Our last minute Detroit Tigers season predictions

Today the Detroit Tigers begin their 2019 regular season campaign against the Toronto Blue Jays and year two of their massive rebuild.

And with that expectations for this Tigers team should be significantly tempered given where the team is currently at and what they still have to go through in order to be even in the consideration for a postseason berth. So in essence, Mr. T is right, get ready for a lot of pain this upcoming season for the Tigers.

But just how much pain?

Well, lets get to some predictions…

The good news, they aren’t going to lose 100 games or even sniff the nightmare that was the 2003 season so fans won’t need to worry about that. FanGraphs currently has the Tigers finishing at 68-94 and last in the American League Central with the White Sox and Royals finishing just ahead at 70-92. We have the Tigers a game below what FanGraphs have them projected at but believe they’ll end up out of the basement of the AL Central.

So how does that work out for us?

Well, lets just say there won’t be any surprises if the Tigers do in fact finish last in the division. However we’ll project them to finish ahead of the Royals based on the fact that they have a much better farms system than Kansas City does and prospects who are much closer to making an impact at the Major League level, which could be beneficial when it comes to mid to late season call ups. With that in mind, guys to keep an eye on in terms of making their roster debuts as the season rolls on are Casey Mize (a top 25 MLB prospect), Matt Manning (a top 50 MLB prospect) and possibly short stop Isaac Paredes although that’s much more of a long shot considering he’s only 19 years old but showed plenty of potential at the plate in Double-A last season with 28 two base hits and 15 home runs. Fans might also want to keep an eye on Daz Cameron who very well could be the earliest MLB return in the Justin Verlander trade for the Tigers.

As far as other aspects of the season go, Nick Castellanos should beat out Miguel Cabrera as the team’s MVP given the fact that at this point in his career Cabrera seems due for at least one good DL stint. Furthermore we’ll go ahead and predict that at no point during the season will Castellanos be dealt, in fact we’ll say the 27-year-old will be re-signed given he’ll still be in his prime when the Tigers are ready to compete once again.

Christin Stewart will be the team’s Rookie of the Year for two reasons. He’ll be the only noteworthy first year player to play the entire season at the MLB level. And despite his defense helping contribute to what we can only assume will be one of the worst defensive outfields in the Majors, Stewart’s bat is every bit MLB ready.

Next, call it a bold prediction or not but we’ll go ahead and name Daniel Norris the breakout Tiger of 2019 for the simple fact that there’s still so much potential with him that it has to be realized at some point right? Especially this season considering the pitching staff is still incredibly lacking aside from the fact of what is still coming up through the pipeline.

Finally, as far as late season call-ups go Casey Mize’s may be sooner rather than later and if he does make that jump you can count on him being a mainstay for the rest of the year.