The state of the Big 4 Detroit Sports franchises has been bleak for a long time. That is however, up until this past winter when the Detroit Lions made their historic run to the NFC Championship game, a Detroit sports franchise had yet to make it to the playoffs since the 2019 Pistons and no Detroit Sports franchise had won a playoff game since the 2016 Red Wings. For the last decade and a half, each Detroit sports franchise has gone through at least two rebuilding periods, each franchise with varying, yet disappointing results. In this article, I am going to give my honest outlook on each franchise's chances at making the playoffs and winning a championship.
The Detroit Tigers: No clear direction
Starting off with arguably the worst Detroit sports franchise in recent years, our beloved Detroit Tigers. If you are like me and are a major baseball fan, it has been quite the roller coaster of emotions watching the Tigers in the last 5 to 6 years. Over the last 5 years, we have seen the Tigers go from being the worst team in all of baseball in 2019, finishing the year at 47-114 to seeing arguably the greatest all-around right-handed hitter the game has ever seen in Miguel Cabrera hit major milestones in the twilight of his career, and ultimately make the decision to walk away from the game as a player at the end of the 2023 season.
2020 is a bit of an afterthought for me due to the shortened season with the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 was the first full year back for MLB after the pandemic and it saw the Tigers finish third in the AL Central division with a 77-85 record. We saw a couple of our young pitching prospects start to emerge as players in the majors with the first full seasons for Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal. The 2022 season saw the debut of our number-one overall pick in the 2020 first-year player draft, Spencer Torkleson. He showed flashes of the power we drafted him for, but ultimately struggle through the course of the year. This was also the first year of the albatross of a contract for our everyday "superstar" shortstop, Javier Baez. I said it when the signing was made, and I stand by it today, we made the wrong signing at shortstop in that offseason.
The 2023 season saw the breakout sophomore seasons of Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter. It also saw the emergence of Tarik Skubal as a possible ace of this staff, ultimately these Tigers finished second in the division at 78-84. Coming into the 2024 season, there were a lot of high hopes that this team could run away with the division, however, it has been more of the same. The veteran signing of Kenta Maeda has not paid off. Casey Mize returning after being out for a season and a half with injuries just isn't the ace we thought we were getting when we drafted him. Torkelson and Carpenter have had struggles. The only bright spots have been the emergence of Tarik Skubal as a potential Cy Young candidate in the American League, Riley Greene being a big threat in the lineup being able to hit for both average and power, and the signing of Jack Flaherty being a solid contract, looking like he could be the next great strikeout artist in the Major League.
Despite all of that, these Tigers currently sit in fourth place in the division at 38-46, on pace for another sub-.500 finish and missing the playoffs. It seems to me that, with Chris Illitch at the head of this team, we are not going to spend the money required to field a championship-caliber team anytime in the near future. We are once again going to squander the young, promising careers of Riley Greene and Tarik Skubal and get nothing in return while we can. I do not see the Tigers making the playoffs, let alone winning a championship in the next 5 years.
Bright spots of the 2024 Detroit Tigers
1. Tarik Skubal: 9-3, 2.32 ERA, 97 IP, 112 K, 19 BB
2. Riley Greene: .253 BA, .831 OPS, 15 HR, 41 RBI.
3. Jack Flaherty: 5-5, 3.24 ERA, 89 IP, 115 K, 14 BB
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