ll get to in a bit). Maroth also took his time getting to five hits, with one each in 2002, 2003 and 2007, plus two in separate June 2005 games.
Maroth’s double, which came on June 18, 2007, was bona fide, landing in deep right-center in Washington’s Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, where the fence sat 395 feet from the plate. “As I rounded first, I thought, ‘Wow, I hit that farther than I thought,’ “ Maroth told reporters. “Going for a triple crossed my mind, but being the leadoff hitter of the inning, I didn’t want to take that chance, or take the chance of going full speed and pulling something in my leg. The last time I had an extra-base hit would have to be my junior year in high school.”
The ‘Oh fer’: Michael Fulmer
Of the 230 Tigers pitchers with a plate appearance, 18 have made it to double digits. And of those, three have failed to get a hit: Two who know something about hitless games, at least from the mound side of things — Armando Galarraga (0-for-8 with three walks and a sac fly) and Spencer Turnbull (0-for-10) — and Fulmer, who went hitless over 14 plate appearances from 2016-18, with one sacrifice and eight strikeouts. Fulmer’s woeful span was shorter than it looks, coming in just six starts before a rash of injuries (2018-19) and a move to the bullpen (2021) ended any aspirations of finally coming through with a Shohei Ohtani impression.
Just keep choppin’: Justin Verlander
We’ll wrap things up with the most prolific pitcher at the plate … sort of: No Tigers pitcher in the interleague era went to the plate more often than J.V., who had 53 plate appearances over his time in Detroit from 2005-17. That was nearly double the PAs by the Tigers’ No. 2, Jeremy Bonderman (29, with one hit). Verlander’s PAs weren’t necessarily good, though; he went hitless in his first 35 plate appearances, covering 14 starts in NL parks. But when he broke though? Boom! TWO HITS.
J.V.’s big night came April 12, 2014 in San Diego, as he sent a solid grounder up the middle on an 0-1 count with two outs in the second inning. He followed that with a line drive to right field (though he barely beat the throw to first) with one out in the fourth, and eventually came around to score. Of course, the Tigers couldn’t resist razzing the cocky right-hander — his reaction to the breakthrough: “I think it’s been an anomaly I haven’t had one. I’ve hit five or six that have been caught.” — after his second hit came on a 3-1 count, as Ausmus noted: “He was actually supposed to be taking a strike, but it worked out.”
Over the final 15 plate appearances of his Tigers tenure, Verlander picked up two more hits, including one in his final start for the Tigers: an RBI single in the second inning against the Rockies in Denver on Aug. 30, 2017. He was traded to Houston the next day.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.