2026 DETROIT TIGERS REGULAR SEASON THREAD

[Tiger337]

On 5/15/2026 at 10:00 PM, tiger2022 said:

Will anyone on the roster get to 20 HRs by the end of the season?  It seems like Dingler will 

I'm starting to think only Dingler, Carpenter, Torkelson, and Greene will even get to 10.

Greene and Torkelson will hit 20 home runs.  Carpeneter will make it if he is healthy.  Dingler will make it if he doesn't wear down.  

[kdog]

https://www.audacy.com/971theticket/sports/detroit-tigers/detroit-tigers-offense-scott-harris

[Sports_Freak]

25 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Greene and Torkelson will hit 20 home runs.  Carpeneter will make it if he is healthy.  Dingler will make it if he doesn't wear down.  

Is the batting average and cutting down on strikeouts by Greene acceptable if it takes away some of his HR total? The guy is red hot and I hope it continues but what about the tradeoff? Less power for less strikeouts? (NOT complaining)

[Sports_Freak]

8 minutes ago, kdog said:

https://www.audacy.com/971theticket/sports/detroit-tigers/detroit-tigers-offense-scott-harris

Good read. A bit negative but finding positives right now is kinda hard.

[monkeytargets39]

10 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Is the batting average and cutting down on strikeouts by Greene acceptable if it takes away some of his HR total? The guy is red hot and I hope it continues but what about the tradeoff? Less power for less strikeouts? (NOT complaining)

Yes.  He’s a substantially better player this year.  If others in the lineup were playing up to par he would have monster numbers

[Tiger337]

23 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Is the batting average and cutting down on strikeouts by Greene acceptable if it takes away some of his HR total? The guy is red hot and I hope it continues but what about the tradeoff? Less power for less strikeouts? (NOT complaining)

Greene's slugging average is the same as last year and is OBP is 120 points higher.  I will take that trade off! I do think he'll end up somewhere in the middle with lower batting average and more power than he has right now.  

[Sports_Freak]

13 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Greene's slugging average is the same as last year and is OBP is 120 points higher.  I will take that trade off! I do think he'll end up somewhere in the middle with lower batting average and more power than he has right now.  

I dont know. He's red hot right now but home runs aren't coming. Did he change that huge, long uppercut swing? Is that what sent the ball flying 450 feet? Cutting down on the strikeouts is huge. And yes, if the other guys were producing (or healthy), he would have better numbers. And to be honest, I really like the new and improved Riley. Home runs or not...

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Dingler will make it if he doesn't wear down.  

major concern

[monkeytargets39]

Even though the HRs haven’t shown up as much, he’s definitely seen a huge uptick in exit velocity, hard hit %, and Launch Angle sweet spot %.  In addition to still maintaining his barrel and sweet spot metrics, while also dramatically improving his chase rate.

 

Everything is there to suggest that he can wind up still hitting a bunch of HRs—it’s just a bit fluky that he hasn’t to this point.  Warmer weather will help.

 

The whiffs and K numbers are still on the poor end, but it’s a lot easier to put up with when he’s doing literally everything else at an elite level offensively.

Edited 5 hours ago by monkeytargets39

[Tiger337]

4 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I dont know. He's red hot right now but home runs aren't coming. Did he change that huge, long uppercut swing? Is that what sent the ball flying 450 feet? Cutting down on the strikeouts is huge. And yes, if the other guys were producing (or healthy), he would have better numbers. And to be honest, I really like the new and improved Riley. Home runs or not...

I don't envision him batting .335 all year, so I hope the power increases and I believe it will.  Everybody is going to hit more home runs in the summer.  Home runs always go up when the weather gets hot.  

[gehringer_2]

53 minutes ago, kdog said:

https://www.audacy.com/971theticket/sports/detroit-tigers/detroit-tigers-offense-scott-harris

the insert about Tork not handling the outside pitch - if he would look to take it up the middle or to right he'd be handling it. It seems Tork has to learn not to be pull crazy all over again every single season.

[Tiger337]

3 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Even though the HRs haven’t shown up as much, he’s definitely seen a huge uptick in exit velocity, hard hit %, and Launch Angle sweet spot %.  In addition to still maintaining his barrel and sweet spot metrics, while also dramatically improving his chase rate.

 

Everything is there to suggest that he can wind up still hitting a bunch of HRs—it’s just a bit fluky that he hasn’t to this point.  Warmer weather will help.

His statcast chart this year is very similar to 2023-2024, so I think he'll slug similarly to those years.  If he can keep some of his batting average improvement, that will be a great year.  

[kdog]

24 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

the insert about Tork not handling the outside pitch - if he would look to take it up the middle or to right he'd be handling it. It seems Tork has to learn not to be pull crazy all over again every single season.

That should be part of their calculus. You have to retrain him every year to get replacment level value.

[SoCalTiger]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

It’s not solely Harris’s fault if teams don’t want to trade their blue chip prospects and perennial All-Stars to us for whatever it is we have to offer.

This echos what I mentioned earlier. I remember after Harris traded for JHM he was quoted as saying "trades are hard" and for many PBA's who value (over value ? ) prospects it's that much harder. When the prospects are highly rated and performing well in the minors that is when they have value in trade but it's also when PBO's grip them tightly. I mean Jace Jung was once a tradable asset. Now he is close to DFA as someone here noted. So if you aren't trading from the minors your left with your major league players and it's often creating a new hole but filling an old one. 

But we are on the precipice . 2026 is close to going down the drain. The Cleveland Guardians are, to me, a very good Baseball team and have been overlooked. They have added 2 young players, solid bullpen, excellent defense and just enough offense and starting pitching to stay in games. Then there is their superstar third baseman who a true 5 Tool star. 

Our counter to the Indians is Skubal and his absence has sent us cratering. 

[SoCalTiger]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

the insert about Tork not handling the outside pitch - if he would look to take it up the middle or to right he'd be handling it. It seems Tork has to learn not to be pull crazy all over again every single season.

Maybe Hinch was trying to get that point across to Spencer" I trust my Swing" Torkelson. But I was surprised he pinch hit for Tork all the same. Heck it was his 2 run homer that kept us in the game. I don't see how broadcasting to the league a players weakness helps even though they all know that. A simple "I went with a hunch" reply was sufficient but Hinch never spares the opportunity to talk about how smart he is. I wonder how the clubhouse perceives that. But most likely nobody notices I guess. 

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

When the prospects are highly rated and performing well in the minors that is when they have value in trade but it's also when PBO's grip them tightly. I mean Jace Jung was once a tradable asset. Now he is close to DFA

this is where the art comes in -  the ability to look at these guys at AA and below and project accurately who is going to make it and who isn't so that you can still get something for them. I don't really care whether you do it with advanced metrics on eye moment, nerve conduction and swing dynamics or with some grizzled old timer who has been watching and picking good baseball players for 60 yrs, you want to have some ability in your org to project more accurately than the other guys. It's  a prime place to create differential roster value.

[gehringer_2]

10 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

Maybe Hinch was trying to get that point across to Spencer" I trust my Swing" Torkelson. But I was surprised he pinch hit for Tork all the same. Heck it was his 2 run homer that kept us in the game. I don't see how broadcasting to the league a players weakness helps even though they all know that. A simple "I went with a hunch" reply was sufficient but Hinch never spares the opportunity to talk about how smart he is. I wonder how the clubhouse perceives that. But most likely nobody notices I guess. 

This hits one my single biggest reservation about Hinch - I've said I think he is a great pitcher's manager and he keeps a non-toxic clubhouse - all to the good, but I've never been able to shake the suspicion that he gives his players seriously conflicting messages about hitting. You can't spend all your focus 'looking for good pitches to drive' - an absolute Hinch Mantra - and still be a 'tough at bat, control the zone, keep yourself alive, get the ball in play, move the order along no matter what' hitter that wins close games. You just can't. 

Now to be fair, for my money, once a guy gets to the majors he should probably ignore 95% of whatever anyone else tells him about hitting - it's something where every player is so unique you have to understand yourself and no-one else can do that for you.

Edited 3 hours ago by gehringer_2

[kdog]

Cleveland plays their game(contact, defense, pitching) and they do not deviate from it. They will trade guys who get too expensive and stick to their budget.

That might cause them not to have top end potential to win 95 games, but they will always have a floor because everyone in the org knows and implements the same plan.

The Tigers roster is not in sync like that. They haven't moved on from guys who don't work and have some excess on the payroll(Flaherty,Torres) that are not produding.

[Tiger337]

59 minutes ago, kdog said:

Cleveland plays their game(contact, defense, pitching) and they do not deviate from it. They will trade guys who get too expensive and stick to their budget.

That might cause them not to have top end potential to win 95 games, but they will always have a floor because everyone in the org knows and implements the same plan.

The Tigers roster is not in sync like that. They haven't moved on from guys who don't work and have some excess on the payroll(Flaherty,Torres) that are not produding.

OBP - defense - pitching.   I do think that is the long term Tigers plan, but they are obviously not there yet.  

[kdog]

4 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

OBP - defense - pitching.   I do think that is the long term Tigers plan, but they are obviously not there yet.  

Or they needed certain pillar guys to stay healthy and it didn't happen.

[Tiger337]

2 minutes ago, kdog said:

Or they needed certain pillar guys to stay healthy and it didn't happen.

They had the pitching.  The defense is lacking, healthy or not.  I do think their long-term plan is to get more complete ball players that can make contact and get on base and also play defense rather than one dimensional players.  

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

This echos what I mentioned earlier. I remember after Harris traded for JHM he was quoted as saying "trades are hard" and for many PBA's who value (over value ? ) prospects it's that much harder. When the prospects are highly rated and performing well in the minors that is when they have value in trade but it's also when PBO's grip them tightly. I mean Jace Jung was once a tradable asset. Now he is close to DFA as someone here noted. So if you aren't trading from the minors your left with your major league players and it's often creating a new hole but filling an old one. 

But we are on the precipice . 2026 is close to going down the drain. The Cleveland Guardians are, to me, a very good Baseball team and have been overlooked. They have added 2 young players, solid bullpen, excellent defense and just enough offense and starting pitching to stay in games. Then there is their superstar third baseman who a true 5 Tool star. 

Our counter to the Indians is Skubal and his absence has sent us cratering. 

Its not just missing Skubal. Also, Carpenter, Javy, Torres and Meadows. Thats 4cstarters some games. And much if the platooning Hinch needs.

[kdog]

Meadows and Carpenter get hurt every year. You have to bake that in.

[monkeytargets39]

1 hour ago, kdog said:

Cleveland plays their game(contact, defense, pitching) and they do not deviate from it. They will trade guys who get too expensive and stick to their budget.

That might cause them not to have top end potential to win 95 games, but they will always have a floor because everyone in the org knows and implements the same plan.

The Tigers roster is not in sync like that. They haven't moved on from guys who don't work and have some excess on the payroll(Flaherty,Torres) that are not produding.

I think deep down that’s my problem with the organization.  We can never define what type of team we are supposed to be.  Are we going to win with pitching and defense, or are we going to win with offensive fire power?  
 

If we are going to win with pitching, are we going to do that by amassing guys with overpowering stuff/velocity, or by using control pitchers to hit spots and exploit weaknesses and let them hit into our advanced defensive positioning and abilities.

 

Regardless— why is our rotation loaded up on guys who overpower with one or two amazing pitches and high velocity who attack hitters and then our bullpen is always full of low velocity, matchup dependent guys who are more pitch to contact (Holton, Hanifee, Hurter, Finnegan, Kahnle, Foley, etc.)

 

Likewise, we’ve been saying for several years that we want to be a team that’s versatile and strong defensively, yet we have had all these guys like Keith, Jones, Carpenter, Jung, Workman, Perez, JHM, etc.) who are practically positionless because of their defensive deficiencies—on top of solidly below average regulars like Tork, Riley and Torres?  So then we overcorrect that by playing guys like McKinstry, Short, Ibanez, etc. who should be end of the bench guys getting 150-200 PAs a year?

 

If we are going to be a team that dominates the strike zone and waits for their pitches and drives it, then why do we continue to give ABs to guys that do the opposite?  Baez, Perez, Carpenter, Vierling, Rogers, Keith and Jones are all free swingers with poor walk rates.  Then there’s Torkelson who has already struck out 63 times this year and we aren’t even 1/3 the way through the season yet.

 

Define what parts of the game we both want to and have the ability to excel at and then start working to build a roster based off of that philosophy.  I don’t blame Hinch for all of the analytics and matchup moves because that’s the only real way to make the group as it is have any success.  Too many guys are proving to be only useful in one aspect of the game and he is constantly having to try and figure out which deficiencies need to have a bedsheet thrown over them to hide them from being exposed.

 

Obviously it’s not as simple as get rid of guys and replace them with better guys tomorrow, but it’s concerning that this is a problem top to bottom in the organization.  There’s way too many guys who are liabilities on defense whose offense doesn’t appropriately make up for it.   Likewise there’s guys that hit a ton but don’t walk, K a lot and play poor defense.

Harris has do done well identifying and drafting players for what his vision is, but if he cant make trades or get international talent in, then we will never have more than a few guys on the roster at any given time that fit the profile.  Especially if he’s just going to dumpster dive for pitching help.

[tiger2022]

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

This hits one my single biggest reservation about Hinch - I've said I think he is a great pitcher's manager and he keeps a non-toxic clubhouse - all to the good, but I've never been able to shake the suspicion that he gives his players seriously conflicting messages about hitting. You can't spend all your focus 'looking for good pitches to drive' - an absolute Hinch Mantra - and still be a 'tough at bat, control the zone, keep yourself alive, get the ball in play, move the order along no matter what' hitter that wins close games. You just can't. 

Now to be fair, for my money, once a guy gets to the majors he should probably ignore 95% of whatever anyone else tells him about hitting - it's something where every player is so unique you have to understand yourself and no-one else can do that for you.

I think the guys that make it to the majors should know how to hit and some douchebag with a .219 career average dictating how it needs to be done can be ignored.

Now if Barry Bonds or Will Clark or someone like that gave me hitting advice, I would be more prone to listen.

But I've never played professional baseball so who knows