Detroit Tigers Rank Among Top 15 After Late Season Playoff Push
The Detroit Tigers were not expecting much from their 2024 MLB season and received much more than they could have ever imagined.
It was to be yet another year of their extensive rebuild, but one step closer to finally returning to playoff contention with further development of their young roster.
It was to the point where even at the July 30th, 2024 MLB trade deadline, the team had a record of 52-57, sitting 14.0 games back of the Cleveland Guardians for the American League Central division lead, and 7.5 games back of the Kansas City Royals for the third Wild Card berth with four other teams caught between them.
63 games and 34 wins later, the Tigers held the third Wild Card berth with a ticket punched for October baseball.
Even after their unlikely run, no one expected Detroit to make it out of the Wild Card round as they were matched up with the American League West-winning Houston Astros, eight years into their impressive dynasty.
Just two games, both wins, later, the Tigers were moving on to the American League Divisional Round of the playoffs, but their Cinderella Story would come to an end at the hands of the Guardians, though they needed five games to do so.
Now that the season is officially over and free agency is just days away, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report released the latest rendition of his MLB Power Rankings with Detroit placing 13th.
"The Tigers went 31-14 over their final 45 games to surge into a wild-card spot, then swept the Houston Astros in the Wild Card Series before taking the Cleveland Guardians to five games in the ALDS," writes Reuter, "It was lightning in a bottle to a point, but there is some real talent on the roster, including AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal, All-Star outfielder Riley Greene and breakout star Parker Meadows."
Tarik Skubal quietly flew under the radar in 2023, returning from an injury late in the season to begin his run of dominance on the mound.
He continued that run in 2024 and is now all but guaranteed to win the American League Cy Young Award.
It is a solid core that the Tigers have in place, all young and all under team control for multiple years to come, and the postseason experience they received this year could prove paramount to the team's success moving forward.
Detroit is in a good place as an organization right now, and we may be on the precipice of another Astros-like run.
