Rebuilding Rob

I’ve had this posted in my drafts, unfinished, for the better part of the last two weeks. I keep meaning to post it after every tigers win, but I forget. They lost yesterday, at a game that I attended, but I decided to go ahead and post this now anyway

I am absolutely bursting at the seams over here right now, because as of this writing, my hometown Detroit Tigers are 46-27. They are in first place in the American League Central division. They have not only the best record in the American League, but they have the very best record in all of major-league baseball as well!

Well, this next statistic doesn’t mean much in early June, if that season were to end tomorrow, the Tigers would have home-field advantage not only throughout the American League playoffs, but also when the World Series, should they get there.

Of course, the tigers went on their late season, remarkable run last year, advancing to the postseason for the first time in a decade, and even coming within one game of reaching the American league championship series. This is very impressive, considering that the team was down to one starting pitcher and was using a tactic locally known as “bullpen chaos“

Even for the years that the Tigers have had good seasons, this is an uncharacteristically good start. Statistically, this 2025 team has already been compared to the 2006 tiger team that won the American League championship in 2006 and the 1984 team that won the World Series. That’s some very impressive company in this area!

I’m no sports journalist, and I probably am not putting anywhere near the research into this topic that it deserves, but here are in my opinion, factors that have led to the tigers resurgence in 2025:

How Javy got his groove back.

Right from opening day, there have been several surprises that have led to the Tigers resurgence. Perhaps biggest of all was has been the resurgence of Javy Baez – the Tigers $140 million dollar man who became, a statistically, the worst every day position player in baseball for the last three seasons. The Baez deal had been a colossal bust. Then, late last season, as a tigers were making their historic run in mid August, buyers went on the injured list where he finished the 2024 season following a hip surgery

For the first two months of the season, buyers was the surprise hit of the Tigers every day lineup. All you need to do is go back and look at my social media post for the last two seasons and you can see how many times I said something like “DFA Javi”

For a few weeks, his bat that seemed to cool off, as as normal in baseball. But recently, Baez seems to be hitting the ball once again. It’s crazy to think that Baez may have been playing for months, or even for a few seasons, on a bad hip.

It takes a little Tork

Another pleasant, but somewhat unexpected surprise in the Tigers turn around the season has been the emergency of Spencer Torkelson. The number one overall draft pick in 2021, torture signs of promise back in 2023 when he hit three home runs. People thought we were finally seeing The emergence of a prospect. We heard so much about for years. 2024 was a bit of a drop off. In fact, Turkle spent a significant amount of time with the Tigers AAA affiliate, the Toledo mudhead. Presumably, he took to the demotion well, swallowed his pride and started taking the advice of coaches and the tiger system.

This season, everything seems to be hitting on all cylinders for him as he has already surpassed a 2024 home run total. Again, of course, over 162 game season, players will have abs and flows in their stats. Tork isn’t hitting the ball quite as well as he had been previously, but seems more like the inevitable cooling off moment in such a long season

An encore performance for Skub

It had been brewing for a few years. Tiger starting pitcher Tarik Skubal was flying somewhat below the radar. He wasn’t a big name star, but scouts could tell that he had a great pitching command, and he was putting up consistent winds in a mass statistics that forced everybody to pay attention.

Then, in 2024, Skubal with the American league Cy Young award , anchoring the Tigers pitching rotation and leading the team to their first playoff appearance in 10 years. if you were to ask the average baseball fan was the Tigers one big superstar player, they would answer to school. And that’s probably still true on a national level.

But so far the Tigers have been perhaps the most surprising stories in Major league baseball. I personally am loving every second of it. I’ve been to seven Tigers games this season and there’s still 3 1/2 months to play. At this point, I’m figuring I will probably have to get at least a partial season ticket package for as much money as I’m spending at Tiger games.

But to be honest, this is the kind of stuff I live for. An amazing, fun filled summer with some great baseball. And I’m loving every second of it. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, this is going to be an incredibly fun summer in Detroit.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Sunday is borrowed time
• Teacher Armor and the Saturday Clearing
• The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)

The article “Break up the Tigers!” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.