The Detroit Tigers finished with a 78-84 record last season, good for second place in the beleaguered American League Central Division, and enough evidence for us to make our Detroit Tigers bold predictions. The Tigers' 78 wins would have placed them last in the stacked American League East, heightening the team's urgency for a better performance in 2024 as Spring Training gets underway in Lakeland, Florida.

Recently Tigers manager AJ Hinch got real on the possibility of a bounce back campaign from Javier Baez in 2024. Pitcher Jack Flaherty revealed his true reason for signing with the Tigers this offseason.

With the Tigers' pitchers and catchers having reported on Valentine's Day (Wednesday, February 14), it's time to unleash our three Detroit Tigers bold predictions for GM Jeff Greenberg's team in 2024.

The Detroit Tigers Will Finish With a Winning Record

The Tigers have been gathering young talent over the last five seasons while waiting for their own young talent to stay healthy and develop according to schedule.

Detroit suddenly has a powerful two through four of the batting order and a versatile collection of position players that should help them improve on their below average hitting statistics last season.

The Tigers also have a sense of continuity that some other teams are lacking with Manager AJ Hinch having been with the Tigers since October 2020.

Hinch pumped the brakes on the Tigers' expectations including division championship aspirations heaped on the team by first baseman Spencer Torkelson.

“We’re going to have plenty of time to talk about that as we form this team,” Hinch said. “We are at 58 players. We’re going to get it down to 26 [by the end of camp], and the message is going to get more and more centralized about how we’re going to attack the first series. But we understand where we want to be and what we want to do. We’re unafraid to talk about winning games. We obviously want to have a winning record, but I’ll give you [the answer] you expect: We haven’t really earned it yet. We haven’t played any games, and I’m not consumed with it.”

The prediction here is that the Tigers finish with at least 83 wins, securing their first winning season since 2016.

The Tigers' Pitching Staff Struggles to Carry the Team 

Detroit added Flaherty in the offseason and has some talent on the pitching staff, but the Tigers' pitching staff has a long way to go before it can be proclaimed as one of the better such position groups in the American League.

Tarik Skubal could provide ace-level production and skill for Detroit this coming season but Flaherty is not a strong number two option at this point in his career.

A quick glance at the Tigers' 2023 pitching stats reveals a pitching staff that is more on par with Randy Smith era disasters than Dave Dombrowski era success stories.

Unless Matt Manning, Flaherty, or Kenta Maeda make tremendous leaps in pitching prowess this season the Tigers' starting staff will likely put tremendous pressure on a bullpen that is not fully equipped to handle it.

The prediction here is that the Tigers' pitching staff lets the team down and becomes its weak point this season unless two or three guys unexpectedly take a big leap forward.

The Tigers Will Not Win the American League Central 

Even with Hinch's history of success as a manager with the Astros and the Tigers' hunger to get back to the playoffs, the team will fall short of winning the AL Central this season.

Detroit simply hasn't shown the track record and consistency necessary to predict long-term, championship level success over an entire season.

Torkelson led the Tigers with 31 home runs last season while Jake Rogers added 21 and Kerry Carpenter had 20.

The Tigers still ranked near the bottom of the league in many offense categories and seem far off from improving on those numbers unless Carpenter and Torkelson make major leaps in their production, clutch hitting, and efficiency.

It's not just about stats, either. The Tigers were pounded in many of their most important games last season and need to develop a ‘clutch gene' in a hurry to surpass their competition in the Central Division.

The prediction here is that they show more consistency and production but fall short of their ideals.