The first two games in Houston this week somewhat aside, there aren’t many more fun teams to be right now than the Detroit Tigers.
They’re fresh off a wild late-2024 run that got them into the playoffs and, ultimately, the American League Division Series. They’ve got one of the most loyal fanbases in all of baseball, one that has been waiting for this emergent moment for years. They’re in first place in the AL Central, with one of the best run differentials in all of the Majors. And they’re of course part of a resurgent moment for Detroit sports, with the Pistons making the NBA playoffs and the Lions one of the best teams in the NFL. (Plus, Detroiters is a great show.) Detroit is booming right now.
Is everything coming together for the Tigers? Here are six reasons why it just might be. (All stats through Monday.)
They’re off to a great start
There is a thought that the Tigers were terrible for most of 2024 before going on that run at the end of the season, but that’s not exactly true: They were 17-13 at the end of April. It was May and June that got them last year -- they were 21-33 over that stretch -- before July, August and especially September saved them.
Even with that, they’re already off to a better pace than they were in 2024, and this looks much more sustainable: That plus-39 run differential is no joke, ranking right up there with the Yankees for the best in the AL. The Tigers needed to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke. They already have. (And Riley Greene, with three homers over his past three games, may just be getting it going.)
Those top picks are finally paying off
It’s not always the best thing for your franchise when you make multiple No. 1 overall Draft picks in a short span. After all, it means you were bad enough to have the opportunity to pick first in the first place. But if that does happen, you better make it count. For a while, it looked like the Tigers might have borked theirs. In 2018, they chose right-hander Casey Mize out of Auburn, and two years later they took Arizona State slugger Spencer Torkelson. (In between, they took Greene fifth overall.) Going into this season, both No. 1 picks faced serious questions.
While it took Mize longer to get established than the Tigers might have liked (partially because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season), he had a solid rookie year in ’21 before requiring Tommy John surgery and missing nearly all of ’22-23. After a stop-and-start season in ’24, Mize, at last, looks like that top pick in ’25, off to a 4-1 start with a 2.12 ERA in five starts.
Torkelson looked like a can’t-miss hitter … until he missed, and missed, and missed -- for a long time. He struggled mightily as a rookie in 2022, and while he bounced back to hit 31 homers in ’23, he still struck out 171 times and posted just a 107 OPS+. While many saw a potential breakout in ’24, Torkelson had such a tough time that he wound up back in Triple-A for more than two months. This spring, it wasn’t even clear that Torkelson would have a roster spot, much less a starting job. But he has already, in 29 games, put up the best WAR of his career (1.1 bWAR). He’s hitting for power and getting on base, looking, at last, like the guy they’ve been waiting for.
It took a long time -- maybe too long -- but those top picks finally look like top picks.
Javier Báez is contributing
The Tigers inked Báez to a six-year, $140 million deal before the 2022 season and watched his game essentially evaporate. The two-time All-Star and ’18 National League MVP runner-up with the Cubs was disappointing in ’22 -- but things got progressively worse in ’23-24, when Báez hit a combined .208 with a .566 OPS and -0.3 WAR over 216 games. Battling lumbar spine and hip inflammation, he didn’t play after Aug. 22 last year. There was reason to wonder if the Tigers would just cut Báez loose, regardless of his contract.
Which is why it’s pretty amazing to see Báez, at the age of 32, start to show signs of life again. The power hasn’t returned -- he still hasn’t homered -- but he’s hitting .299 and playing a downright decent center field, a position where he had never played prior to this year. He’s not the star the Tigers signed him to be (not even close), but at this point, any contributions Báez can make are a positive. Given the team’s issues in center field, he’s making them at an opportune time.
It looks like they might have a back-to-back Cy winner
It is not exactly news that Tarik Skubal is a dominant pitcher right now, but seriously, Tarik Skubal is a dominant pitcher right now. Through his first six starts, the 2024 AL Cy Young Award and Pitching Triple Crown winner has essentially put up the exact numbers he put up last year. Meanwhile, because Detroit has more around him (and a better bullpen), he isn’t being asked to push longer into games than he has to. He’s averaging less than six innings per start, and he has yet to top 93 pitches in an outing.
Manager A.J. Hinch’s pitching strategy for last year’s playoffs was famously “Tarik Skubal and pitching chaos,” which is not a bad strategy but also is not sustainable over a full season. The balance is working out better so far, and Skubal and the Tigers are benefitting.
Jack Flaherty fell into their laps again
The Tigers famously dealt Flaherty to the Dodgers at last year’s Trade Deadline, when the team did not seem to be in serious contention. Instead, Detroit surged into the playoffs without Flaherty, who ended up winning himself a World Series ring.
Despite Flaherty’s strong 2024, the market never quite materialized for him in the offseason the way he had been hoping, so a reunion with the Tigers, on a modest two-year, $35 million deal, turned out to be the best thing for both parties. The Tigers are thrilled with the results so far, with Flaherty posting a 3.34 ERA through six starts. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a reliable No. 2 starter behind Skubal, which is what they most needed. One thing is for sure: He won’t be shipped out at the Deadline this time.
They can aggressively add at the Deadline
Do not forget who currently has MLB Pipeline’s top farm system in baseball: It’s the Tigers. They have six of the top 100 prospects in baseball, a total that includes Thayron Liranzo (MLB’s No. 78 prospect, Tigers’ No. 5), who came to Detroit -- along with starting shortstop Trey Sweeney -- in exchange for Flaherty.
While No. 4 overall prospect Jackson Jobe is already a rotation fixture in Detroit, the other five aren’t quite ready for the Majors just yet. That gives the Tigers a trove of prospects to potentially ship out at the Deadline, depending on who is available. Need another starting pitcher? Another infielder? A big (preferably right-handed) bat? Lots of teams will have ammunition to work with in July. But no team has more than Detroit. This team is good now. But it has every opportunity to get better. Look out: The Tigers may just be for real.