This Weakness Could Be Trouble for the Detroit Tigers in 2026
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On the surface, the 2026 Detroit Tigers look like a pretty complete team. On top of boasting arguably the best pitcher in the world in 2025 AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, they head into the new season with a potent offense and an imposing, reloaded pitching staff.
Detroit finished 11th league-wide in runs scored last season, and that was with the likes of Kerry Carpenter, Javier Baez, Parker Meadows and Wenceel Pérez missing extended time due to injuries.
Among the pitching ranks, Skubal is back after an offseason full of trade rumors and will now be joined in the Tigers' rotation by former Houston Astros ace Framber Valdez and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, who signed on for a second go-around with the club. They will be backed up by a new-look bullpen that features incoming additions, Kenley Jansen and Kyle Finnegan.
Of course, no team is perfect, and Detroit has one particularly glaring area of weakness: base running.
Tigers Failed to Address League-Worst Base Running This Winter
This isn't a new problem for the Tigers. After finishing among the bottom-five MLB teams in steals in each of 2022, 2023 and 2024, they dropped to dead-last in 2025, recording just 61 steals on a league-low 77 attempts. In fact, they attempted 15 fewer steals than any other major league club. To put that in context, the Tampa Bay Rays led the majors with 194 steals, well over double Detroit's total number of attempts.
Individually, Zach McKinstry led the charge with 19 base thefts, but no other Tigers base runner had more than eight steals. Although Detroit had a chance to address the deficiency this past winter, their only position player addition of note was signing Austin Slater to a minor league contract - and he had all of one steal last season.
If the Tigers are hoping to improve their fortunes on the base paths, that improvement will likely have to come from their prospect ranks. Top prospect Kevin McGonigle, who could make the Opening Day roster, notched 22 steals in the minors over the 2024 campaign. Meanwhile, No. 2 prospect Max Clark, who has courted controversy this spring, stole 19 bases in 2025 after a 29-steal season in 2024.
Perhaps Detroit manager A.J. Hinch simply doesn't prioritize steals as part of his offensive game plan. After all, his Houston Astros teams went from third in stolen bases during his first year in charge (2015) all the way down to 19th just three seasons later.
Regardless, on a Tigers team boasting relatively few areas of concern, base running seems like a deficiency that could cost them a few precious runs along the way.
Ben Fisher is a long-time sportswriter and baseball lover, dating back to 2008, when he was a member of the media relations team for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has covered a wide range of sports for a seemingly endless array of publications, including The Canadian Press, Fansided and The Hockey Writers. When he isn't writing about sports, he can be found coaching his equally baseball-obsessed sons' Little League teams.