Of all the chores a rebuilding Tigers team faced after owner Mike Ilitch died 17 months ago, one mission, in particular, taunted a team from Detroit.
Adding quality hitters to the big-league roster, and even more to an emaciated farm system, was an emergency-room priority for general manager Al Avila.
The Tigers are 25th among 30 big-league teams in baseball’s most telling offensive statistic, OPS. They are next-to-last in home runs, with 75, five more than the dilapidated Royals. They have on their farmlands only a handful of likely big bats, as best as can be measured in 2018.