Will Detroit Tigers run away with AL Central?
The Days of Roar podcast breaks down the competition the Detroit Tigers face in the AL Central. Can the Tigers maintain first place in the division?
- The Detroit Tigers boast the best record in baseball, leading the AL Central by a comfortable margin.
- Spencer Torkelson’s breakout season puts him on pace for 40 home runs and 128 RBIs, a feat achieved by only a handful of players in recent years.
- The Tigers may consider acquiring third baseman Nolan Arenado at the trade deadline to bolster their lineup.
The Detroit Tigers have separated themselves from the other 29 MLB teams.
They have the best record in baseball.
Entering May 20, the Tigers (31-17) lead the American League Central — 4½ games ahead of the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals and five games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians.
Here are five observations about the Tigers after nearly 50 games in the 2025 season:
Welcome to the Summer of Tork
Spencer Torkelson is on pace for 40 home runs and 128 RBIs.
Over the past 10 years, a season with at least 40 homers and 125 RBIs has occurred 10 times by eight players: Nolan Arenado (2015, 2016), Edwin Encarnación (2016), Giancarlo Stanton (2017), J.D. Martinez (2018), Aaron Judge (2022, 2024), Pete Alonso (2022), Matt Olson (2023) and Shohei Ohtani (2024).
The performance is real — and it’s happening just one year after Torkelson was demoted to Triple-A Toledo for the second time in three seasons.
Here’s why Torkelson is producing career-best results: He adopted an athletic stance and a more adjustable swing in the batter’s box (rather than a robotic stance and grooved swing), he dialed in his approach on hitting line drives over the second baseman’s head (rather than trying to pull everything), and he calibrated the timing of his swing to handle high-velocity fastballs (rather than being late on velocity).
With those three adjustments, the 25-year-old is making hard contact at an above-average rate for the first time since his 31-homer season in 2023. He also has career highs in batting average (.246), OPS (.885) and walk rate (12.6%).
In 2025, Torkelson is one of nine players on pace to hit at least .245 with 40-plus home runs, joining Ohtani, Judge, Kyle Schwarber, Corbin Carroll, Fernando Tatis Jr., Trent Grisham, Pete Crow-Armstrong and James Wood. Only three of those players — Crow-Armstrong, Judge and Torkelson — are on pace for at least 125 RBIs.
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What happens when Parker Meadows returns from injured list?
Parker Meadows is coming soon.
He started his rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo on May 20 and will join the Tigers by June 10, but here’s a potential return date to keep an eye on: June 6 against the Chicago Cubs at Comerica Park.
The return of Meadows will give the Tigers their everyday center fielder and leadoff hitter for the first time this season. He hasn’t played since suffering a musculocutaneous nerve injury during the first game of spring training, back on Feb. 22.
In Meadows’ absence, Javier Báez — a shortstop turned center fielder — filled in seamlessly. He’s hitting .309 with a .934 OPS over 23 games when playing at the position, ranking as MLB’s second-best hitter among 39 center fielders with at least 50 plate appearances. He also ranks among MLB’s top 10 defensive center fielders, with plus-3 defensive runs saved in more than 190 innings.
Still, Meadows will reclaim his spot in center field once activated. When that happens, expect Báez to shift to third base and Matt Vierling to spend more time in right field — assuming Báez continues his unexpected offensive resurgence. And if Trey Sweeney slows down on offense, then Báez can return to shortstop, which is where he won a Gold Glove in 2020.
Dillon Dingler emerges as No. 1 catcher
In 2023-24, Jake Rogers held the No. 1 spot on the Tigers’ catching depth chart, serving as ace Tarik Skubal‘s personal catcher and becoming a Gold Glove finalist. He entered 2025 as the primary catcher, but the situation has changed over the past six weeks — all while Rogers has been sidelined since April 8 with left oblique tightness.
Since the injury, backup catcher Dillon Dingler has taken over as the primary catcher. He has implemented a steady combination of offense and defense to surpass Rogers.
The 26-year-old is hitting .292 with four home runs, two walks and 37 strikeouts through 35 games — despite only 62 games in his MLB career. He’s on pace for 5.1 fWAR, which would rank third among catchers this season, trailing only Cal Raleigh and Will Smith.
How did Rogers perform in his best season?
It was 2.6 fWAR in 2023.
In 2025, Dingler has emerged as one of MLB’s best catchers — posting a .780 OPS on offense and plus-3 defensive runs saved on defense. Offensively, he is hitting fastballs to offset his swing-and-miss struggles against breaking balls. Defensively, he is elite at blocking pitches in the dirt and framing borderline strikes.
Expect Rogers to remain as Skubal’s personal catcher, especially after their 2024 AL Cy Young campaign together, but Dingler could end up catching Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe, whereas Rogers catches Skubal and Casey Mize.
That would give Dingler more than a 50-50 share of the playing time behind the plate.
Should Tigers acquire 3B Nolan Arenado at trade deadline?
There are still two months to go before the July 31 trade deadline, but with the Tigers holding the fourth-best odds to win the World Series, it’s not too early to examine potential upgrades for a postseason run. The Tigers pursued third baseman Alex Bregman in free agency this past offseason — and while that didn’t materialize, the need at third base remains.
Third basemen from the Tigers have combined for a .597 OPS in 2025, which ranks 25th in MLB and represents the worst offensive output of any position group on the roster, even lower than the .669 OPS from shortstop, which ranks 19th in MLB.
Third base is the most obvious place to upgrade the lineup.
The internal options — Javier Báez, Matt Vierling and Zach McKinstry — have question marks: Báez makes the most sense, but he is a regression candidate (.257 expected batting average compared to .291 actual average) and could be needed at shortstop; Vierling is coming off a career-best season, but he is a below-average defender at third and fits better in right field; McKinstry flashed greatness in April, but he has cooled off to career norms since then, hitting just .218 with a .611 OPS in May.
Enter Nolan Arenado.
The 34-year-old is a potential trade target if the St. Louis Cardinals sell at the July 31 deadline. He is owed $42 million in 2026-27 to conclude his contract, so the Cardinals would likely need to eat a significant portion of his salary to compete a trade.
The eight-time All-Star — a five-time Silver Slugger and 10-time Gold Glove winner — isn’t the same player as he was in the late 2010s and early 2020s, but he still provides value. He is hitting .241 with four home runs, 17 walks and 21 strikeouts in 44 games, posting a career-worst .686 OPS. He continues to play elite defense at third base, worth plus-4 defensive runs saved. Arenado is walking more, striking out less and putting the ball in play at an above-average clip, though the contact quality has declined recently, which is why the Cardinals moved him down in their lineup, from the cleanup spot to the sixth spot.
Whether or not the win-now Tigers pursue Arenado — like they did Bregman in the offseason — could depend on how Báez, Vierling and McKinstry perform at third base over the next two months, with 72 days until the trade deadline.
More likely to win AL Comeback Player of the Year: Javier Báez, Spencer Torkelson, Casey Mize?
The Tigers have three players among the top four contenders for AL Comeback Player of the Year, according to FanDuel: Javier Báez is first at +135, Spencer Torkelson is third at +550, and Casey Mize is fourth at +950. Only Jacob deGrom, at +220, separates the Tigers from a sweep atop the odds board.
Right now, Báez is the favorite to win AL Comeback Player of the Year.
That makes sense.
Báez — one of MLB’s most recognizable names — has flipped the narrative of his tenure with the Tigers, from one of the worst hitters in the league over the past two seasons to one of the best hitters on the best team this season.
No Tigers player has ever won Comeback Player of the Year since the award debuted in 2005. However, former Tigers Dmitri Young (2007), Fernando Rodney (2012), Prince Fielder (2015), Rick Porcello (2016), David Price (2018) and Justin Verlander (2022) all earned the honor after leaving Detroit.
Winners are determined by votes from MLB.com’s 30 beat reporters, including Tigers beat writer Jason Beck.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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