Takeaways from the Tigers' 2023 season

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Tigers have had a roller-coaster ride of sorts over A.J. Hinch’s three seasons as a manager. They looked like a contender coming off a 77-win season in 2021, then looked lost after dropping 96 games last year. After 78 wins this season, hope is back.

“I’ve never been more encouraged to be a Tiger,” Hinch said.

The key difference between now and two years ago is the source of the hope. Under first-year president of baseball operations Scott Harris, the Tigers went young this season, looking to see what they had to build around. As Harris said at a season-ending media session Monday, they found more than might have been expected.

Here’s a breakdown of the Tigers’ season:

Defining moment

The Tigers flirted with the AL Central race for much of May before injuries to Riley Greene, Eduardo Rodriguez and others sent them skidding into June with a nine-game losing streak and a 1-11 stretch that included three shutouts and four one-run losses. They went 51-45 the rest of the way, including 18-10 after Sept. 1.

What we learned

There’s an offensive core of young hitters to build around. Spencer Torkelson overcame a slow start, highlighted by hard-hit outs, to slug 27 home runs from June 4 and post a 31-homer season, the most by a homegrown Tiger since Tony Clark in 1999. Greene had a .300 season before a late August slump and September elbow injury. He still finished with a 117 OPS+. The big surprise was Kerry Carpenter, who not only built on his 30-homer season in the Minor Leagues last year but showed there’s a lot more to his game than power.

Best development

Beyond the young hitting, the Tigers showed depth in their young pitching, the first results of investment in pitch design, instruction and development. Reese Olson not only rebounded from a shortened Spring Training and a miserable start at Triple-A Toledo, he held down a rotation spot for the final four months and showed wipeout stuff, from a high-spin slider and curveball to fastball command. Sawyer Gipson-Long began the year at Double-A Erie, developed a changeup and cutter, earned a midseason callup to Triple-A Toledo and then a September callup to Detroit, where he put up four solid starts.

Area for improvement

Infield defense was a disappointment. Detroit had MLB’s fifth-worst conversion rate of ground balls into outs according to Sports Info Solutions, compared to the second-best rate of converting fly balls into outs. Torkelson ranked last among MLB first basemen at minus-11 Defensive Runs Saved and wasn’t much better in Outs Above Average at minus-7, according to Statcast. Javier Báez ranked among the top MLB shortstops at 9 Outs Above Average but was inconsistent down the stretch. One pleasant surprise was Andy Iba?ez, who fielded his way to an everyday role at second base.

On the rise

The Tigers were patient with Parker Meadows, keeping him at Triple-A Toledo while Greene missed a month with a leg injury in order to round out his plate approach. Once Meadows arrived on Aug. 21, he quickly became an everyday starter in center, covering vast swaths of Comerica Park and putting up 4 Outs Above Average in just over a month. His offensive game is still raw, but he showed progress in catching up with fastballs, utilizing his speed and flashing some power.

Team MVP

The Tigers’ balanced contributions offer plenty of directions to go with this. One of them is lefty reliever Tyler Holton, who had the second-highest bWAR on the team. A Spring Training waiver claim, Holton not only forged a role in Detroit’s bullpen but became a vital bridge between the starters and late relievers, covering 85 1/3 innings in 59 appearances.

Holton ranked ninth among AL relievers in FanGraphs' version of Win Probability Added (WPA), a metric that quantifies a player's impact on his team's chances of winning. Holton ranked just behind the Orioles' Yennier Cano, a 2023 All-Star, and standout Twins closer Jhoan Duran in that category.