Detroit Tigers Face Significant Lineup Questions Ahead of Spring Training
The Detroit Tigers are set to try to build on their shocking run at the end of last season to make the playoffs and come within a game of the ALCS and parlay it into a strong complete season.
Of course the Roar of '24 was a whole lot of fun and one of the most electric months of baseball in Tigers history, but in an ideal world you wouldn't have to battle back from nearly double-digit games out in late August and need practically a miracle to make the playoffs.
In that same ideal world, you wouldn't be seemingly out of contention at the trade deadline and become sellers, leaving your pitching staff barren in the playoffs.
Detroit knows it cannot have a repeat of last season and they have openly stated as such. Relying on miraculous runs to get where you need to be is not the way to consistently establish the kind of championship culture A.J. Hinch is trying to lay down.
As the Tigers get set to move out of the offseason - hopefully with another move or two still - and turn their focus towards spring training, the looming question surrounding the team is if the lineup as currently constructed will be able to produce over a full season and show development from the young players. In a recent article tackling each team's biggest question mark, Jason Beck of MLB.com spoke about this conundrum.
"No matter what president of baseball operations Scott Harris does the rest of the offseason in terms of adding a veteran bat or two, the Tigers are counting on the development and maturation of their young hitters for the majority of their improvement," Beck wrote. "Whether there’s enough development to boost this lineup for a full season in a competitive division remains to be seen."
Detroit's run was spearheaded largely by getting players like Kerry Carpenter back and healthy as well as Riley Greene taking the next step. Everyone wants the Tigers to make a huge splash and sign someone like Alex Bregman or Anthony Santander, but ultimately there's not a free agent out there who will make or break Detroit in 2025.
What will make or break the 2025 Tigers is the players who have been here from the beginning continuing to take leaps of improvement. Detroit's core is never going to be made from players who the team acquires by being the highest bidder, but from players they have drafted, developed, and invested in en route to bringing them up to be major contributors.
Those are the players who the Tigers will need to be impactful next season, not just for a month and a half at the end of the year, but for 162 games. If Detroit can answer that question, it's going to paint a pretty clear picture of what their ceiling will be next season.
