Tigers Should Have One Pressing Priority This Summer

It has been a fantastic start to the season for the Detroit Tigers in 2025, with the franchise proving they are legitimate contenders.

Coming into the year, there were still some doubters about what this Tigers team could be after a magical run in the second half of 2024.

So far, Detroit has proved to be a great team this campaign, and they aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.

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With their division well in hand at this point, the Tigers are going to be thinking about some lofty goals now. It’s been quite some time since they last won the World Series, but that has to be the expectation with how well they have done this season.

While the team has had a ton of success, there are a couple of areas that they could look to improve upon.

Bradford Doolittle of ESPN (subscription required) recently wrote about the one thing that the Tigers must do before the trade deadline to add at least one high-leverage arm for the bullpen.

“The Tigers' bullpen has been very good, but ranks in the bottom five in strikeout, swing-and-miss and chase rates. Every team wants that for their bullpen, so the sooner the Tigers jump into the trade mix, the better.”

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Even though the bullpen is very good, Detroit knows from their success in the playoffs last year that the unit is critical to success.

Last year, the Tigers didn’t have much in terms of reliable starting pitching outside of Tarik Skubal in the postseason. Manager A.J. Hinch utilized his bullpen extremely well to get through games, and that is the recipe for success in October.

Contenders will certainly be in an arms race for the top relief pitchers this summer, and Detroit will be joining them.

Even though their unit is currently very good, they do lack the ability to strike out batters. With the underlying metrics supporting the inability to strike batters out for the unit, the Tigers should be prioritizing relief pitchers who can make batters swing and miss.

In October, important situations can always arise with runners on base that could result in trouble if a bullpen is unable to get players to swing and miss.

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For Detroit, Hinch is an excellent manager at utilizing the bullpen, and getting another weapon or two to use in high-leverage situations will only make the team better.

With the chance to win a World Series this season, the Tigers should be very actively looking for improvements this summer.

For more Tigers news, head over to Detroit Tigers On SI.