Detroit Tigers Rising Star Begins to Heat Up After Rough Start to Campaign

The Detroit Tigers have started to get some serious production from one of their young players who they hope is a key piece of the future.

May 2, 2025; Anaheim, California, USA; Detroit Tigers second baseman Colt Keith (33) celebrates with teammates after hitting a home run during the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. | Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers have been one of the best teams in all of baseball to start the year, however that does not mean they have received the best production possible from all of their stars.

One example of this thus far has been second baseman turned first baseman turned designated hitter Colt Keith.

Clearly, the team sees Keith as a key part of their future and made that obvious when they gave him a rare six-year contract even before he made his big league debut last season.

Keith has had to adjust defensively several times this season, starting at first after playing second base last year because of the Gleyber Torres addition.

When Spencer Torkelson began the season with a massive resurgence and looked strong on defense at first as well, it forced Keith into a largely designated hitter role once Torres returned from injury.

With all the defensive switches and role changes for Keith, he got off to a rough start at the plate in the first month of the season.

Perhaps things are starting to turn around however, as on Sunday afternoon Keith blasted his third home run in the last five games to open things up in the final game of the series against the Los Angeles Angels.

Colt leaves the yard 🚀 pic.twitter.com/xuslWc1Xpu

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 4, 2025

Keith also teed off on one in the ninth inning home run parade on Friday night and hit a massive moonshot in the final game of the series against the Houston Astros on Wednesday:

RILEY. COLT.

Back-to-back homers in clutch time ‼️ pic.twitter.com/MoSJWHp65W

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 3, 2025

Colt crushed that one 💣 pic.twitter.com/zPKPTgAzL1

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 30, 2025

Though Keith entered Sunday with a rough looking slash line of just .173/.316/.272, his best production from last season came during the second half after he took some time to adjust to Major League pitching.

The talent has been proven to be there, especially at the plate, Keith has just struggled to find a real level of consistency to this point in his career.

Clearly, there is an extra power gear in there that he showed at times last year but not over the course of the full season with just 13 home runs in 141 games.

It took Keith a long time to get on the board in the long ball department this year, however perhaps the flood gates have now opened and he can suddenly be a massive part of this team creating runs.

Still just 23 years old, Keith has shown enough for the Tigers to believe he is a key part of their lineup for the foreseeable future.

Though he had a brutal start to the year at the plate, he is now starting to hold up his end of that bargain.