40 games in, Tigers are serious contenders again
Time flies when you’re having fun! Forty games are in the books for the Detroit Tigers ’ 2025 baseball season, and the team finds itself in a virtual tie for the best record in all of major league baseball, in first place in their division, and contending for a playoff spot again. Detroit also has the best run differential, having scored a whopping 77 more runs than they have given up.
Sparky Anderson used to say that it takes 40 games before you know what kind of a team you have. Well, the Detroit Tigers have a darned good one this season. The team sits at 26- 14 with a win percentage of .650 which would be on pace for 105 wins over a 162 game season, best in franchise history. They’re off to their best start since 1984, when they famously started out 35-5 en route to a World Series title.
The 2024 Tigers traded away every player who wasn’t nailed down at the trade deadline in July, and then went on a tear, finishing with a 31–13 run over their final 44 games and grabbing a playoff spot, on the strength of a “pitching chaos” scheme that was pieced together out of necessity for lack of enough experienced major league pitchers to fill out a full rotation. They are 57-27 since that point. Pretty convincing stuff.
In 2025, so far they have patched together an outfield made up of utility infielders with three potential starters on the injured list. Parker Meadows, Wenceel Perez and Matt Vierling have been absent all season, replaced in the outfield by Zack McKinstry, Javier Baez, and for a while, Ryan Kreidler.
The offseason brought the return of Jack Flaherty and the addition of Alex Cobb to the rotation, the failed pursuit of Alex Bregman and the acquisition of Gleyber Torres, who was supposed to bump rising star Colt Keith over to the premier sack, leaving former all world prospect Spencer Torkelson fighting for a roster spot.
They also signed Manuel Margot to fill in for Meadows, and then Vierling, and then Wenceel Pérez, and when he went on the IL early in the season, the Tigers were resorted to a backup to the backup. Outfield chaos?
Well, things don’t always go as they draw them up. Cobb has yet to throw a pitch, Torres is entrenched at the keystone position but only after missing a couple of weeks on the IL, and Torkelson is finally starting to live up to the promise that made him the first overall pick.
Now, it is Keith who could be the odd man out, despite a .357 on base percentage, and former all star shortstop Javier Baez has regained his form at the plate, albeit with plenty of batted ball luck, while starting in center field.
How they Rank
Breaking it down into categories, and position by position and stat by stat, there is plenty of good news for Detroit baseball fans.
The big picture shows that Detroit ranks fourth in the majors in runs scored, right up there with the Dodgers , Yankees , and the suddenly prolific Chicago Cubs . They’re fifth in batting average, sixth in on base percentage and in slugging percentage, and seventh in weighted on base average.
While they rank dead last in stolen bases, they lead the majors in extra bases taken percentage, grabbing an extra base 56 percent of opportunities. (XBT% is the percentage of times that a runner moves from first to third or scores from second base on a single, or scores from first on a double.) And somehow, only five teams have been thrown out on the bases fewer times than the Tigers. When they have attempted to steal a base, they have been successful 85 percent of the time, which is second in the majors. That’s some efficient base running!
On the mound, the Tigers sport the third lowest ERA in the major leagues at 2.90. The starting rotation ranks fourth with a 3.20 ERA and the bullpen leads the majors at 2.39.
Going by position, here is how the Tigers rank among the 30 major league teams, according to Baseball reference’s Wins above average, which is a bit different from Wins above Replacement.
All pitching- 2nd
Starting pitching- 6th
Relief pitching- 6th
Catcher- 4th
First base- 4th
Second base- 8th
Third base- 6th
Shortstop- 10th
Left Field- 11th
Center field- 13th
Right field- 11th
Designated hitter- 9th
Notice any trends here? Every single position ranks at least in the top half of the major leagues. Nine of 12 categories rank in the top ten, and six of 12 rank in the top six (i.e. top fifth of MLB). That’s just a good all around team, without any significant weaknesses in their performance. Even if some individuals have been struggling for the season, manager AJ Hinch has been able to get above average performance out of every position, and elite production out of half of them.
The three weakest positions, at least by ranking, are the three outfield spots, where Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, and Javier Baez have been as formidable as any trio in recent games.
The story lines that weren’t on anybody’s bingo card are almost too numerous to count:
- Javier Baez being bumped off his position at shortstop, only to reemerge as the starting center fielder, slashing .308/ .345/ .467 for a wRC+ of 134
- Spencer Torkelson, on the verge of a bust, bouncing back to lead the team in home runs and leading the team in WAR
- Trey Sweeney, acquired from the Dodgers for Flaherty last July, slashing a respectable .262/ .338/ .377 for a wRC_ of 109
- And Sweeney ranks ninth on the Tigers in wRC+, as one of eleven players with at least 100 wRC+. Those are the eleven hitters who have at least 50 plate appearances through the first 40 games. (and all but Ibanez have at least 80 PA’s).
- An outfield that has had major contributions from Baez, McKinstry, and Kreidler
- Just as in 2024, we find three AL Central teams sitting in playoff position, as the Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals are proving hard to shake off
And despite all that, the Tigers are atop the major leagues, just ahead of the LA Dodgers , after spotting the world champs a three game lead to start the season. As Ernie Harwell might say… that’s baseball!