Can you imagine if Mike Ilitch was still alive?

And Bryce Harper was on the open market, just sitting there, for several months?

How would Ilitch have handled it?

I don’t think he could resist himself. I’m guessing Ilitch, the Detroit Tigers owner who died two years ago this month, would pull out his piggy bank, smash it open and snag him up – like the good old days – and Harper would be a Tiger.

Just like when Ilitch signed Ivan Rodriguez to a $40 million deal, back when $40 million meant something to an MLB player.

Or when Ilitch stunned everybody by signing Prince Fielder to a $214 million contract after Victor Martinez ripped up his knee.

Or when Ilitch gave Miguel Cabrera a $248 million deal.

Or when Ilitch gave Justin Verlander a $180 million contract extension.

But those days are long gone.

The Tigers are in a rebuilding mode, living on the opposite end of the spectrum. They recently signed Josh Harrison to be their second baseman, giving him a one-year, $2 million deal, hoping they can flip him at the trade deadline for more prospects.

Spending $2 million for a second baseman? I don't want to say that's getting a starter on the cheap, but $2 million used to be a rounding error when Ilitch was pushing for a World Series. .

Different times, indeed.

It seems as if half the teams in baseball are rebuilding, gathering young prospects. And the rest of the teams are scooping up players for less than expected.

Meanwhile, one of the game’s best players remains unsigned.

“It's embarrassing for baseball, it really is,” JD Martinez, the former Tiger, told WEEI.com. “It's really embarrassing for the game. You have a business. They say, 'The market is down, the market is changing.' The market is higher than it's ever been. People are making more money than ever, and they're trying to suppress it. It's more of a race towards the bottom now than a race towards the top. You can go right now through everyone's lineup and you already know who's going to be in the playoffs. What's the fun in that? We might as well just fast-forward to the end of the season."

You wanna know the great irony?

The Tigers signed Pudge Rodriguez after he won the 2003 World Series with the Florida Marlins. In that series, Cabrera, who was just 20, homered off Roger Clemens in Game 4.

That offseason, Rodriguez signed with the Tigers, a team coming off a disastrous 43-119 season, and it helped legitimize the organization.

Four offseasons later, the Tigers traded for Cabrera, who has had a Hall of Fame career. After Ilitch gave Cabrera and Verlander their money, the Tigers could no longer afford J.D. Martinez.

He’s long gone, and so is Verlander. And the Tigers are focused on developing young talent.

And now, Cabrera could end up playing with Clemens’ kid, Kody, if the Tigers rebuild goes as planned.

It’s one giant, complicated financial puzzle. One move affecting everything else.

To be clear, I don’t think the Tigers should sign Harper, right now, under the current situation. They are years from being a contender.

I’m just saying, things would be far different if Mr. I was around. He wasn’t afraid to make a big move, even when the team was struggling.

Ilitch always seemed like a little kid at 7-Eleven with a $5 bill in his pocket, walking up and down the candy aisle, as that money burned a hole in his pocket. He didn’t just want to spend it, he had to spend it. And he really, really wanted to spend his money, if he thought it gave his Tigers a better shot at winning a World Series.

But that mentality has put the Tigers in the financial situation that they have been trying to dig out of.

ESPN last month ranked the worst current contracts on all 30 teams, and put Cabrera’s deal at No. 2, just behind Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Davis (four years, $92 million).

Meanwhile, the Tigers’ books are still messed up.

The Tigers are still paying off Verlander ($8 million) and Fielder ($6 million), which would put them fourth and fifth on the team’s salary list, behind Cabrera ($30 million), Jordan Zimmermann ($25 million) and Nicholas Castellanos ($9.9 million), according to Spotrac.

More:Meet the bargain free agents the Tigers missed out on so far

But over the next two seasons, the Tigers’ payroll situation should improve tremendously.

The Verlander obligation comes off the Tigers' books after this season.

The Tigers will take Castellanos' nearly $10 million off their books soon, either by trading him or letting him walk at the end of the season.

And Zimmermann’s whopping $25 million-a-year deal will be done after 2020, or sooner if they can trade him.

More:Jordan Zimmermann now has full health, tweaked pitches

You would think that would put them in an incredible position, right around the time the prospects start to produce (assuming, they do).

But there is some uncertainty because of a potential labor stoppage after the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2021.

And who knows what that will do to baseball's economics.

But you should also consider this twist, the trickle-down effect of the slow free-agent signings over the last two years: Whenever rich, big-market teams like the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox pass on signing Manny Machado or Harper, or the Red Sox sign J.D. Martinez for less than expected in 2018, that means they will have more money to spend in the future.

That could hurt the Tigers down the road when they start spending money again.

I mean, they will start spending again, right?

Hopefully, Tigers owner Christopher Ilitch will have learned from his father’s mistakes and not give players big money into their 40s.

But he will retain his father’s passion and willingness to spend money and go for it.

At some point, Chris Ilitch needs to find his Pudge.

But it won’t be Bryce Harper. It's not the right time.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.