Tigers Pitching Staff Starting to Become Major Concern Ahead of Trade Deadline

The Detroit Tigers dropped a series on Thursday against the Washington Nationals following a defeat in the second game of the doubleheader on Wednesday.

Though it was not exactly a horrific start from Jack Flaherty on Thursday which led to the final loss, it certainly was from Dietrich Enns on Wednesday in the highly anticipated follow up to a shockingly dominant effort in his first start last Thursday.

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For a team that is comfortably in first place and has serious aspirations of pushing for an American League pennant this October, neither the rotation nor the bullpen has been good enough as of late to realistically expect that.

The Tigers look like they will be getting a massive boost this weekend when Reese Olson returns to the starting rotation, and the hope is that he will stabilize things.

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At the same time, though, Detroit cannot let the return of Olson preclude them from making a significant move at the trade deadline.

In an ideal world, the Tigers would land a starter, a couple of high leverage bullpen arms and maybe even an impact bat if they really want to go all in this season.

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All year long, the need for bullpen arms has been fairly obvious to everyone and still may remain their biggest need. After a historic first month from the rotation, injuries and inconsistency came into play, and the last month or so has greatly exaggerated the need for a starter.

Whether or not Detroit feels the same way, especially with Olson set to return healthy, remains to be seen. This is a Tigers team that loves "pitching chaos" as much as anyone in baseball, but it just has not really materialized into wins as of late.

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The market for a starting pitcher is a little bit thin which may result in the prices becoming inflated. However, that should not prevent Detroit from trying to make some sort of move.

A blockbuster trade for a second ace alongside Tarik Skubal is probably not going to be in the cards simply due to sheer cost, but the the Tigers need to find someone who can at the very least give them some reliable and quality innings down the stretch.

Detroit should be very active in the trade market over the next several weeks, and it's starting to become clear where the biggest needs lie.

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