2020 record - 23-35, 5th place in AL Central
Key Addition - Robbie Grossman
The Tigers have made a number of pickups this offseason which we think make them a better team in 2021 than they were last year.
One of those key additions is Robbie Grossman who comes to Detroit after spending the last 2 seasons in Oakland. The outfielder signed a 2 year $10m contract with the Tigers in December and he is one of a few OF signed by Detroit this winter.
In Grossman, the Tigers get one of the best fielding left fielders who has been a consistent bat in recent years. Over 2 seasons in Oakland, Grossman averaged .241, 52 extra base hits and 2.2 WAR.
These numbers are big improvements over the Detroit outfield from 2020 and also allows promising youngsters like Daz Cameron to have a little more time honing their craft in the minors.
Just missed out - Renato Nunez, Wilson Ramos, Nomar Mazara
Key Departure - C.J. Cron
Cron left the Tigers as a free agent and signed with the Rockies as a non-roster invitee. He had only been in Detroit for one season, but in a very small sample size of 52 plate appearances over 13 games due to injury, he failed to impress. The Tigers decided not to aggressively pursue him after hitting .190 in 2020 before undergoing knee surgery.
Free agent Renato Nunez, who they signed from the Orioles on a minor league deal, is younger and should be able to comfortably act as a stop gap at 1st base until their number 1 overall pick from 2020 Spencer Torkelson is ready.
The Tigers did well this offseason not to lose anyone of great importance from their 2020 roster. They have been able to either replace those that they have lost or they have someone in the minors who is not too far away from being called up.
Just missed out - Ivan Nova, Jordan Zimmermann, Austin Romine
Notable rookie cards - Isaac Paredes, Tarik Skubal, Beau Burrows, Casey Mize
The Tigers have 4 players represented in the Topps 2021 Series 1 rookie class, the second most of all MLB teams.
Isaac Paredes came up to play 34 games for the Tigers in 2020, playing most of them at 3rd base. He batted .220 with 1 home run and 6 RBI. But don't let those numbers fool you. Paredes has good power and hitting ability, which is enough to make us confident that he'll be a solid hitter at the Major League level. His agility, or rather lack of it, makes us think that 3B may not be his position going forward. But with now DH Miguel Cabrera signed for another 3 years, the options of other positions available for him to play might be limited.
Tarik Skubal has been a strike out machine throughout his time in the minor leagues. He had a monstrous 13.2 K/9 in his 2 minor league seasons including 17.4 K/9 at the AA level.
Skubal continued to rack up the strikeouts with Detroit in 2020, striking out 37 in 32 innings. But 41% of batted balls against him were fly balls which led to him giving up more home runs than the Tigers would like.
If Skubal can limit the number of long balls hit off him, he'll be an excellent addition to the Tigers rotation.
Beau Burrows is another young starting pitcher who will be looking to make the rotation on Opening Day, but we think it's more likely he'll start at AAA and be called up not long after that. Burrows pitched out of the bullpen in 2020, with a 5.40 ERA and 3 K's over a tiny sample size of 6.2 innings.
Finally, Casey Mize is the 3rd starting pitcher who gets a rookie card for the Tigers this year. Mize has 4 really good pitches and an outstanding split-finger fastball, all of which helped Mize become the #2 prospect in the Tigers organisation and 11th overall according to MLB Pipeline. His 6.99 ERA over 7 starts and 28.1 innings last year certainly isn't indicative of his true potential.
He is the third pitcher on this list who will be competing for a place in the rotation. But like Skubal and Burrows, we think he'll probably start at AAA to join what we think will be a monster rotation in Toledo. We fully expect to see Mize in The Show again soon, probably around May.
Predicted 2021 Team MVP - Jeimer Candelario
Candelario broke out in a big way in 2020 and we don't see any reason why he can't continue that form into 2021. Last year, his average was nearly 100 points higher and he hit nearly as many home runs and RBI in exactly half the numbers of games he played in 2019.
Talk about a breakout season.
We think that Candelario will lead the Tigers in home runs and on base percentage this season, which would comfortably make him their team MVP.
Player to watch for the future - Spencer Torkelson
Detroit have struggled in recent years have haven't had a winning record since 2016. But every cloud has a silver lining and these poor seasons have helped the Tigers to stack their farm system with a lot of really good, young prospects who can help them turn the tide. So there were quite a few options to choose from.
We decided to go with Spencer Torkelson, Detroit's #1 prospect and #3 overall according to MLB Pipeline.
Torkelson was the 1st overall pick in the 2020 draft and because of the cancelled minor league season, he has yet to face a single pitch as a professional baseball player. Yet fangraphs.com predict that he has an Major League ETA of next season. He's that good. They go on to say that he is "arguably the best college hitter in the last decade".
Tigers fans will be watching his development closely this year and can look forward to him gracing Comerica Park in the near future.
Storyline to keep an eye on - Will new manager A.J. Hinch bring his winning record to Detroit?
When A.J. Hinch was fired by Houston and suspended by MLB for his part in trash-can-gate, he left with a 481-329 record and had reached the postseason in four out of his five seasons there; including winning a World Series.
Hinch has a lot of work ahead of him, both in terms of improving his reputation and turning the Tigers' fortunes.
Either by fair means or foul, Hinch has shown that he knows how to win baseball games. Having quality talent at the Major League level sure helps a lot too though and we don't expect that Hinch will be able to help Detroit reach .500 right away. But we'll be watching closely for any green shoots of progress in 2021. Hopefully without any trash can banging...
Prediction for 2021 - 5th in the AL Central
The Tigers have had a pretty bad run in recent years and, unfortunately for them, we don't see that fortune changing this season.
They have a ton of high quality prospects waiting in the wings though, and quite a few of them will be looking to break through in the next couple of years. When they do, the AL Central should watch out because they have the ability to help get the Tigers back to winning ways quickly.
Do you agree with our predictions? Or have we got them horribly wrong?
Let us know in the comments or on twitter.
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