DETROIT – We’re less than a week into the regular season, and the Detroit Tigers already need to see some much better decision-making from their new third base coach.
Joey Cora joined the Tigers this offseason after his contract with the New York Mets expired. A.J. Hinch allowed him to resume his familiar role as third base coach.
But so far, it has not gone well.
There isn’t much to complain about so far this season. The Tigers have played excellent defense and gotten strong performances from the starting rotation and bullpen. The lineup is inconsistent, but someone has managed to come through with a big hit in every game.
Still, offense is probably going to come at a premium for the Tigers this summer, so they can’t shoot themselves in the proverbial paw by making bad decisions on the base paths.
Hinch said during the spring that the Tigers want to be aggressive, but far too often that becomes an excuse to blur the line between “aggressive” and “reckless.”
Cora didn’t face any difficult decisions on Opening Day, when the Tigers managed just one run on a sacrifice fly. But in the first inning of the second game, the Tigers made a terrible error on the base paths.
With a run already home and nobody out in the top of the first, Mark Canha ripped a two-run single into right field to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
They should have had runners on first and second with no outs, but Kerry Carpenter pushed the envelope and tried to get to third base. He was thrown out by Dominic Fletcher, and the rally died two batters later.
🎥 Click here to watch the replay.
Sure, it was great to start the game with three runs, but the Tigers easily could have gotten much more. Instead, the White Sox tied the game by the second inning and took a 6-3 lead by the end of the fourth.
Chicago starter Mike Soroka, who was on the ropes before recording a single out, was allowed to settle down and get through five innings, allowing only one additional run. The Tigers gifted him an out and let him off the hook.
It doesn’t seem like much, especially since the Tigers came back to win, but that was a major turning point in the game. The reward of being on third base instead of second base in that situation is not worth the risk of killing the entire rally.
The next day, Detroit got a gift from the White Sox when Paul DeJong made an error on a ground ball by Gio Urshela. DeJong tried to take the out at second base, but threw the ball into shallow right field.
Canha, who began the play on first, easily made the turn to third base, but Cora tried to send him home.
Remember, this was less than 24 hours after Fletcher threw out Carpenter at third -- just feet away from Cora. But he tested the right fielder once again, and Fletcher threw Canha out by about 20 feet.
Replay showed Fletcher fielding the ball before Canha even hit third.
🎥 Click here to watch the replay.
On Monday, in a game that went to extra innings in a 0-0 tie, the Tigers spoiled one major opportunity to get on the scoreboard.
With catcher Carson Kelly on second base and two outs in the sixth inning, Andy Ibanez ripped a single into left field. Brandon Nimmo charged and fielded the ball before Kelly hit the third base bag, but Cora waved him home anyway.
He was thrown out easily.
🎥 Click here to watch the replay.
I understand that there were two outs, but the Tigers would have had the heart of their order -- Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, and Canha -- coming up with runners at the corners. Aren’t they counting on Torkelson and Greene to be run producers deep into the future?
If you send a catcher -- one who has registered 16th and 13th percentile sprint speeds the past two seasons -- you need to be sure. Or it should at least be a close play.
The Tigers will say that since runs have been hard to come by, they want to try to strike when they have a chance. I would argue they need to cherish those rare run-scoring opportunities and avoid throwing them away.
Cora and the Tigers can’t ditch their mentality after a week, but they need to do a much better job weighing risk and reward. And Cora can’t keep sending players who aren’t even on your TV screen when the catcher gets the ball.
The Tigers have played mostly clean baseball, but base running is one area they can still improve.