Detroit Tigers probably won’t be this bad next season

Offensive improvements

While the Detroit Tigers pitching staff has struggled mightily in September, the team’s offense hasn’t been nearly as ineffective.

Despite regularly relying on the likes of Andrew Romine (65 wRC+), Tyler Collins (.283 on-base percentage) and Efren Navarro (54 wRC+), the Tigers are 18^th in WAR among offenses in the month of September.

Detroit also ranks near the middle of the pack in ISO (15^th), wRC+ (16^th) and wOBA (17^th).

If the Tigers can get Miguel Cabrera back to being his old self at the plate next season, they should improve on those numbers significantly.

A full season of Victor Martinez in the lineup in 2018 certainly won’t hurt matters either.

In addition to Martinez, seeing Jeimer Candelario play on a consistent basis should help the Tigers significantly.

The centerpiece of the Justin Wilson trade, Candelario has arguably been Detroit’s best player in September.

In 84 plate appearances, the third baseman has clocked a 1.0 WAR to go along with a 169 wRC+, a .426 wOBA, a 14.3 walk percentage and a .181 ISO.

Candelario is also hitting .361 with a .452 on-base percentage and a .542 slugging percentage.

He’s not going to sustain those numbers for an entire season, but he looks like he’ll be an above-average contributor at the plate.