Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal throws to a Kansas City Royals batter in the first ... [+]
The Detroit Tigers are finally relevant again.
They were the trendy preseason pick to win the American League Central despite not having a winning season in 2016. Left-hander Tarik Skubal is considered an AL Cy Young Award candidate now that he is finally drawing recognition from outside the Detroit Metro area.
Both the team and pitcher are living up to the hype so far this season.
The Tigers are 18-13 and in third place in the division, 2 ½ games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians. Skubal is clearly the ace for Detroit with a 4-0 record, 1.72 ERA and 0.76 WHIP through six starts.
The Tigers look like they are good enough to reach the postseason for the first time since 2014. Yet they don’t want to talk about it, preferring to think more in the short term.
“I don’t know if we need to start thinking about playoffs or anything like that, just focus on winning today’s game and when you do that, more often than not, you’ll have a good record and have a fun finish at the end of the year,” Skubal said. “We had a slow April last season, but I thought after that we played some pretty competitive baseball the rest of the year. We just want to build off that. We’re off to a good start this year. I like where we’re at.”
The Tigers went 78-84 last season for their best record in seven years. They also finished second in the AL Central, albeit nine games behind the champion Minnesota Twins.
Winning 19 of their last 29 games bolstered expectations for this season. Yet, like Skubal, manager A.J. Hinch prefers to tamp down playoff talk.
“Externally, I’ve gotten a lot more questions about our team,” Hinch said. “Internally, we’ve stayed very center-focused on the game at hand, the game that we are supposed to play that night. The series we are supposed to play. We don’t look and talk the way people probably want us to talk. We want to win as many games as can.
“We’ve always tried to win every game and I think that our players believe we can win at a higher rate is a good sign. But you won’t hear a lot of us talking about expectations. One, we haven’t earned the right. Two, we really need to expend our energy on (each) game and not some abstract number or theory of what could happen in a six-month season.”
Those outside the organization have reason to believe the Tigers can be a contender. President of baseball operations Scott Harris had a busy offseason adding experienced player to Detroit’s young core.
Right-handers Kenta Maeda and Jack Flaherty were signed as free agents to add veteran presence to the rotation. Harris also used free agency to deepen the bullpen with left-hander Andrew Chafin and Shelby Miller while infielder Gio Urshela was signed to play third base. Left fielder Mark Canha was acquired in a trade.
They join a group of homegrown players 27 or younger that includes Skubal, right-hander Casey Mize, first baseman Spencer Torkelson, second baseman Colt Keith, center fielder Parker Meadows and right fielder Riley Greene.
“I think the expectation is to win every day,” Skubal said. “We’ve reached a point where we feel we compete with anyone, but we don’t talk about it every day. Instead, we just go out and play our best.
