They had a 64-98 record in 2018, tied for worst in big-league baseball.
And yet the Tigers were on the flip-side in player salaries. They were third, behind the Dodgers and Yankees, among 30 teams and were penalized for it, with a luxury-tax fine of $3.7 million tacked to the $200 million-plus the team acknowledges it paid in 2018 when all costs were factored.
It was a cruel slice of irony for the Tigers, competitively and financially. A team was paying exorbitantly, and being treated punitively, for a product that was demonstrably bad.
With many of last year’s wealthy players now destined to be playing elsewhere — Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, J.