By: Ansh Patel

On August 12th, 2024, the Detroit Tigers had a 0.2 percent chance to make the playoffs and had a 56-63 record. Now on October 2nd, 2024, they have just swept the Houston Astros in the playoffs and are moving on to the American league division series. Their season took many twists and turns to reach this moment.

During August, the Tigers highest paid player, Javier Baez, was struggling to stay healthy and just got put on the injured list. They sold off many key players at the trade deadline and had a run differential at negative 21 which means they gave up more runs than they scored. In addition, the team had a struggling young core of former top prospects and players who had been traded by other teams. The team was only going in a negative direction so how exactly did they make this comeback?

Well, it began when they were nine games back of a playoff spot and 14 games out of the division. First, they had to replace Javier Baez, their star player. The manager, Aj Hinch, decided that it would be best to let the younger players get some playing time and also work on developing their individual skill. Little did he know they would do more than just develop. Once all the younger players got in the lineup, the team started going on a run. Two of the players, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter, started hitting like all-stars. Players like Spencer Torkelson got called up and started hitting very well. They rode the waiver wire to add relief pitching. They also rode the arm of Tarik Skubal to victory with the rest of the starters.

This turnaround was not a one year thing, however. It took 10 years to get to this point. It started with all the drafts picks they had such as Tarik Skubal, Riley Greene, and Spencer Torkelson. Then, it was the trades for young prospects like Kerry Carpenter and Jake Rogers to build a young core to be feared. It also included the free agent signings like Javier Baez. This all led to the turnaround. The struggles were frequent and it took a while for young prospects to blossom into superstars. They had to endure as many as 100 loss seasons. They had the first overall pick in two of the seasons and had three different managers and two different general managers during this time frame. On top of that, they had to see two of their division rivals go to the world series. 

The Detroit Tigers season comeback is one for the ages. From 0.2 percent chance to division series bound, the 2024 Detroit Tigers were a team of grit, determination and a success story like no other.