For as much as fans wanted Harris’s priority to be supercharging the offense by acquiring proven major leaguers, it’s worth remembering that last season, with essentially this same team, the Tigers’ offense finished 12th in wOBA, above the midpoint, but also, 7th in wOBAcon, 9th in xwOBA, and 5th in xwOBAcon. Not for nothing, they also finished 11th in runs, and were 8th before they slid. And they did this with one of the youngest offenses in baseball. This means they are doing the right things to score, and there’s still room for growth.
Harris will get raked if the offense goes splat this year, and he’ll have earned that as the guy responsible for it. But the way things looked after their performance last year, standing pat on the core position players, if that’s what we end up doing, will have been a reasonable decision to make.
Of course, there’s a lot of time between now and March 26—one month from tomorrow!—to make a move and finalize the roster. But I won’t be disappointed on that day if we don’t.