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Colt Keith is finally heating up for the Tigers and the timing couldn’t be better

Emma Lingan
Emma Lingan

Motor City Bengals

Detroit Tigers v Los Angeles Angels / Ronald Martinez/GettyImages

By now, Detroit Tigers fans should know not to panic when Colt Keith has a slow start to the season. And yet, most of us did it anyway.

One month into the 2025 campaign, things were looking bleak for Keith. He was slashing just .186/.324/.254 with a pair of extra-base hits through the month of April. His first homer of 2025 didn't come until the final day of the month. Add in the challenge of juggling multiple position changes, and many Tigers fans were concerned that their $28.6 million man was already a bust after just one big league season.

But again, we should have seen this coming. Keith didn't hit his first homer of 2024 until late May last year. That would end up being the launchpad for a stellar rookie season that included a .343 batting average in May and a Rookie of the Month award in July. How quickly we forget.

“It’s been every season of my career – even in the minors – I’ve never had a good April,” Keith told Evan Woodberry of MLive. “I’m always trying to break that pattern. But like I said, I’m seeing the ball well, so hopefully I can keep that going.”

Colt Keith is finally heating up for the Tigers and the timing couldn’t be better

In the week that has passed since he hit the two-run blast that traveled 406 feet at Daikin Field in Houston, Keith has looked like a different player. In 18 trips to the plate over his last seven games, his slash line has improved to .222/.364/.722 with three home runs and five RBI.

While Keith's brutal start at the plate this season may have had us sweating a bit throughout April, his past performance tells us he's going to be just fine. The Tigers still believe he is a key part of their lineup for the foreseeable future. At just 23 years old in his second MLB season, he still has time to find that level of consistency in his game.

Hopefully, just like last year, Keith's hot start to May will open the floodgates and lead to more consistent production from the plate.

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Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan is an MLB Staff Writer for FanSided primarily covering the Pittsburgh Pirates. She has been covering baseball for more than a decade dating back to her time as a student at Wake Forest University, and she has won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. National Team delegation (2016 Pan-American Championships & 2017 World Baseball Classic). A native of Washington, D.C. and current resident of Nashville, Tenn., she is also entering her seventh season as a credentialed NHL media member and currently covers the NHL’s Nashville Predators for The Hockey News. When she's not watching hockey, baseball or football, she enjoys podcasting, reading, going to the gym, consuming large amounts of coffee and taking long walks with her dog, Minkah. You can follow her @Emma_lingan on Twitter and Instagram.