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With the roster as is at the moment, how close are the Detroit Tigers in making the playoffs under the new 12-team playoff format?
During yesterday’s meeting with the media, Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the team’s goal is always the postseason, it has never changed.
More A.J. Hinch: "I am not *declaring* this a playoff team. I have no idea. But I've always told every team I've ever managed, 'We need to win our division and we need to make the playoffs.' I don't know why this would be any different."
— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) March 13, 2022
Hinch and his staff made the Tigers fun to watch last season. They exceeded expectations and projections that were out there. Evan Woodbery of Mlive.com stated Detroit would once again have to overachieve based on Baseball Prospectus PECOTA projections with the current roster.
The American League is going to be a gauntlet
Over the weekend, both the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox made some moves to bolster their roster. The Twins made two trades this weekend, acquiring Sonny Gray from the Reds, Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela from New York in exchange for recently acquired shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Josh Donaldson, and Ben Rortvedt.
Chicago continues to build a monster bullpen after starting free agency signing Kendall Graveman back in November and for good measure this weekend, added RHP Joe Kelly and former Tigers infielder Josh Harrison, who batted .279 last season between the Nationals and the A’s.
With the 12-team playoff happening this season, the American League as a whole, is getting tougher. How the format works is the top two seeds will get a bye with the 3rd seed playing the 6th seed and the 4th seed playing the 5th seed. Both series will get a best out of three with the winner of the 4th and 5th matchup playing the 1st seed and 3 vs 6 playing the second seed.
Now think about that for a moment from the standings of last year.
- Tampa Bay (100 wins)
- Houston (95 wins)
- Chicago (93 wins)
- Boston (90 wins)
- New York (90 wins)
- Toronto (91 wins)
Toronto signed Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi over the off-season and Oakland is continuing their fire sale so they move one or more of their starters in the next few days. Detroit started the off-season strong.