Detroit Tigers Emerging Star Will Be Key To Offensive Success This Season

Which hitter on the Detroit Tigers is the key to success?

Mar 13, 2025; Lakeland, Florida, USA; Detroit Tigers first baseman Colt Keith (33) hits during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. | Mike Watters-Imagn Images

With the regular season starting up for the Detroit Tigers, the franchise will have some much higher expectations than in years past. 

Due to the surprise success of the last campaign, the Tigers will be trying to make it back-to-back postseason berths in 2025. 

This winter, the club did a nice job of building upon what they started last year. Even though they had some great success, this was far from a perfect team. 

The front office seemingly realized that and made some significant moves in free agency. Detroit was able to really bolster the pitching staff with the signings of Jack Flaherty, Alex Cobb, and Tommy Kahnle. 

Outside Tarik Skubal, starting pitching was a bit of an issue in the second half of the year, but that should have been addressed. 

However, the other main issue for the Tigers was run production, especially from the middle of the batting order. 

While Riley Greene is an emerging star, he does need help and support in order for this unit to achieve what they want in this campaign. 

Jason Beck of MLB.com recently spoke about one thing that needs to go right for the Tigers being production from the middle of their lineup. 

“Colt Keith needs to emerge as a more consistent run producer in his second season, while Gleyber Torres could stretch the productive portion of the lineup with a bounceback campaign.”

The 23-year-old infielder had a strong rookie campaign for Detroit and the team will be expecting him to take another step forward this coming year. 

This offseason, it appeared that Keith was going to be heading to first base to take over a majority of the playing time there. However, due to Spencer Torkelson having a great spring training and making the team, the positions for the Tigers may be fluid. 

Regardless of where Keith is going to be playing on the field, Detroit will need him to continue his development as a hitter. 

Last year, he slashed .260/.309/.380 with 13 home runs and 61 RBI. While the numbers were strong as a rookie, the Tigers will be expecting more this coming season. 

Even though it was a strong offseason, the team didn’t do much to improve in free agency on offense. Missing out on Alex Bregman was a tough blow, but with the young talent, the team was likely expecting some improvement from within coming into the offseason. 

Keith will be an important part of that. If the young slugger is going to improve in year two, it will certainly help the middle of the order and the offense overall for Detroit.