Can the gritty Tigs win it all in 2026? – Detroit Metro Times

Who can fault Detroit Tigers fans for having an increased sense of urgency and a heightened set of expectations for the 2026 season?

After making the playoffs for two straight seasons and likely only having one more season with back-to-back Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal on the roster, Tigers fans had become a bit antsy about the new season.

Those increased expectations had manifested themselves as both impatience and dissatisfaction with the team’s early offseason acquisitions. 

Early in the offseason, the Tigers did add some much-needed depth to their bullpen by signing reliever Drew Anderson (fresh off his baseball odyssey to Korea) and veteran closer Kenley Jansen, and they brought back 2025 trade deadline acquisition Kyle Finnegan.

Many fans thought the team needed to be more aggressive and add more quality hitters to a batting lineup that had faded dramatically while the gritty Tigs blew a 14-game lead down the stretch last season.

One thing to consider is that second baseman Gleyber Torres accepted the Tigers’ qualifying offer (as did starting pitcher Jack Flaherty), instead of entering free agency.

We’ll never know just how much the Tigers wanted Torres to return to the team or whether they wanted to see him leave via free agency. 

But they had to know there was a good chance that Torres would accept their offer.

His return not only absorbed some of the team’s monetary resources, it also eliminated one position that could’ve been filled with a free agent, ensuring there would be fewer roster changes.

Regardless, there was a common perception among many Tigers fans that the organization was being far too cautious and too thrifty in their pursuit of top talent for the 2026 season. 

Those feelings were further exacerbated last December when Tigers President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris said, “Just because a lot of the names look the same doesn’t mean the team is the same.”

Harris stressed that this was all part of believing in the organization’s player-development plan. 

“From the day I got here,” Harris said, “I articulated a vision that is built around development. If we’re going to build around development, this is what it looks like. If you chart the course of this team over the past three years, I think one of the things you’ll notice is that individually guys change and with the team they change.”

It’s not hard to argue that Tigers fans probably needed to reflect a bit. Ten years ago, the organization had been highly successful year in and year out for a decade.

After that, though, things completely bottomed out. The team wasn’t very good and didn’t appear to have a cohesive organizational plan for future success.

Some of that would change just in the process of performing an organizational reset.

Great expectations

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tigers reaching the World Series. That 2006 team was a memorably wonderful surprise that captured the imagination of the entire Tigers fan base.

How sports fans engage with the game has changed over time, with fans now seemingly more inclined to equate championships with success.

And, of course, now we have to recognize how the social media machine directly affects fans’ perceptions of their favorite teams.

The current Tigers team does appear to have a reasonably durable plan, and it’s getting widely recognized for its success with scouting and developing talent. 

For example, the Tigers currently have three of the top 100 prospects in baseball (Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, and Josue Briceño) in their organization.

Blowing that 14-game lead last year after 2024’s magical end-of-season run provided an alarming contrast that eroded many fans’ faith in the direction of the franchise.

But those fans seem to forget that the Tigers are still a team that won a postseason series each of the last two seasons.

This chain of events ultimately tried fans’ patience and skewed their perception of the team on the cusp of the 2026 season.

And even with the distinct possibility that superstar Tarik Skubal will leave for greener pastures next season, the organization still appears to be healthy enough to withstand his eventual loss.

Tigers fans might’ve also felt that Scott Harris was patronizing them by suggesting that even with the return of so many familiar players  this season, the team would still be fundamentally different.

But it seems obvious that Harris thinks the current roster is young enough that it should be qualitatively improved as part of the Tigers’ overarching player-development plan.

As Tigers fans know, 2026 is also the 20th anniversary of the team’s march to the World Series, even though expectations were pretty low entering that season.

But one similarity between that team and this year’s Tigers is that the organization in 2006 had begun developing some quality young talent and sped up their competitive process by being aggressive with creative trades and spending in free agency.

The arrival and development of players in that era like Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe, Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and Joel Zumaya signified that something different was starting to happen.

After last year’s bitter playoff loss at the hands of the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS, it was unclear to many Tigers fans over the winter whether the team was willing to try to take things to the next level with the addition of some top-flight talent.

Who the hell had Verlander on their bingo card?

In a rapid turn of events just before the start of spring training this year, Tigers fans’ impatience was quickly replaced with excitement when the team signed free-agent frontline starter Framber Valdez and brought back all-time Tigers pitching great Justin Verlander.

We did not see that coming!

Now alongside Tarik Skubal, Valdez gives the Tigers one of MLB’s best pitching tandems atop their rotation.

After a frustrating 2025, Valdez was probably a good candidate for a change of scenery.

Many fans questioned his character after an incident between him and an Astros catcher last year where it appeared that Valdez intentionally threw at the catcher (“crossing him up”) out of anger or disagreement.

Both players deny that’s what happened and have said the incident was purely accidental. But the video looks pretty damning of Valdez.

That aside, Valdez now offers the Tigers another top left-hander who pitches a lot of quality innings. He strikes out a fair number of hitters, while also inducing a lot of ground-ball outs.

It’ll be an added organizational challenge for the Tigers’ limited infield defense to capably defend the flurry of ground balls that come when Valdez is on the mound.

And it’ll be interesting to see how the Tigers address this potential liability moving forward.

Justin Verlander’s return on the 20th anniversary of the 2006 World Series team is more than just honorary.

With the unfortunate injuries to Tigers pitchers Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe, Verlander slots in to replace them.

While Verlander had some early-season struggles with the Giants last year, he was among the best pitchers in baseball down the stretch.

At 43, Verlander is now the oldest active player in MLB. He also seems to have matured enough that he’s more willing to provide veteran leadership and a model for pursuing success. 

2026 Justin Verlander is a much different individual than the 2006 version.

After years of trying hard to find frontline starters in the MLB draft (Kyle Sleeth, Kenny Baugh, et al.), the Tigers absolutely hit it out of the park by getting the opportunity to add someone with the prodigious physical gifts and relentless competitive makeup that Verlander so clearly possessed.

He exploded onto the scene in 2006 and directly impacted the team’s fortunes. It remains to be seen this season if he can take on a role similar to 2006 staff ace Kenny Rogers.

We do know that like another new Tiger (Kenley Jansen, 500 saves), Verlander is still chasing a major milestone of 300 career victories (he had 34 more to go before his first scheduled start March 30). 

That makes us think they’ll each still have considerable extrinsic motivation.

Adding superstar pitcher Framber Valdez to the roster this year could be comparable to the Tigers signing Pudge Rodriguez back in 2004 or to Magglio Ordonez, who immediately gave the organization credibility when the Tigers signed him in 2005.

Players of that esteem and high production level exert a strong influence on their teammates and dramatically alter the culture of a franchise.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Tarik Skubal even more driven to excel with Valdez and Verlander now joining him in the rotation.

The road to redemption runs through Detroit

Even though current Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and 2006 Tigers skipper Jim Leyland are from different eras, there are some superficial similarities.

The two men have very different demeanors, but have each earned a high level of respect from their players.

Part of that respect comes from each of them winning a World Series (Leyland with the Marlins in 1997 and Hinch with the Astros in 2017), but also with their ability to communicate directly with their players.

They each overcame some pretty major personal adversity in their careers before getting hired by the Tigers.

In 1999, Leyland retired after just one season with the Colorado Rockies, with two years remaining on his deal — and he got considerable criticism for it.

In 2020, Hinch was suspended for his role in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, which was minimal. Hinch was punished for failing to stop the team’s guilty parties from cheating.

In each case, the managers’ first job back on the bench was with the Tigers. Not only did each bring a culture of success with them, but the teams instantly became qualitatively different upon their arrival.

While 2006 was Leyland’s first year in the Comerica Park dugout, Hinch is now in his sixth season as Tigers manager.

How do you spell relief?

Bolstered by the additions of Verlander and Valdez this year, the Tigers’ scouting department might’ve uncovered a couple of additional pitching gems who could make a big difference this year — if they can sustain their early successes.

When the Tigers brought right-handed hurler Drew Anderson back from South Korea, there was a collective shrug of the shoulders from the fan base.

Anderson was a former Tigers minor leaguer who’d done very little to distinguish himself before going to play in Asia.

But the book on Anderson was that he’d made some significant changes to his repertoire in South Korea. Not only did he gain some velocity, but he was now throwing a pitch called a “kick change-up.”

A “kick change” is a deceptive tumbler of a pitch comparable to a split-finger fastball.

And hitters seem mystified by it.

The Tigers added another veteran of South Korean baseball, left-handed reliever Enmanuel De Jesus. De Jesus has looked promising with the Tigers so far, nailing down his first major-league victory against the San Diego Padres Friday night, and he also captured a lot of attention starring for the Venezuelan team in the World Baseball Classic last month.

Hopefully, De Jesus can continue his run of success and become a surprise contributor for the Tigers this season.

This season marks the first time that both Anderson and De Jesus have been on an MLB roster for Opening Day. But it won’t be the first Opening Day for another Tigers acquisition. Kenley Jansen, a native of Curaçao, will likely be the Tigers’ nominal closer, even though Hinch will likely still manage the end of games according to leverage and matchup.

With Jansen needing just 23 more career saves (as of March 30) to reach 500, it’s hard to believe he would’ve signed with the Tigers without some assurance that he’d have a crack at that milestone.

Do you believe in magic?

The Tigers have clearly bolstered their pitching staff for 2026, but fans are still concerned about the team’s batting lineup and run-scoring potential.

When Scott Harris said the team is not the same, part of what he was hinting at is player development. It also could’ve been no small amount of foreshadowing that the consensus MLB number 2 prospect, 21-year-old Kevin McGonigle, would eventually make the team out of spring training — and he did.

From the day McGonigle was drafted in 2023, observers have been in quiet (and not so quiet) awe of his mental makeup, his approach at the plate, and his raw ability to hit.

The only questions that anyone seems to have had would be whether McGonigle’s defense would be good enough for him to remain at shortstop.

But his defense throughout spring training — and so far in the regular season — has been a measurable asset for the team, at both shortstop and third base.

Valdez, in particular, stands to benefit from McGonigle’s presence on the team.

Not only did the precocious McGonigle prove he’s ready for the big leagues, but with the MLB PPI (Prospect Promotion Incentive) now in place, if he wins American League Rookie of the Year, the Tigers will also receive an additional draft pick.

Of course, the team doesn’t want to put any undue pressure or great expectations on his shoulders just yet, even if many Tigers fans will.

“We don’t need him to be the savior,” Harris said. “We don’t need him to carry us. We just need him to help us. This roster is pretty darn good with or without him. We just think it’s better with him on it — that’s why he’s here.”

The roster is indeed pretty darn good now. And even though he’s only been in the big leagues for a week, McGonigle has the potential to be one of the two or three best hitters on the team.