Some of this is just bad luck, some is the residue of design (e.g. we have a lot of guys on huge contracts because we were willing to pay later for their good years then, and it's later now), and some is due to desperate/bad choices (e.g. signing pitchers to long-term big-money deals).
Avila the Elder hasn't impressed me, but it's not like he started with a strong young roster either, and our departed owner was pushing for a title and willing to throw money at players, so we made decisions out of desperation; we shouldn't be surprised when they fail.
The bottom line is that we spent a ton of money to extend our window for a Series and that strategy has pretty much played itself out. We were fortunate that Verlander bounced back and that Cabrera is aging gracefully, but at some point all of VMart/Kinsler/Verlander/Cabrera/Sanchez/Zimmerman will be millstones on our roster.