The longer they look like that, the less time they’ll have to look like this.
That’s the message the Tigers hear from the media, if not their manager. And if you were listening closely, that has been the message all along from the front office, going back to the end of last season.
But then came a new labor contract, which only made Al Avila’s tough job more difficult. And then came the passing of owner Mike Ilitch, which added even more uncertainty. And by the time January rolled around, with the trade market still dormant and spring training suddenly beckoning, Avila, the Tigers’ GM, was busy trying to explain how he’d ended up in “a situation where we felt we should wait a little bit longer.