What Went Right for the Detroit Tigers in 2025?

What Went Right for the Detroit Tigers in 2025?

It was a weird year in Detroit. Uh there was a lot that went right and a lot that went wrong in 2025. Today we focus on what went right. All today on Locked on Tigers. You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Locked on Tigers. I’m of course your host Scott Bentley. Today is Wednesday, October 15th, 2025. Thank you so much for making Locked On Tigers your first listen every single day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every single day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown MLB for $20 off of your first purchase. Welcome in. Welcome all everybody. So, today we are going to start uh part one of a two episode series, so I’m not even sure if that really counts as a series, but I do this at the end of every single year. Uh, we’re going to talk about all of the big things that went right for the Detroit Tigers in 2025 in this episode. And then tomorrow, we’ll talk, unless there’s like some big news that comes out tomorrow, at some point in the near future, we will then talk about what went wrong for the Detroit Tigers in 2025. And obviously, this is the same format that I have for my game recaps and and my day-to-day in season kind of what the episodes look like. Um, but I want to make sure that we really cover everything that went positive and negative for this team over the course of a calendar year because some stuff feels like a lifetime ago, right? And it’s important to really look at the entire thing start to finish and talk about what went right. And this isn’t just like an excuse to talk about the first 100 games. Like I understand that everybody is frustrated with how the season ended and the last two months of play there. I I fully understand that this this is more talking about um concepts, positional groups or individual players that over the course of the season exceeded, you know, maybe preseason expectations or did more again than we expected, etc. So, um, first off, this will not be literally every single thing that, you know, went the Tigers way over the course of 162 games or over the full calendar year even, like that would obviously take hours and hours and hours, uh, depending on how like specific you want to get. Um, and and I I also would say that there’s a lot of nuance in the conversations with some of these guys. Um, but we we’ll kind of talk about said nuance when we get to those players that that maybe applies to. Um, and then every single year, okay, literally every year without fault, I I I think it’s to the point now where people are doing it like as a joke be because every single year I have at least one person that comments on this episode and goes or the what went wrong episode and goes, “Wow, you’re so like positive. won’t talk about the negatives or you know like oh you’re such a negative Nancy like why don’t you talk about any of the things that went right we’re doing both we do both literally every year okay just spare me for for for one one off season um I want to start with some general I don’t know if concepts is the right word but some broader things that I think went right on the offensive side of the ball and on the pitching side of the ball so um offensive ly this team was very very good at hitting line drives for a majority of the season. They had one of, if not the highest line drive rate in baseball for a large portion of 2025. And that is a positive. That obviously means like good contact. You’re not getting, you know, everybody at the end of the season. The frustration was that everybody was trying to lift and pull the baseball to like an obsessive amount and wasn’t just going where the ball was thrown. The Tigers did hit again more line drives than almost anybody in all of baseball this year. So, that is a positive. Now, the the flip side of that coin with batted ball data is that that does not take into consideration non-batted ball events. Okay? And so the Tigers did swing and miss a ton and did have a lot of whiffs and a lot of strikeouts. And we will obviously bring that up on tomorrow’s show, but in general when they were hitting the baseball, it was pretty solid contact more than most other teams throughout the year. Had a pretty solid uh barrel rate as well. So now again, nuance. There’s a tale of two seasons here that they they played in the first 100 games obviously looked a lot different than the last 60. I fully understand that. You fully understand that. We can have this conversation and point out that that’s a good number regardless or or I guess considering that we both know that information. One of the big things on the pitching side of the ball that I was very pleased to see was that the Tigers pitching staff was tied for first in all of baseball in first pitch strike percentage. So just the I mean it is what it says it is. Okay. It is what it is. Pretty simple concept here. Just the percentage of at bats that started with a first pitch strike from the Tigers pitching side of things. Um, this is an instance where I want to make sure this is highlighted and celebrated because the team is accomplishing something that the organization is setting out to uh, I guess highlight or or um, be be a strength of this team, right? This organization, this front office have so consistently, this organization has just continued to preach and preach and preach dominating the strike zone on both sides of the ball. And they have been, I mean, in every single postgame, you know, media availability and press conference, you hear about all the pitchers talking about their first pitch strikes and AJ Hinch always brings up, you know, the pitchers first pitch strike percentage for that outing. like it’s clearly something that they care a lot about. And so I I think it’s a big reason why the pitching staff was able to keep its head above water amidst all of the injuries and maybe underperformances that they had, especially in the bullpen side of things. Um they also took a step forward as a pitching staff in terms of just whiff rate. Um, in 2024, a big frustration I had with this pitching staff was just an inability outside of Terk Scubble and Jack Flity to have consistent swing and miss. Now, that is still kind of in play, right? Like, it still is mostly those two getting all the swings and misses. However, they took a step forward in that regard as a staff and I want to make sure that’s pointed out. Also, top 10 in ground ball rate. Again, on the flip side, also does not consider um non-batted ball events, but that’s doesn’t really matter on the pitching side of things now that I’m saying it out loud. Um but that is something that you want, right? You want either a swing and miss or if you do give up contact, you want it to be on the ground as often as possible. And the Tigers were in the top 10 in that regard. The other thing uh I is base running. And I know that some people maybe roll their eyes at that or are tired of hearing about the the Tigers base running. I I know the aggressiveness frustrated people at times, but frankly, it worked. Um to a a borderline extreme level, the the Tigers had the most run value gained from taking an extra base in all of baseball, more than any other team in the sport. 29 other teams worse than them in just run value from taking the extra base and they finished overall seventh most valuable base running team in Major League Baseball. And for a team that has little to no speed, this is something I want to talk about a lot in the off season. This team has little to no speed and was the worst base stealing team in all of baseball. I would like to see that improved going into 2025, but again, we’ll talk about that at a later date. Um I I I just for what they the hand that they were given, which is a a slow, not very good uh not very fast team, I should say. Um they they ran the bases incredibly well despite that. And I think that they deserve credit for the mindset and mentality that they had in that regard. Um I I want to give credit to the starting pitching seventh as a starting pitching staff in war f I I use fan graphs war for the most part there’s a couple of positions specifically I I prefer um our war bore whatever you want to call it baseball reference war over but for fan graphs or for starting pitching I’m going to use fan graphs war um seventh in baseball from just war accumulated from starting pitchers in 2025 they were 11th in erra. Um so just outside of the top 10. They were third in K per nine. Now Scooble is doing a lot of the heavy lifting there and and that should be acknowledged. Um if you you know cut Scoo’s war in half, then you’re talking about like a middle of the pack staff. And if you have him just match the the second highest F4 on the team, which is either Mai’s or Flity, depending on which website you use. Um, then you’re talking about like potentially a bottom 10 or 12 staff, you know, starting rotation in baseball. The K rate very similar, but Flity had good strikeout numbers for all of his struggles he had and whatnot, which is why you see that still at third highest in the league. Um, but Casey Mai, really solid season all things considered, obviously was an all-star. We got to remember where he started and kind of where expectations were. I want to dive a little bit deeper now into some of the individuals on both sides of the ball that I think went right for the Tigers in 2025. We will do that right after this. First though, got to talk to you about our friends over at Game Time. There’s nothing like catching a baseball game live. the energy, the crowd, the chance to see your team in person, but actually getting tickets. Well, as we all know, that’s the tough part. Cues, login screens, surprise fees. It takes all the fun out of it. And that’s why I use Game Time, the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. 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Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back tomorrow presumably talking about what went wrong for the Tigers in 2025. Um but again if there’s like any big news or notes then we have a long offseason. We’ll get to it eventually. We’ll prioritize whatever is uh you know at the forefront of our minds here. Um so we’re talking about the starting rotation kind of the success if you will that it had. Again it wasn’t like some prolific this wasn’t the 95 Braves. Okay. and and obviously Scooble again does a lot of the heavy lifting there. However, this was a rotation that even despite getting a bit by the injury bug quite frequently throughout this year was able to hold itself together and was able to provide some valuable starts for the Tigers. Um already mentioned school don’t have too much else to say on him. Casey Mai I want to dive a little bit further into. Um immediately after the break he struggled a little bit, but then down the stretch when the team honestly needed him most. He kind of came back a and looked a lot more I mean I would debate that some of the best that Casey M has honestly ever looked was those last few starts in September. Um, but that’s really I mean even if you disagree with that like he did bounce back to form a little bit down the stretch there which was very important but had a fantastic first half and and the biggest thing with Mai is going to continue to be can he consistently get swings and misses and can he consistently find the splitter throughout the course of 162 and or you know 30 however many starts he has in a year obviously. So, um, that that will continue to be a talking point with him, uh, throughout the winter. I will talk about that again when we do Casey Mis’s player review here in the coming weeks. But all things considered, when we take into account preseason expectations for a guy like Mai, I I think he certainly exceeded those and was certainly someone that we got more out of, at least I can speak for myself in that regard, than maybe I expected going into the year. So, tip of the cap to Casey Mai. Reese Olsson was also fantastic. Obviously, another injury. He’s just been injured literally every season of his career at some point, which is super disappointing and frustrating and honestly like needs to change. Like, that will prevent you from being a starter long term if you can’t your body can’t hold up for, you know, 150 plus innings. But, um, even I’d even I’d take 120 innings uh on a consistent basis from him at this point. But a 315 ERA before the injury is really, really impressive. Um, Kater Montero as a starter, as a reliever, his ERA was over five, but as a starter, Kater Montero’s RA was 372. I want you to really let that sink in. Like that’s that’s phenomenal. A sub 375 ERA for this guy. Now, obviously, again, not a huge sample size and the relief outings did happen. Um, but I I think again for a rotation like you have Job go down, you have Mai get hurt earlier in the year, you have Reese Olsen go down, you’re you’re trading for, you know, Paddock and and Morton who are essentially nothing additions like they really needed some starts and they got a handful of of really solid outings as a starting pitcher from Kater Montero. Even if these are only, you know, four or five innings a pop, um, those are needed. Troy Melton, very similar conversation. um not very deep into games. They wanted to preserve his arm. Eventually, he was moved to the bullpen, but the starts that he did provide were very valuable and one of those was even in the postseason and did really well against Seattle. So, that’s kind of the the positive light of the rotation. Obviously, there are some people that uh are going to find themselves on the side of things that went wrong for the starting rotation, and we’ll talk about those when we do that episode. The bullpen, I’m gonna be honest with you, is largely bad. Uh the the bullpen I I was beyond frustrated with this year. It’s one of my biggest talking points for the off season is I I really think this bullpen was was to be honest kind of a like catastrophic I don’t want to say failure that seems too dramatic, but it was a catastrophe. I I I really do. The the few bright spots that we had in the pen were Will Vest with about a three erra and a K rate that was well above league average. Got some solid swing and miss. He also was used a ton and that’s not for nothing, right? Like usage matters. Innings matter and you almost got two war out of him as a as a pure like one or two inning reliever. That’s incredibly impressive. So tip of the cap to Will Best, Kyle Finnegan. For as much as I complain and whine about the deadline and you’re tired of hearing me say it, um Kyle Finnegan is clearly the exception to that was a fantastic addition. Was honestly one of the best deadline ads uh in terms of reliever deadline ads in the entire American League. Um I mean maybe even in all of baseball. He didn’t give up a run for like the first month that he was a Detroit Tiger. Then got hurt. obviously gave up a couple cents then wasn’t super sharp in the postseason just like um eye test more so but regardless like no matter how you slice it a5 RA as a member of the Detroit Tigers bullpen is just so fantastic and so that for not a super high asking price um is is a massive win for this front office in terms of trade deadline additions. One of the most underrated players on this team this year I is Brandt Herder. Brandt Herder out of the Detroit Tigers bullpen had a 27 sorry even better a 257 erra as a relief pitcher. Okay, he had about seven or nine innings as a starter as well. That didn’t go as well. But as a reliever, 56 innings of 257 erra baseball. Are we comprehending how nuts that is? That’s that’s a that’s a large sample size. And that’s even with a an injury and a demotion at one point this year. 257. Now, there’s a lot of projective stats that would insinuate that, you know, if he was to play those 56 innings again, he probably wouldn’t be as I don’t want I don’t like using the term lucky, but like the the the batted ball data, right, might not have gone the batted ball uh there. I am about to say luck again. Um might not have fallen his way and his RA might have been a little bit higher, but I I don’t care how you slice it, man. That’s over 50 innings of about two and a half erra ball as a lefty. And I think the biggest thing for that is even if he’s never very effective against righties, which I I don’t think there’s a high chance of that, but I think that’s somewhat on the table. Like he he struggled with righties a little bit down the stretch. He is so good and proved to be especially down the stretch. So so good against lefties. I trusted him more than Holton against left-handed hitters in the last month or so of the season. and certainly in the postseason. So, um, Brent Herder, one of the the unsung heroes of this bullpen and honestly is one of the reasons that, you know, the the poor numbers that this bullpen did have, uh, you know, bottom five in baseball and bullpen war, whatever you want to say again, we’ll talk about that more tomorrow. One of the only, you know, silver linings, honestly, was the innings that Brian Herder provided. Um, and then, yeah, like Raphael Montero was fine. Like he he was, you know, a netneutral guy. didn’t really get into high level scenarios but also, you know, wasn’t actively losing the team games. Bailey Horn, similar thing, was fine in the limited innings and the sheltered deployment to use a hockey term, uh, that he had. So, there’s a couple of other guys that had, you know, like okay fine years, but um th those are kind of the the big, you know, heading into the offseason, the guys that I’m looking at going, “Wow, like these were really solid season and and I’m hoping that they are significant pieces of the 2026 bullpen as well. Okay, let’s talk about position players, shall we?” We’ll do that right after this. First though, got to talk to you all about our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. You pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. There’s so many ways to bet on FanDuel, which is what makes it so great. Uh, you can build parlays, you can try player props, and even follow live games while they’re happening and follow the lines and see them move real time. It makes watching football and really any sport even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. third and final segment of Lockdown Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, making us to our first listen every day talking about what went right for the Tigers in 2025. We move on to the position players. Um, this conversation I genuinely think starts and ends with Dylan Dingler. There is probably no one on the position player list certainly, maybe even this whole episode that more personifies what went right than Dylan Dingler. He led this team in F4 by a lot. Okay, it wasn’t even close. And he plays 40 or 50 less games than everybody else because he’s a catcher. He is fantastic. Like literally, I I mean played 120 125 games um a and still was over one win better than the next closest person behind him. Uh he was fantastic behind the plate. He was an above league average hitter over the course of 162. There’s some stuff that I will point out in Dingler’s game that I would like to see improved. There was some play calling stuff that’s not going to be, you know, there’s no number to quantify that that we’ll talk about when we do his play review as well, but he absolutely rocks and was maybe this team’s most valuable player this year. like legitimately obviously on the position player side of things is is you know bar none the most valuable player on the roster but Dylan Dingler is is Dylan Dingler had the second most war on this entire roster only behind TK Scubble and and I think that that’s remarkable. So, we we got one like the we got one. Okay. This again, if there’s if there’s anything in this episode to hang your hat on and to be like, “Wow.” Like, you know, going into 2026, they have a a guy that could legitimately be an all-star caliber catcher behind the dish going forward. And he’s young, he’s controllable, and that’s a reason to be excited. Okay, moving on from my uh, you know, love for Dylan Dingler, Zack McKinstry, and I I know some people roll their eyes. I I get it. Okay, I I know he was awful in the second half, but I I said this in July during the All-Star break, and I’ll say it again now. Based on pre-season expectations, how can he not be what went right this year? even with a collapse in the second half. We were talking about dfaing this guy a year ago, right? And and all off season and in spring training probably a little bit. And he was an allstar. Also, for those keeping track at home, Dylan Dingler led position players in F4 for the Detroit Tigers. Would you like to know who was second? It’s not Riley Green, it’s Zack McKinstry over a three win 3.2 I think it was win season for ZMAC in 2025. I I I still maintain that he is most valuable as a super utility and should not be a fixture in your lineup every day. I I certainly don’t think he should be in the middle of the lineup like he was at times in June and July, but he is clearly proved to be a a valuable asset and he’s not going to have, you know, like an 890 ops or whatever he had, you know, in in the end of May and in the month of June. But I if he can even hit like he did in the second half, 680 to 700 OPS ball, you know, below average hitter, you stick him at the bottom of the lineup and he can play any position for who needs a night off. That’s and as a lefty, that’s a valuable asset to have. Glabber Torres, as far as one-year deals go, uh it’s hard to get, I think, too much better than than what they got out of Glabber. Um he he walked a ton. He did not strike out very much. uh was amazing in the first half. I obviously the hernia may have affected him in the second half. Uh he’s not a good defender, never will be, but was a valuable asset for this team. And uh even if I I don’t think he’s going to be back next year, you can still count this as a win for this front office and a win as far as you know one-year deal and what you’re hoping to get out of one-year deals go. He was one of the more valuable position players on the entire team. And it, you know, was just a one-year deal late in the offseason. Jamai Jones obviously finds himself here was one of the best hitters on this team down the stretch. Uh he walked a ton. He crushed lefties, an extremely valuable asset. And I I think AJ Hinch loves Jamai Jones. I I think, you know, I don’t really want to see him in the outfield ever again to be honest. Uh kind of a pure platoon DH, which is a niche, you know, role to fill, but it’s one that AJ Hinch will maximize and get the most out of if uh if the opportunity is presented. And I think that’s what we saw from Jamai Jones, especially in the second half of this year. Now, you’re going to have to walk with me a little bit on this one. Um, I’m going to go with Spencer Torlson uh at just his season really. I know there’s probably some people that will push back here and that that’s fine. My reasoning again for this one I is pretty much strictly based on preseason expectations. Man, we have to remember that the thoughts surrounding Torqulson in February and March when spring training and like when when camp was going on, like there were people that were projecting him to miss the roster, like not make the opening day roster because he was terrible in 2024. They taught Colt Heath how to play first base last off season with the intention. That was the expectation. Like we have to remember that the expectation was they signed Gabber so that Colt Keith can play first and Tolson does not make the team. He not only made the opening day roster and Colt Keith had to move around the diamond, um, but he he had a 30 home run season and an OPS in the 900s. And this is not some I’m not saying that this is like an amazing like OMG. He he’s a he’s a one-1 franchise player like he he was the one-1 pick and we saw it. Like no, okay, not even close to that. There there are are are a lot of better first baseman out there and there are certainly a lot of more valuable players out there, but a 30 home run season and OPS around 790 is certainly far more than I expected from him going into the year. Um, now if this is his peak, if this is as good as Torlson is going to be at in a major league uniform, and we can debate that later in the winter, whether you know you think that is or isn’t. If this is as as good as he will get, then like I don’t want him betting fourth or fifth even really like in my lineup. He’d be a fantastic six or seven guy that can provide some pop in the bottom of a lineup, but I think he’s at least earned the opportunity to prove if there’s more to grow and there’s not an immediate backup like contingency plan really at first base anyway. So again, this is a a win of a season. again just based on preseason expectations for Toklson. There’s a lot of other guys that like gave us plenty of good and plenty of bad. Um Colt Keith, Carrie Carpenter, Riley Green, Javi, like those those are all guys that that kind of had up and down years um with a handful of good and also a handful of of not so good that you can probably pick from. So I’m not sure like you can almost split them in half like Riley Green’s home run and RBI’s good. like Ronnie Green strikeout is not good. You know what I mean? Um Colt Keith, it’s kind of like a month-to-month game with him. Um Carrie Carpenter has a sub 300 on base percentage and walks like the same amount that Jav does. Jav’s Jav. Um and then like obviously you have the first 100 games like it it was a fun run. They probably overplayed their expectations. Um but but looking at these guys numbers from month to month, you know, as a team, I I still really think there should be optimism surrounding this team. not pessimism, just focusing on the collapse, you know, heading into 2026. Um, it’s it’s a young group. It’s it’s a very young group and they now have two years of playoff experience. They they have won a lot. They’ve also lost a lot. They’ve also have had periods of time where um you know there’s been really really good play and and production and and really really not so good play and production from almost all of these guys are just kind of riding the the roller coaster that that young players really like consistently do. They are consistently inconsistent. They’re hard to project for a reason. We have a lot of of years of data to to back that up. So, if we can iron out the inconsistencies and with age maybe comes a little bit more of a flat line as opposed to a peak and valley, you know, very curvy line of production, um, then I I think the foundation of this team still could be solid. And and really, all things considered, again, I I know how the season ended. We I will complain about that in 24 hours when we talk about what went wrong this year. Um, but if we’re just looking at this in a glass half full mindset, um, I I think that that there’s still plenty to take away and and you know, like there’s some people that are like, “Oh, we collapse like sell everything and just go into a full rebuild.” Like that’s obviously not happening, man. Like we we they’ve been a playoff team two years in a row. Like that that’s that’s not going to happen. Um, and I I think that there is still, as showcased by the last 30 minutes, you know, still uh plenty of things that we can, you know, be optimistic about going forward. Now, there’s still plenty that terrify me and that I’m pessimistic about going forward and that I want to see addressed or else I I’m I’m going to yeah have a lot of concerns and we’ll talk about those tomorrow. Thanks, Megan. Lockdown Tigers, your first listen every single day. Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in every day and we will of course be back tomorrow. Peace and love going to Therby’s dope. And I’ll catch you all then, baby. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss what went right for the 2025 Detroit Tigers. We talk Dillon Dingler, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Zach McKinstry, and more!

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