2 trends that must hold (and 2 that must stop) for Tigers to maintain status atop AL

A lot has gone right for the Detroit Tigers as they continue to put the MLB world on notice and surge up the pundits' power rankings. They are the best team in the American League at the moment after another series win.

In order for the success to continue, the club will need certain trends to continue, as well as some crucial improvements to be made if they want to continue their winning ways. More importantly, they want to go from an up-and-coming team that was fostering young talent to a feared contender that can make a deep October run.

So what must happen for that to come to fruition?

2 trends that must hold (and 2 that must stop) for Tigers to maintain status atop AL

The first key trend the Tigers will need to continue is the incredible dominance of their starting rotation. Reigning AL Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal continues to prove that he can dominate in every way possible, but even more important has been the performance of the group behind him.

Jack Flaherty has more or less picked up where he left off in his return to Detroit. Jackson Jobe is a front-runner for the AL Rookie of the Year award. Even the much-maligned Casey Mize has performed above expectations in the early going. Detroit's rotation has been getting the job done, ranking third in the majors with a 2.97 ERA over their first 34 games.

The flip side of the coin is that Detroit's starters do have some underlying concerns. The rotation ranks a much more pedestrian 12th in terms of FIP with a 3.84 mark, largely due to concerns with keeping flyballs in the yard. Guys like Mize and Flaherty have elevated HR/FB ratios, and the starters as a whole rank 19th with a 12.3% rate, which will need to be cleaned up as the club leans heavily on this group's talents.

Offensively, the Tigers need continued offensive contributions from unexpected sources. After years as a light-hitting utility man, Zach McKinstry has emerged as one of the team's best players in the early going.

Meanwhile, a rejuvenated Javy Baez has put together his best stat line in years, posting a .300/.337/.467 line through 27 games as he looks to swing the pendulum back from contract albatross to meaningful contributor. He's even reinvented himself as an exciting center fielder along the way.

However, Detroit will have to address its biggest offensive concern. Tigers hitters own a 23.9% strikeout rate, fifth worst in the majors. Aside from the Yankees, the rest of the teams ahead of them (the Rockies, Angels, and Orioles) sport some of the worst offenses in baseball.

Strikeouts are a necessary evil in today's game, but there's still a line that can't be crossed. Detroit's lineup features power hitters like Spencer Torkleson and Riley Greene, who can sustain higher-than-ideal strikeout rates, whereas more contact-oriented hitters such as McKinstry and Trey Sweeney cannot.

The Tigers are in a prime position to emerge as premier contenders in the American League, not only in 2025 but for years to come. This is what the team has been building towards over the last several seasons, but in order to get there, they'll have to continue to lean into their strengths while taking a clear-eyed approach to improving their weaknesses.

Riding the wave of a spectacular starting rotation and getting meaningful contributions from veterans who support the young core sets them up beautifully. As long as the starters can solve their long ball concerns and the offense can keep the whiffs in check, the present and future will be very, very bright.