One of the biggest reasons for the Detroit Tigers’ teardown and rebuild was the unsustainable fiscal policies of former president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, as well as the late Mike Ilitch’s willingness to open up the coffers to sign big name free agents.
Now that those contracts and other lingering payments have been mostly scrubbed from the payroll, the franchise is approaching its “young and lean” form that the current front office has been alluding to for some time. After fielding one of the worst baseball teams in major league history last season, it is time to start spending again.