Tigers Giving 2024 Playoff Vibes Even After Trading Aces at Deadline

The Detroit Tigers continue to defy the convention that by trading your aces you can’t stay in a playoff race.

Detroit Tigers mascot Paws. Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

For much of the season the Detroit Tigers had been on the outside of the American League playoff picture. That ended Thursday night. The Detroit Tigers have a foothold.

Detroit's win over Cleveland, combined with the Texas Rangers losing to the Los Angeles Angels late on Thursday in Anaheim, meant that Detroit vaulted into the final American League wild card berth.

The Tigers (60-61) are now one-half game ahead of the Rangers as they go into a critical three-game series with the Chicago White Sox that starts on Friday.

Detroit has done this for the past two weeks without Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, both of which were traded at the deadline because the organization was concerned it would be unable to sign either of them in the offseason.

To outsiders that felt like Detroit was giving up, even though they weren't that far out of the playoffs. But now? Not only would they be in the playoffs that they started today, but there's still a good chance they can run down the White Sox and win the division.

Detroit’s Remarkable Turnaround

Detroit Tigers center fielder Max Clark. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

At the end of May the Tigers were 22-38 and 11.5 games back of the lead in the AL Central. They had lost four games in a row. They looked dead in the water. Sharks were already circling thinking that the Tigers might go the fire sale route and build around the young talent they had in their minor league system.

The reality is the Tigers reaching a wild card berth has been more than two months in the making. It did not happen overnight. Skubal and Mize helped before they were traded.

It was a five-game stretch in late July that doomed Detroit’s chances of keeping Skubal and Mize. From July 25-29 Detroit lost four out of five games and fell six games back in the division. The Tigers were closer in the wild card race. But president of baseball operations Scott Harris said Detroit made the decision to trade Skubal after that last loss, 10-9 to Baltimore, on July 29.

Two days later he was traded. Two days after that Mize was traded. The Tigers are 8-3 in August and 16-9 since the All-Star break.

The rotation now belongs to budding ace Troy Melton, along with Keider Montero and the offseason’s big free agent acquisition Framber Valdez. From there, it's pitching chaos as the Tigers coax former first-round pick Jackson Jobe back into the rotation after Tommy John surgery.

The offense is in much better shape and energized by the promotion of rookie Max Clark along with likely American League rookie of the year slashing Kevin McGonigle.

It feels like 2024, where the Tigers rode a massive hot streak in the season's final two months to get to the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Only this time they'll do it without Skubal and Mize. The surprising part is that they're they appear to be equipped to do it.