Can the Detroit Tigers catch up with the struggling Minnesota Twins?
Minnesota Star Tribune sportswriter Bobby Nightengale joins Days of Roar to discuss how the struggling Minnesota Twins are helping the Detroit Tigers.
For much of the last decade, the Detroit Tigers have maneuvered themselves into a position that is unfamiliar to the franchise.
The Tigers are fighting for a playoff spot with eight games remaining — despite Friday’s 7-1 loss, they are one game behind the Minnesota Twins for the American League’s final wild-card spot. (The Twins, however, have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Tigers, so they are effectively two games behind.)
The Tigers have not made the MLB playoffs since the 2014 season, the last playoff series of this era for the franchise led by Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. The Tigers, under new manager Brad Ausmus, were defeated by the Baltimore Orioles in the best-of-three American League Division Series, in the final season of a franchise-record streak of four consecutive playoff appearances.
The Tigers, along with the Los Angeles Angels, have the longest active drought in the MLB without playoff participation.
The decade that followed was a dark one for the Tigers. They finished last in the AL Central in 2015 before making a push in 2016, finishing 2½ games out of a wild-card spot. The next season, key players like Verlander and JD Martinez were traded to begin a rebuild.
The Tigers finished 2017 with the fewest wins in MLB (64) and were selected No. 1 in the 2018 MLB Draft (Casey Mize) before bottoming out in 2019 with 47 wins, the worst finish in the AL. The organization focused on restructuring the farm system under then-General Manager Al Avila and began recruiting and signing the young players who currently make up the Major League roster.
The Tigers began to rise again in 2021 after hiring manager AJ Hinch and promoting talented young players, resulting in a late-season surge and 77 wins. They fell back to 66 wins in 2022 before enjoying another winning streak in 2023 with 78 wins.
The momentum didn’t carry over into the winter as the Tigers expected. After finishing just above .500 in the first month, they struggled through May and June, prompting the team to sell at the deadline and seemingly set their sights on 2025.
But the Tigers’ young core and strong pitching staff have made a run for the ages. Detroit overcame a 10-game deficit in the race for the final AL wild-card spot to achieve the best record in MLB since Aug. 11. Before their loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, the Tigers were tied with the Twins for last place.
The Tigers have three series left and need to finish one game ahead of the Twins to return to an environment the franchise hasn’t experienced in a decade.
Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press Coverage of the city’s professional teams, the state’s two leading universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22and email him at [email protected].
