These 10 players will make or break the Detroit Tigers in 2021

When we talked about players who absolutely clobber the Detroit Tigers, you can think of a few names that we brought up last August.  Players like Whit Merrifield and Jose Ramirez came to mind.

Thankfully in 2020, the shortened season allowed us to only see a few of these players limit their damage against Tigers pitching.  For Detroit to be competitive this season, there are a few bats that they will need to neutralize. But before we get to the bats, let’s take a look back at a few players who have had some success against Detroit during the Wild-Card era (1995-2020)

Remember Joe Mays?

In 2001, right-hander Joe Mays was an All-Star for the Twins. In what was the best season of his career, he would throw a career-high in innings, (233.2) wins, (17) and ERA. (3.16)

Of those 17 wins,  5 of them came off Detroit. Mays was 5-0 with an ERA of 0.98 in 46 innings pitched. He allowed 29 hits and gave up only one home run. Combine that with Brad Radke’s 4-0 record, Mays and Radke went undefeated against Detroit.

Johan Santana

One of the greatest Rule 5 picks of all time, Santana’s season against the 2006 squad was impressive. Detroit managed just to put up a slash line of .190/.258/.339 with 46 strikeouts in 33.2 innings pitched. His only loss was Vance Wilson would hit a two-run home run off Santana in the 8th to give Detroit the 2-0 win. In the loss, Santana would strikeout 12. The pitcher who won the game for the Tigers? Justin Verlander, who scattered six hits in eight shutout innings.

David Justice

In 77 plate appearances over 18 games against the Tigers in their first season at Comerica Park, Justice had 10 home runs, which is tied with one other player that we will discuss later, for most home runs against Detroit during the Wild-Card era in one season. While Justice was a fine player, it was the last name I was expecting to see here.

Without further delay, let’s start with a team from the South Side.

Chicago White Sox’s Triple Threat

1. José Abreu
2. Tim Anderson
3. Yoán Moncada

If you would have guessed Abreu as the active player who has hit the most home runs off the Tigers, well, you would be wrong. That honor belongs to Alex Gordon with 25. But Abreu still hits for average against the Tigers at a higher clip and now he is tied for second behind Gordon with 23 with two other players.

As far as Tim Anderson goes, he put up one of the slash lines you have to do a double-take at in 2020. .513/.548/.974 with 5 home runs in 42 plate appearances with an OPS of 1.508!

Moncada for his career has hit Detroit .276/.347/.471 in 196 plate appearances with 8 home runs in three seasons so far.

As far as their rotation and bullpen go, Lucas Giolito is 5-2 lifetime against Detroit with 58 Ks in 51 innings pitched so look for him to take advantage of a very free-swinging Tigers team that led the league in K% at 27.3%. They are combined 7-6 against Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn. Lynn was picked up in the off-season and provides Chicago some much-needed starter depth.

Their bullpen is projected to be one of the best in the AL with Liam Hendricks now as the team’s closer. Manager Tony LaRussa likes to run a lot so look for them to take advantage of Detroit’s catching battery of Ramos and Greiner.

6. Jorge Soler

7. Salvador Perez

8. Whit Merrifield 

9. Carlos Santana

10. Jose Ramirez

Soler’s 2019 season is among the best against the Tigers in the Wild Card era. 10 home runs, a slash line of .408/.469/.944 and drove in 26 in 81 plate appearances over 19 games. For his career,  Soler posts an OPS of over 1.000 and batting .331 overall.

When I wrote the article about Merrifield’s numbers around mid-August, he was batting .352 lifetime against Detroit. He “cooled off” a bit and batted just .333 against them in 47 plate apperances.

Perez is the last active batter tied for second among home runs against Detroit with 23 with Santana nipping at his heels with 22.  While Alex Gordon is not the same player as he was, just be grateful that Detroit does not have to face Eric Hosmer as much as they once did. His 20 home runs would give the Royals four players that are active in the top 10.

With Lindor gone, it may get easier to face Ramirez but you are still looking facing a tough Cleveland rotation led by Shane Bieber, who absolutely carved up Tigers hitters last season to the tune of just allowing 3 runs in 14.2 IP while striking out 21.

Where is the “make” part of this?

Detroit will feature two new arms in the rotation, Jose Urena and Julio Teheran, and one new face in the bullpen with Derek Holland. While both Urena and Teheran have been mostly in the National League with the exception of Teheran’s one season with the Angels, the sample sizes are small. For Holland,  it appears Nelson Cruz (3 HR, .267 BA 8-for-34) and Josh Donaldson (7-for-29, .292 BA, OPS 1.039) are the ones that stand out the most.

Overall, while this is not a deep dive on the division rivals, these are the names that could make a Sunday afternoon viewing on TV or at the ballpark tough to watch against Tigers pitchers.

Tigers fans are all too familiar with these 10 players. If Detroit is going to have a successful season, they have to once and for all, figure out to attack them to cause the least amount of damage possible. I think about the adjustment Tim Anderson did to get in the front of the batter’s box last year to hit a laser off Skubal.(Around 1:07 mark)

We will see how the manager A.J. Hinch and the staff will handle these types of situations as they come up.