At some point, I’m just going to do an entire blog giving a collective grade to all of the members of the island of misfit toys that Scott Harris took flyers out on at the deadline. Still, I want to single out Kyle Finnegan in particular because he ultimately had a huge role on this team in the second half. I’m never going to commend Scott Harris for the deadline that he had. The numbers speak for themselves, and ultimately, this is a results-oriented business; the results indicate that the Tigers didn’t meet the deadline. At the same time, I disagree with those who say that he did nothing. Moves were made, most of them inconsequential, but then you had Kyle Finnegan, who, for a short time, pitched some of the best baseball of his career in Detroit.
Finnegan is a prime example of what this current regime does right. You take a pitcher with some legitimately good stuff who probably wasn’t in the best position to succeed in Washington, you bring him over to Detroit for a no-name prospect, and he fixes his repertoire and becomes a high-leverage guy for the Tigers. The injury bug, unfortunately, reared its ugly head, and Kyle Finnegan missed some time during what was a significant stretch of the season. Still, you have to call his time in Detroit a success, at least as far as the regular season is concerned.
When we discuss why the Tigers fell apart down the stretch, most of the criticism is directed towards the offense, as it should be. I could go the rest of my life without having to see this team leave runners and squander scoring opportunities every single inning. With that said, Kyle Finnegan was not the same after coming back from his groin injury, and that cost Detroit in some key spots. He ended up being charged with the game-tying run in Game 5 of the ALDS. I don’t know how much of it was due to health issues and how much was just natural regression, but for a brief moment, Kyle Finnegan seemed like the steal of the deadline, and he was effective for Detroit. It’s just a shame he was never better than he was prior to his injury.
Even with some of the postseason struggles, it’s hard not to view Finnegan‘s time in Detroit as a success. He is a free agent this year, and because he put some of the best baseball of his career in Detroit, I don’t think it’s out of the possibility that they bring him back. I wouldn’t be against it. It was such a small sample size in Detroit, but the peripherals indicated that there wasn’t anything fluky about the numbers he was putting up. He was missing more bats than he ever did in Washington, and Detroit is obviously a very appealing home park for pitchers. This bullpen needs velocity, and it needs more swing and miss; both of those were things that Finnegan was able to provide in the second half of last season. There weren’t many wins to be had down the stretch last year for this front office, but Kyle Finnegan‘s acquisition can definitely be considered a Scott Harris W.
FINAL GRADE: B+