Dombrowski Addresses Bullpen Woes, Why Tigers Did Not Get Andrew Miller
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
COMERICA PARK (CBS DETROIT) - As expected, Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski listed improving the bullpen among the team's top priorities this offseason.
Dombrowski also made it a point to note that the Tigers tried to acquire more relief help during the season, pursuing reliever Andrew Miller - then with the Boston Red Sox - at the trade deadline.
Miller had a 2.34 ERA in 50 outings for Boston and pitched even better after the Red Sox traded him to the Baltimore Orioles, who swept the Tigers out of the playoffs. Miller turned in a 1.35 ERA in 23 regular season outings for his new team.
"We really did make a good run at him," Dombrowski said Tuesday. "It was a situation where they thought they were going to call us back, and they didn't call us back, and they just decided to go in another direction. It wasn't like we didn't have a chance to - and basically when I asked him that, he said, 'Dave, we asked you for so much, and you said yes, but I couldn't even ask you for more. We just preferred this other player.'
"Sometimes you have to remember - and I wouldn't tell you the player, but last year there was a reliever that we almost acquired who ended up being a very good reliever," Dombrowski continued. "We thought we made a tremendous offer, we thought we offered more than the other organization, but they went with the other player. Well, I can tell you that organization wishes they didn't go in that direction. They wish they'd taken our player ... So sometimes you don't have total control of those things ... They decide what direction they're going to go into, and sometimes they don't always choose the right direction. It's just what they make at that particular moment, so we really came close to trading for [Miller]."
The bullpen played an undeniable role in two of Detroit's three American League Division Series losses this season. In the first game, the Tigers trailed, 4-3, in the eighth inning but eventually lost, 12-3, after a collective meltdown by the relievers. The second game, Detroit led, 6-3, in the eighth inning and ended up losing, 7-6.
The bullpen hurt the Tigers in crunch time last season, too, surrendering leads in the second and sixth games of the American League Championship Series. Dombrowski tried to bring in better arms for 2014, adding prominent names in Joe Nathan, Joakim Soria and Joba Chamberlain. The Tigers also expected to be able to use Bruce Rondon.
Obviously, all did not go as planned. Rondon missed the entire season. Nathan had one of the worst seasons of his career, Soria got hurt after only a few outings in Detroit, and Chamberlain followed up a comfortingly consistent first half with a rocky second half.
The bullpen's postseason problems came as no surprise given the the group's regular season ERA of 4.29. Over the past 10 seasons, including 2014, only one team out of 40 has made it to a league championship series with such a high regular season bullpen ERA. Only six of 40 teams that got that far over the last 10 seasons had a regular season bullpen ERA higher than 4.00.
This season, three of the four teams in league championship series had regular season bullpen ERAs ranking in the top 10 of the majors. While a solid bullpen might not be absolutely essential to getting where the Tigers want to go, it certainly helps, and despite Dombrowski's efforts, the Tigers have yet to cobble together a reliable set of relievers.
Detroit could again pursue Miller, however; as soon as the season ends, he will be a free agent. Since Miller began pitching exclusively out of the bullpen in 2012, he has an ERA of 2.57 in 163 outings.
