Hall of Famer’s World Series prediction bodes incredibly well for Tigers

After the Tigers' incredible walk-off victory over the Red Sox on Tuesday, former Red Sox pitcher and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez made an early World Series prediction: the Tigers and Padres would go to the Fall Classic in their first postseason meeting since 1984.

It's possible Martinez was simply really feeling Boston's loss and was just as amazed by Javy Báez's heroic three-run homer as everyone else, but he's not alone in predicting that the 2025 Tigers will take the franchise's first trip to the World Series since 2012. Baseball Reference has their chances at 18.3% (the highest of any team) and PECOTA has them at 10% behind the Dodgers (16.7%).

Through Sunday's game against the Blue Jays, the Tigers have the best record in baseball. The Dodgers are running in second, but the Padres are just one game behind. If they manage to deal with the Dodgers early in the postseason (and both can get around the Mets), then a Tigers-Padres matchup does seem plausible.

The Tigers won the 1984 World Series in five games, yielding just one to a Padres team that included "Mr. Padre" Tony Gwynn. That, along with the fact that the Tigers have already beaten the Padres in their inter-league matchup a few weeks ago, makes Detroit's chances look pretty good.

Pedro Martinez predicts a 1984 World Series rematch for Tigers and Padres

To be fair, the Padres do turn into a different beast when it comes to the postseason, and they put a real scare into the Dodgers during the NLDS last year after staying right on their tails for the top of the NL West down the September stretch. But they blew it, and didn't score a single run after the sixth inning of Game 3, which allowed the Dodgers to come back from a deficit of two games to one.

The 2025 Tigers (31-16) aren't quite as dominant as the 1984 Tigers (38-9) were through their first 47 games, but they are enjoying their best record in that time frame since 2006, when they were 32-14 and made it to their first World Series since their 1984 victory.

It's still pretty early, but things just feel different with this year's Tigers squad. Even if Martinez's prediction was probably guided by some recency bias, the 2025 Tigers are more primed to get deep into October than any team we've seen in years.