Tom Zahari

Special to the Detroit Free Press

Tom Zahari is a writer for the Detroit Tigers blog Motor City Bengals. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can read Motor City Bengals blogs every week at freep.com/tigers and find Tom on Twitter at @zaharitom7.

The Detroit Tigers are wasting three spots on their roster on Anibal Sanchez, Mark Lowe and Mike Aviles. Besides salaries and hope, there are no reasons for these three to continue damaging the team’s playoff chances.

Sanchez has progressively declined since his AL ERA title in 2013. His ERA has increased from 2.57 to 3.43 to 4.99 to 6.75. His WHIP has jumped from 1.28 to 1.65 from last year to this. As a starter, Sanchez has allowed a .300/.384/.536 split and 17 home runs with a 7.46 ERA. The Tigers are 3-11 in games Sanchez has started. And they do not use him regularly enough as a reliever to be trusted in high-leverage situations.

Sanchez is still owed close to $30 million on his contract.

Similarly, the Tigers cannot use Lowe when a game is in doubt. On May 7, he had a 2.79 ERA over 10 appearances. In his 23 appearances since then, Lowe has pitched 19 innings and surrendered 36 hits, 29 earned runs, 10 home runs and nine walks for a 13.74 ERA, a .409/.452/.830 split and a 2.368 WHIP.

Lowe is still owed about $8 million.

Keeping Sanchez and Lowe on the roster cost the Tigers two games against the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend. On Thursday, the Tigers should have used Francisco Rodriguez for a four-out save but didn't want to. If the Tigers had another competent reliever in their bullpen, they could have handled the end of the game differently with Shane Greene and Justin Wilson and not put themselves in a situation in which Alex Wilson faced Troy Tulowitzki with the bases loaded.

When the Tigers sent Sanchez to the mound Sunday, fans expected a disaster. It came when Josh Donaldson hit a three-run home run and put a 2-0 game out of reach for a struggling Tigers offense. When Sanchez and Lowe pitch, the Tigers give up games. With options like Matt Boyd and Joe Jimenez waiting in the wings, the Tigers no longer can stick with Lowe and Sanchez.

Finally, there is Aviles, a player who has not performed that poorly but has no role on this roster. Aviles is a utility man, but the Tigers already have that player in Andrew Romine. Aviles also is not a natural outfielder but has been getting most of his playing time in the outfield.

Aviles also does not offer anything at the plate with his .211/.268/.272 split with four extra base hits on the season. He is neither an offense nor defensive plus. J.D. Martinez, as a right-handed-hitting outfielder, is the perfect addition for this team, and the Tigers should release Aviles when Martinez returns from injury. He is owed less than $1 million.

Sharp: Tigers stuck with too many holes, too few options for help