There is little hope for the Tigers' historically bad offense

After a few weeks of play that suggested the Tigers might make things interesting in the sub-par American League Central this season, the wheels have officially fallen off in Detroit.

The Tigers lost their two best players in the span of 24 hours—pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez and outfielder Riley Greene—and this weekend they were swept by the Chicago White Sox, a team that's still looking up at Detroit in the standings despite winning four out of their last five.

The Tigers were already flirting with having one of the worst offenses in baseball—if not the history of baseball—and losing Greene has seemingly extinguished any hope of offensive competency in Detroit. Without his .296 batting average and .805 OPS (OPS adds on-base percentage and slugging percentage to get one number that unites the two, per MLB. It's meant to combine how well a hitter can reach base, with how well he can hit for average and for power), Detroit's offense really is listless.

For proof of that, look no further than this past Sunday's 6-2 loss to the White Sox. A front four of Zach McKinstry (who has become a great lead-off man), a slumping Javy Baez, a streaky Akil Baddoo and a hot or cold Spencer Torkelson is barely enough to scare a starting pitcher. 

The back five, though?

Well, it's a group of hitters who have simply been putrid. They're not even worthy of being called a "four-A" group of players right now.

You know it's bad when the designated hitter, Tyler Nevin, has a .118 batting average and a .411 OPS. 

It doesn't look any better after Nevin.

Nick Maton: .162 AVG, .590 OPS 

Andy Ibanez: .183 AVG, .520 OPS 

Jake Rodgers: .152 AVG, .622 OPS 

Jake Marisnick: .200 AVG, .400 OPS (six-game sample size).

For those keeping track at home, that's a combined batting average of .163 and an average OPS of .509. 

For comparison's sake, the league batting average is currently .247 and the average OPS is .727.

If Greene doesn't come back soon (he's on the 10-day IL with a "stress reaction") this team is likely on the verge of a major collapse. Heck, the Tigers still may collapse with Greene.

Tigers fans likely knew that new general manager Scott Harris was in for a lengthy rebuild of Detroit's roster.

Did anyone expect the hitting to be this bad, though?

All of that said, the Tigers are still only 3.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.