Detroit Tigers: Casey Mize Is Ready To Start Winning

Casey Mize is setting his  post-season sights higher for the Detroit Tigers.

Casey Mize was one of the most coveted prospects in recent years and now, after having about a year and a half of major league play under his belt, he is ready to win and winning big in the city of Detroit.

Last year, Detroit Tigers fans saw the beginning of what to expect from Casey Mize. He ended last year with a 3.71 ERA, 41 BB, and 118 K’s. It was great to watch Casey come into his own, or at least show some great progression in his major league career in his first full season in the majors.

If you want to take a deeper dive into Mize’s numbers, here are some more advanced analytics to look at. 4.71 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, and 4.45 SIERRA. Which of course are not elite numbers, but as I stated before, this was Casey’s real first run at the major league level since he was called up during a bizarre Covid year.

In a recent interview, Mize did he was asked about some goals for the Tigers in the future, mainly surrounding if a goal for him and the organization right now is to make the playoffs. His answer was nothing short of exciting if you are a Tigers fan. Mize said,

"“To me, playoffs is too low of a goal. We’re in a position now where we’re a good enough team. We need to start aiming to win the World Series.” (CR: Evan Petzold of Freep.com)"

Now if you are a Tigers fan and you hear your potential future ace saying in his third year that it’s time to aim for the playoffs, that should get you super excited. This means not only will we see a whole different product on the field next season but we will see the AJ Hinch Detroit Tigers trying not only to make the playoffs but win a World Series.

If you wish for this to be the goal, it starts with good solid starting pitching. That was clear last year in the 2021 playoffs that having good starting pitching is a key factor in winning big games and trying to get far in the postseason.

So hearing Casey say something like that who has stated and has been talked about since being drafted in 2018 as being the next big ace means a ton. This goal sounds outrageous to some because of how poor the product has been on the field for the last 6 years, not counting last year. But, the Tigers have a super solid rotation as of now with, Eduardo Rodriguez, Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and Tarik Skubal plus prospects like Spencer Torkelson, and Riley Greene on their way up and contribute on the offensive side of the ball in a few years this should become a very realistic goal for the Tigers and their fans.

In the end, we don’t even know when or what the 2022 season is going to look like for anybody. So let us just take it one step at a time and hope we even get a full 162-game season and get to watch this great young core for the Detroit Tigers to get to work.