Niyo: Tigers' plight an age-old issue for Ilitch
Fans want to see stars. That has been a fundamental part of Mike Ilitch's business strategy as a professional sports owner.
It has been a successful one, too, whether you're counting the Stanley Cup rings or the playoff streaks or simply the turnstile numbers at Comerica Park.
But by definition, starry-eyed thinking is impractical, isn't it? And after another star-crossed season, it's fair to ask the same thing about the Tigers that we've been asking of the Red Wings for some time.
The latter's busy rebuilding on the fly, while the former is talking about retooling again, yet supporters of both — and perhaps Ilitch himself — are staring at the same window of opportunity and wondering.
Can the Red Wings win another title with a pair of past-their-prime stars in Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg? And can the Tigers bookend MVPs, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, deliver Ilitch the championship he so desperately craves?
General manager Dave Dombrowski seems confident enough that the Tigers can. And as he parsed and parried his way through Tuesday's season-ending news conference at Comerica Park, the Tigers president sounded a lot like his hockey counterpart, Ken Holland, did last spring after injuries to Datsyuk and Zetterberg, among others, expedited another early playoff exit.
Dombrowski pointed to his team's recent track record this week, highlighted the big names with the (really) big contracts on the roster, and then made it clear his team's title hopes start — and end, in many ways — right there.
"I mean, we have won the division four straight years," Dombrowski reminded. "We could have won in the playoffs, but we didn't. We just didn't get it done at crucial time periods. And I don't think it's just the depth.
"Sometimes, if you're paying your superstars, they're the ones that have to rise to the occasion for you. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. More often they do — and we've had some success in that. But sometimes it doesn't happen."
It didn't in 2013, when a gimpy Cabrera and slumping Prince Fielder failed to provide the necessary pop in the middle of the order. And it didn't this fall, as neither Max Scherzer nor Verlander flashed the dominant postseason form they've shown in the past.
Starting points
So it starts there, with Cabrera, who simply wasn't himself this year after offseason core-muscle surgery sapped some of his lower-body strength and a good deal of his power. Now he might need another surgery, this time to remove a bone spur that hobbled him for most of August and September.
And it starts at the top of a still-imposing rotation, where Verlander — a year removed from his own core-muscle surgery last winter — expects to be again after a frustrating 2014.
"I think he'll bounce back," Dombrowski said of Verlander. "I think he's really driven to bounce back."
The former MVP and Cy Young winner said as much at the end of the season, suggesting a full winter's work is what he needs to reclaim the velocity that has gone missing and some of the swagger that went with it. As he put it, "I'm not 36. I'm in my young 30s."
His salary is getting up there, too, of course. Verlander will make $28 million in the first year of that huge extension he signed in March 2013. And coupled with the raises due for David Price and Rick Porcello this winter, that'll mean Dombrowski — or Ilitch, more accurately — has close to $80 million invested in his starting rotation alone next season.
Fresh legs
Which brings me to the other similarity here with Ilitch's other team. There's no salary cap in baseball, and Dombrowski talked openly Tuesday about having a "hefty payroll" again in 2015. But much like the Red Wings, the Tigers are banking on bigger contributions from some of their youngsters to put them over the top.
J.D. Martinez has to prove he's not a one-year wonder after his breakout performance — a .315/.358/.553 slash line with 23 homers and 76 RBIs — hitting behind Cabrera and Victor Martinez. Think Gustav Nyquist in spikes, I suppose.
Third baseman Nick Castellanos, one of only three first-round picks from the last 15 years contributing in Detroit, will have to take the next step — better footwork defensively is a good place to start — after a solid rookie season. Think Brendan Smith or Danny DeKeyser at the hot corner.
Jose Iglesias has to come back from a year off due to injury and fill the void at shortstop. ("The doctors tell me he'll be fine," Dombrowski said, but he'll believe it when he sees it in spring training.) Ditto the powerful right arm of reliever Bruce Rondon, who could be a key piece in the badly-needed bullpen overhaul if he's fully recovered from Tommy John surgery. Think Darren Helm, in duplicate.
There are others, if you want to stretch this analogy to a third inning of relief: Torii Hunter and Daniel Alfredsson, Joe Nathan and Stephen Weiss, Brian McCann and Petr Mrazek, Don Kelly and Dan Cleary.
But whatever the case, the view remains the same for Ilitch's top lieutenants, even as the window closes.
"The one thing you can't do is say, 'Oh, well, forget it,' " Dombrowski said. "You've got to keep working hard, you have to keep a positive approach, and you have to keep making things happen. That's how you get better."
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
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