MLB.com has pressure-packed prediction for Detroit Tigers in 2025

Emma Lingan

Division Series - Detroit Tigers v Cleveland Guardians - Game 5 / Nick Cammett/GettyImages

The Detroit Tigers' magical run to the ALDS in 2024 didn't merely snap a decade-long postseason drought; it dramatically accelerated their organizational timeline. The rebuild is complete, and the time to contend is now.

The Tigers have one of the best pitchers on the planet in Tarik Skubal and an exciting young core. Now, they also have playoff experience and an intense desire to make a deeper postseason run in 2025. The stakes are higher, and so are the expectations surrounding this team.

After putting the baseball world on notice in 2024, the Tigers are entering a pivotal 2025 season in which they need to prove that last year's magical second-half run wasn't merely a fluke and that they are a legitimate threat in the postseason. As if the pressure on this team wasn't already high enough, Will Leitch of MLB.com added fuel to the fire with his offseason prediction for the 2025 World Series.

MLB.com has pressure-packed prediction for Detroit Tigers in 2025

According to Leitch's predictions, the Tigers are not only expected to win their division next season; they are expected make it all the way to the 2025 World Series before ultimately losing to the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Picking anybody else [but the Dodgers] feels like a fool's errand at this point," Leitch wrote. "As for their opponent: Spoiler alert, I'm going to pick the Tigers to win the AL Central this year, and they look better positioned for the postseason than they did in 2024."

The Tigers finished in third place in the American League Central in 2024 with an 86-76 record. From there, they went on to sweep the Houston Astros in the best-of-three AL Wild Card series before ultimately losing to the Cleveland Guardians in the best-of-five ALDS.

The Tigers were far out of a playoff spot before going on a 31-11 run through August and September that catapulted them into the Wild Card conversation. While it made for exciting baseball down the stretch, it isn't a sustainable strategy for continued success. However, if the Tigers can be more consistent in 2025, Leitch's lofty prediction may not be out of the realm of possibility. Just sign Alex Bregman already.

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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.