Although the Detroit Tigers’ season ended with a disappointing loss in Game 5 of the National League Division Series to the Cleveland Guardians, the team made some crucial steps forward in building a winning team for the future.

In August, the idea that the Tigers would even make the playoffs seemed unlikely. On Aug. 11, the Tigers held a 55-63 record, with an 8-13 record coming out of the All-Star break. They were 10 games behind the Kansas City Royals for a playoff spot, and had to chase down a strong Minnesota Twins team.

En route to their first winning season since 2014, the Tigers finished the season with a 31-13 record, which was the best in Major League Baseball for that time frame this season. The Twins, on the other hand, finished 17-29, which was good for the third-worst record in that time frame.

The Tigers were led by strong pitchers, such as starters Tarik Skubal and Jack Flaherty, along with Jason Foley and Tyler Holton in the bullpen. The Tigers’ pitching got even better down the stretch. Their team Earned Run Average was an MLB-best 2.72 from Aug. 11 to the end of the season. Only the Atlanta Braves also had an ERA under three for that time span, pitching to a mark of 2.86. On the other side, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who finished with an MLB-best 98-64 record, pitched to a 19th-ranked 4.21 ERA down the stretch.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch sets his pitchers up for success by providing matchups that keep the opposing hitters off balance. He accomplishes this by regularly shuffling pitcher slots. Of the six regular starters, only Skubal pitched more than 115 innings. Hinch also employed some of his strong relievers, such as Holton, as openers, ensuring favorable platoon matchups against opposing teams.

Outfielder Kerry Carpenter returned from a spine injury Aug. 13 and had a .286 batting average, .348 on-base percentage, and a .605 slugging percentage to close out the season, with 10 home runs and an OPS+ of 165.

The Tigers are built for the future with young players with outfielders Riley Greene, Wenceel Perez, and Parker Meadows, and first baseman Spencer Torkelson. Except for Kenta Maeda, everyone on the starting pitching staff is under 30, and out of the 15 hitters with at least two hundred plate appearances, only four are over 30, with utility man Mark Canha being the only player over 33.

With such a young team, the Tigers are poised to be competitive for years to come. The Tigers should look at the 2024 season as the first step towards winning another championship. If there is any team in recent history that the Tigers can look to for inspiration, it’s the 2015 Chicago Cubs.

The 2015 Cubs were a young team led by talented hitters and great pitching. Starter Jake Arrieta was the star of that team, going 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA and 236 strikeouts, en route to a Cy Young Award. 

The team emerged from a half-decade of obscurity to win a wildcard spot and advance all the way to the National League Championship Series before being swept by the New York Mets. 

The next year, the Cubs returned with largely the same team and won their first World Series in 108 years. 

The Tigers should look to add one or two veteran bats this offseason and continue to develop their young starting pitching. If they do, the Tigers are in the position to be a force in the American League for some time. The Tigers will be back next season and should be taken seriously.