Tigers' Recent Struggles Expose Significant Concerns in One Key Area
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After a brutal start to the second half of the season, the Detroit Tigers have started to play a little bit better of late. However, they have come back to the pack in the American League.
For most of the first half of the year, the Tigers were considered to be the team to beat in the AL. This was a franchise that seemingly had everything working for them, but some issues have popped up.
In the starting rotation, the team has dealt with a couple of injuries that have negatively impacted them. However, they were recently able to add a couple of veterans at the trade deadline to help fill some gaps.
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The additions of Charlie Morton and Chris Paddack will provide them with some depth, but they might have some question marks in the rotation after Tarik Skubal in October.
The Tigers' Biggest Concern Post-Trade Deadline
While the pitching staff has some concerns, one of the issues that has plagued them of late has been the offense not performing quite as well as they did at the beginning of the year.
Bradford Doolittle of ESPN recently wrote about the biggest lingering concern for the Tigers being their offense.
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“When it comes to the overall pecking order, Detroit has come back to the pack," he wrote. "The Tigers focused their deadline work on the pitching staff, with mixed results. Yet, the Tigers' offensive regression has been the primary culprit for their recent dip.”
Coming into the campaign, offense was certainly an area of concern for Detroit. This was a team that aggressively went after Alex Bregman in free agency to give them a star in the middle of the lineup. Unfortunately, they came up short in that pursuit, with him signing with the Boston Red Sox.
Even though they missed out on him, they were able to get some surprise performances from unlikely contributors to start the season.
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The Tigers' Unlikely Offensive Contributors
Spencer Torkelson and Javier Baez didn’t appear like they were going to have significant roles on the team, but they have had extremely good years so far.
With a need for a right-handed bat in the middle of the order over the winter, Detroit lucked out that Torkelson had a breakout season and filled that void.
While Baez was deserving of being named as an All-Star this campaign, he struggled in July, and that is concerning for the team. Even though it could have just been an off month, it could be a sign of some regression as well.
Since Detroit didn’t elect to add any significant hitters at the deadline, like Eugenio Suarez, they will be taking a bit of a risk that some players who have performed well thus far might not be able to sustain it.
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Nick Ziegler is an alumnus of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. He has been working in sports media covering the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL for nearly a decade with various publications online. With his free time, Nick enjoys being at the Jersey Shore with his wife, daughter, and their golden retriever. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NickZiegler20.