http://archive.today/2025.03.07-044751/https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/columnists/lynn-henning/2025/03/06/henning-detroit-tigers-building-not-only-for-2025-but-for-long-haul/81739995007/
Full article at link.
No longer are the Tigers wishing and hoping. They’re expecting. To win. And — this is key — to win, not only this year, but for seasons ahead.
They broke through last year with youth fueling a baseball renaissance in Detroit. They now can compete for the long term for that same reason: Youth and talent in regular supply are being pumped into an organization that can expect to build playoff-grade rosters, steadily.
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Build to last
That was the story to the Tigers’ past championships: 1968’s ecstasy gave way to the ‘70s and, soon, to years of relative misery.
The 1984 joyride, by the 1990s, saw baseball in Detroit reduced to rubble. It grew worse in the early 2000s. Then, in 2006, came the cosmic stuff that nearly delivered a couple of World Series parades before age, traded-away kids, and too little input from the farm, led to 10 years of playoff exile.
Credit for this better-built, longer-mileage Tigers product goes to the new front-office boss, Scott Harris. To be fair to his predecessor, Al Avila, drafts had improved in Avila’s latter years. Avila also had made enough plus-trades to give Harris and Hinch a basic framework from which to build a bolder baseball model.
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Harris got busy retooling his draft generals. He has installed new strategies in Latin America, where what had been a mystifying failure to deliver help is now flowing with legit talent moving closer to Detroit.
Bad drafting and recruiting led to those post-championship collapses of yesteryear. Now, the Tigers have something of a conveyor system running that should keep Hinch’s rosters sturdy for indefinite years ahead.
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They have been industry stars at building pitching. Arms, fundamentally, were what made 2024’s phenomenon possible. Young bats that could easily blossom in 2025 — Jung, it would seem here, along with Dillon Dingler, and maybe new jewel Jahmai Jones — will help patch an offense that’s going to need fixing if Meadows and Vierling miss serious time.
A final difference in how this 2025 Tigers baseball picture is shaping up:
Harris has trade chips — genuine, reasonably plentiful, trade capital other MLB clubs will be interested in chasing for return talent the Tigers do, and will, badly need.
It’s conceivable, even by the end of spring camp, you’ll see a deal for that left-side infield bat the Tigers ideally must add. They might be forced to wait until July’s trade deadline. But, either way, getting that right-handed thumper, with shortstop and third base in mind, is all but a mandate.
How the Meadows situation evolves will determine whether an outfielder also must be lassoed ahead of Opening Day.
But with the stash of young blue-chippers the Tigers can now offer, deals — and big deals — are a matter of time.
The difference: The Tigers won’t be bankrupting themselves by trading a thoroughbred or two. They’re building a team, bottom-up, farm-to-table, that can make the top-end product strong and sustained. And those latter two words haven’t often been used in past Tigers eras.
