Tigers Haven't Looked Same Since Last Year's Midseason Downturn
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The Detroit Tigers' 2026 campaign to this point can be described with one simple word: Inconsistency. With high expectations coming into the season, sitting at .500 through the first 28 games doesn't reflect a team with world championship aspirations.
When the Tigers seem to have put everything together, such as stringing two home sweeps in back-to-back series, they take two steps backward, especially on the road. Two times this season already, Detroit has blown a 5-0 lead, resulting in a loss.
So, what happened? Back in late 2024, this team was the hottest team in Major League Baseball, and they carried that miracle run to get to the playoffs right into the start of the 2025 season. But ever since the All-Star break last season, this team hasn't looked like the franchise everyone knows it can be.
Tigers' Poor Record Since Summer '25
As reported by Detroit Free Press' Evan Petzold, the Tigers' woes have occurred since the middle of the summer in 2025. Since July 9, 2025, Detroit has played below-average baseball, holding a 42-55 record, which correlates to a .433 win percentage.
To add fuel to the fire, the Tigers' 14-14 start means that they must win 76 of their final 134 games to reach the 90-win plateau. Petzold reported that it is doable, as the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs all did so.
Yes, it's still April, and there isn't time to panic yet if you're a Tigers fan, but it is concerning with how the track record since the summer has unfolded.
Several players who were key to success in 2025 have gotten out of the gates slowly in 2026. It's taken Spencer Torkelson nearly the whole month to hit his first home run (now he has four), Riley Greene has been destroying the baseball but wasn't in the first handful of games, and Kerry Carpenter has too much swing and miss in his bat at the moment.
The pitching staff was viewed to be one of the best coming into the season, and even though they have had their struggles. If the Tigers only played at Comerica Park, this narrative would be entirely different, but their road faults and inconsistency have brought them to where they are now.
This is still the team that didn't shy away from a 0.2% odd of making the playoffs in 2024, and is the team that fought tooth and nail to ensure they got to play in the ALDS for the second year in a row. Something needs to click that hasn't yet, and when it does, this team is dangerous through and through.
But if it doesn't click and they continue to fall on hard times, a Tarik Skubal trade at the deadline doesn't seem too far off as a real possibility.
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Dominic Minchella is a 2024 Eastern Michigan University graduate with a BA in Communications, Media, and Theatre Arts and a Journalism minor. He covers Major League Baseball for On SI and spends his free time watching games and sharing his insights.