Detroit against all: Is Tigers the team to win in MLB in 2025?
Is Detroit Tigers really as good as what we have seen so far in the season? Our experts analyze it
If you chose the imposing Los Angeles Dodgers as the first team to win 50 games this MLB season, you were not alone.
And you also mistaken.
If you chose the Detroit Tigers, congratulations! We are not sure to believe you, but we will give you the benefit of the doubt.
The Tigers won their 50th game on Tuesday, a day before the Dodgers, and achieved it thanks to the great contributions throughout the As Tarik Skubal season, the energetic Riley Greene and the resurgence of Javier Baez, among many others.
But are they really as good as they have played so far? Are they even the best American league team? Could they defeat the Dodgers (or any team that arises from a national league full of talent) in the World Series?
We ask MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Tim Koeown, Jeff Passan and David Schoenfield that they will talk about the Tigers before they receive the Minnesota Twins in the ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ (7:00 p.m., ET, AM850 and ESPN2).
Who is the biggest threat to Detroit in the American League? Would you bet on the Tigers to beat them in a American League championship series?
Doolittle: The Yankees still have the best roster in the American league and remain the favorites, even with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Houston Astros quickly approaching both Detroit and New York. This season he feels like one in which, for October, there will be no clear favorite in the American League. But if we focus on a possible American league championship series between Tigers and Yankees, I like the interchangeability of the Detroit coaching staff that we saw in action at the end of last year. Max Fried and Skubal neutralize each other, so everything is reduced to the amount of favorable clashes that AJ FANCH He can handle during a series of games between two postseason offensives, probably based on appropriate home runs.
Keown: Obviously, they are the Yankees, unless they are the Rays. The alignment of Tampa is deep and insistent, and the body of pitchers is exactly what always seems to be: consistent, economical and composed of players who only the most avid fans can identify. They are really good; As much, the best major league team played in a stadium of minor leagues.
Passan: They are still the New York Yankees. They have Aaron Judge, Fried and Carlos Rodon for four openings, have a deeper alignment than Detroit. Whoever wins the theoretical confrontation could depend on the aggressiveness with which each team seeks to improve in the deadline for changes. Just say that Tigers will not change Jack Flaherty this year.
Schoenfield: I was also going to say the Yankees, but while I write this, I just saw the stars sweep the Philadelphia Phillies, limiting them to a race in three games. As good as Skubal has been Hunter Brown, if not better. (A couple of Brown-Skubal clashes in the American League championship series would be hilarious). If we add to that to Framber Valdez, we have two Aces and one of the best gaming bulls in the industry game. The offensive? Nothing from the other world. The decisive factor is clear: that Yordan Alvarez recovers and hit again.
Who is the greatest threat to Detroit in the National League? And would you bet that the Tigers will be overcome in a world series confrontation?
Doolittle: Dodgers are the team to win, point. In many ways, its irregular start of the season, caused by so many launch injuries, represents the lowest level of possible results for angels. And the Dodgers are still on top of the big leagues. I can’t think of any good reason to bet on him in the competitive context of 2025. In a World Series Tigres vs. Dodgers, who would somehow be the first in history, simply I don’t see the Tigers scoring enough to overcome Los Angeles four times.
Keown: Dodgers. There is no need to be ingenious. Dodgers are the greatest threat to almost everything related to baseball. And although the confrontation would be hilarious, full of all those contradictory juxtapositions that make a series fascinating, let’s say the angels in seven.
Passan: They are still the angels Dodgers. They are recovering, with Shohei Ohtani back in the mound and even connecting more homers than anyone in the National League. Will Smith is having the quieter season remembered, with .300/.400/.500. Freddie Freeman is doing Freddie Freeman. Andy Pages is playing a baseball worthy of a game of stars. Even Max Muncy is hitting now. And, yes, pitching has been a problem, but they have enough depth – and enough depth in the minor leagues to use in changes – to find 13 more than viable arms to work in October.
Schoenfield: A confrontation between the Tigers and the Dodgers would be a classic of the original 16, and those always feel a little more special. Although, who would not want to see a rematch of the world series of 1945, 1935, 1908 or 1907 between the Tigers and the Cubs? Those were divided 2-2, so we need a tiebreaker. But I’m deviating from the subject. Yes, the Dodgers are still the team to win in the National League, especially after seeing the offensive problems of the Phillies, the lack of depth in the pitching of the Cubs and the inconsistency of the METS. Dodgers have injuries to face, but there is still time for Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and everyone else recovers.
A game, the season at stake, who would you want on the mound for your team: Tarik Skubal or any other baseball?
Doolittle: I would lean for Skubal, for a hair, about Zack Wheeler, with Paul Skenes around third place. As things are going, by the end of the year it could be Jacob Misiorowski, but, probably, I’m getting ahead. Anyway, Skubal has maintained the constant dominance of last season and is right in that rare area to which the great openers arrive, where you are surprised that someone scores them. He and Wheeler are tied with the largest amount of annotations of 70 or more (18) since the beginning of last season. Their teams have a 17-1 record in those games. It is a coin in the air, but I prefer Skubal.
Keown: Skubal. There are many other candidates: Wheeler, Fried, Jacob Degrom, and how about a little love for Logan Webb? But I am almost certain that a survey of major leagues would reveal that Skubal is the least they would like to face, since everything depends on the result.
Passan: I prefer Skubal. Although others have the experience and the pedigree, I bet on talent. And no one, not even skenes, is at the Skubal level right now. It does not grant ball bases. Tow everyone. Suppresses homers. If a launch could be built in a laboratory, it would look a lot like Skubal.
Schoenfield: I lean on Wheeler, based only on its postseason history: it has an effectiveness of 2.18 in 70.1 tickets in October, allowing only one race or none of its 11 openings. They are all since 2022, so it is not as if we were seeing achievements of a decade ago. And Wheeler is launching better than ever, with the lowest PAHO of his career and the highest strikeout rate of his career.
What is Detroit’s greatest weakness that could be exposed in October?
Doolittle: I think that an elite pitching in October could expose an offensive that exceeds expectations. It is a solid alignment, but the main racing producers of the team – Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Zach McKinstry, Báez, etc. – can accumulate strikeouts quickly. If that happens, Eéste is a team that does not run anything and that lack of versatility worries me.
Keown: Tigers are one of the few teams that do not have an obvious weakness or especially obvious strength. They have many really good players, but only one excellent: Skubal. (We are looking for a second place for Riley Greene). His manager is someone who knows how to navigate the postseason, and have applied the confidence they won with the remarkable playoff race last season to this season. So they choose: any aspect of the game could catapult them to the title, and any aspect could be their downfall. And no, that does not answer the question.
Passan: The left side of Detroit’s infield is not what could be considered as championship caliber. With Trey Sweeney monopolizing most shifts to Bat in the Shortstop, Tigers are using a replacement player almost every day. The third base is even worse: the third Detroit bases barely have an PAHO of .600, and although they could have found the answer in McKinstry, depending on a 30 -year -old player who until this year had never hit is a risky proposal.
Schoenfield: I am not quite convinced of his gaming bullpen, or his bullpen in general. Undoubtedly, Will Vara and the Specialist in Speed Changes Tommy Kahnle have done the job so far, but none has a dominant strikeout rate for a 2025 closure and, in general, the Detroit bullpen occupies the 25th position in the major leagues in the stubborn rate. How will that be seen in the postseason against better alignments?
One month after the deadline for changes, what movement that tigers should make to reach the top?
Doolittle: The most important incorporations would be a number 3 or higher opener, or a renowned closure; The same as all the contestants would desire. A more discreet movement that would really help would be to aim at a shortstop like Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whose Bat improves what Detroit has obtained from the position in terms of gross production. But it also adds contact capacity, another threat of theft of bases and a quality glove. So that the Tigers maximize the possibilities of title that generated their great beginning, they need to think of multiple movements to complete the roster, not in one.
Keown: The general opinion is to reinforce the bullpen and improve the offensive in the third base, which would put names like Pete Fairbanks and Nolan sandy on top of the list. But both pitching and offensive are among the 10 best in almost all relevant statistics, and I maintain that there are equally solid arguments for tigers to bet on a frontline starter. Offering Sandy Alcántara a fresh atmosphere would deepen the rotation and relieve the psychological load of Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize. (All this becomes irrelevant if the return to the MLB of Dietrich Enns, veteran of the 34 -year -old KBO, is really the solution).
Passan: That Eugenio Suárez returns home. The third base, which currently has 25 home runs and a slugging of .569, signed with Detroit as Amateur in 2008 and spent five years in the minors before debuting in 2014. That winter, the Tigers changed it to Cincinnati Reds for the right pitcher Alfredo Simon, who, in his only season in Detroit, recorded an effectiveness of 5.05 in 187 in 187 in 187. Suárez’s power would fit perfectly in the alignment of the Tigers and is robust enough to overcome the fence of Eating Park, one of the largest stadiums in the MLB.
Schoenfield: This is the beauty of the Tigers: they can go in any direction. Despite how good the offensive has been, it seems that several of these players are ready for a setback in the second half: Báez, McKinstry, maybe Torkelson and Gleyber Torres. That group is well above their production level of 2024. If those players decline, an impact bat could be the solution. But is there one available? Arenado, certainly, is no longer an impact bat and may not be exchanged anyway. Maybe Eugenio Suárez if diamondbacks decline. But the most likely and easy answer: help for the bullpen.
