Detroit Tigers: 5 New Year's resolutions for 2024

It's time to ring in the New Year. 2024 is officially here. With it comes hope for a better future. That especially rings true for the Detroit Tigers, who now haven't made the playoffs in a decade. Woof.

But unlike the majority of the past several years, they are trying to change that. Little by little, the team is looking like one that can compete in 2024. There's also been a bunch of changes behind the scenes to ensure that future seasons go swimmingly.

In the spirit of the New Year's holiday, we've come up with some New Year's resolutions for the Detroit Tigers in 2024. These are things we want to see them accomplish this year, both on and off the field.

Before we continue, let us just thank you all and wish you a Happy New Year. Thanks for your continued readership and support over the last year, and we hope you'll keep reading this year.

Now, without, further ado, here's five New Year's resolutions for the Detroit Tigers in 2024.

1. Add a third baseman

I can't believe we've reached the calendar year of 2024 and the Tigers STILL don't have a proper third baseman on the roster. That's just mind-boggling to me. Yet, here we are.

There's still about six weeks until pitchers and catchers report, so there's still plenty of time to add one. At this point, I don't even care if it's via trade or free agency, I just want a third baseman.

I've already went over why I don't believe Matt Vierling is the answer. He just doesn't hit enough to be an everyday player. Andy Ibanez is best-suited as a bench bat as well.

With Colt Keith likely moving over to second base for the long haul, the Tigers have to look externally to find a third baseman. What they have in-house isn't going to cut it.

2. Be more aggressive with prospects

One could argue that the Al Avila regime was a bit too aggressive with prospects, especially toward the end of his tenure. Contrastly, Scott Harris was far too passive in his first year as president of baseball operations.

Colt Keith was in Double-A for way too long. Playoff implications for Erie or not, he should have been promoted to Triple-A long before he actually was.

He also should have been promoted to Detroit in September. The same goes for Justyn-Henry Malloy. They would both have benefitted a great deal from getting a cup of coffee last season. I understand they both still have a lot of work to do defensively, but the Tigers desparately needed their bats.

Parker Meadows was promoted in late August. After a hot start, he entered a slump, which is good for him. Big-league pitchers adjusted to him quickly. It was time to see how he would respond — and he did.

The last two weeks of the season, Meadows slashed .280/.345/.480 with a 126 wRC+ and a .200 ISO. It's just 55 plate appearances, but that's a very promising sign for 2024.

Meadows struggled for a bit, but those struggled allowed him to get better. Malloy and Keith could have gotten a head start for 2024 by doing the same. But they never got that chance.

Harris needs to be more aggressive when it comes to prospect promotions moving forward. A prospect doesn't have to be perfect in order to be big-league ready. We sure hope Jace Jung and Jackson Jobe won't be stuck in the minors all year for virtually no reason.

3. Have at least one starting pitcher pitch at least 150 innings

This has been a problem for years now. The Tigers can't keep their pitchers healthy enough to pitch 150 innings or more. That really needs to change in order for the team to be competitive in 2024.

I'd personally love for that pitcher to be Tarik Skubal. He should be fully recovered from flexor tendon surgery by now, and if the second half of 2023 was any indication, he's ready to be that ace the Tigers desparately need.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Tigers projected starting rotation is filled with pitchers with injury histories, including Skubal. Kenta Maeda, Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and Jack Flaherty all have some sort of injury concerns.

Reese Olson and Sawyer Gipson-Long are both here as insurance policies, but we've seen each of the last two years how wrecked this rotation can be. They need some stability in this rotation.

It probably won't be Mize, as he's coming back from Tommy John surgery. It probably won't be Flaherty, given last season was the first time he had pitched over 100 innings since 2019. It probably won't be Manning either, since he's never reached triple digits in terms of innings pitched. So you're looking at Skubal, and *maybe* Maeda or Olson. Maybe Scott Harris isn't crazy for having so many starting pitchers after all.

5. Be "on the graphic" in September

As much as I would love to sit here and say that the Tigers should be competing for a division title in 2024, that just doesn't seem to be in the cards. Honestly, with the way the roster is currently constructed, I just don't have faith in them to be in contention for the AL Central, even with how bad the division is.

However, I think it's perfect reasonable to expect the team to be in contention for a wild card spot in 2024, especially nowadays with the expanded playoffs.

The Tigers should be on the graphic in September this season. And by that, I mean they should be on the playoff graphics that often get shown on TV broadcasts throughout the month of September as playoff races really heat up. The Tigers should be there, whether they actually have a spot, or they're close, but on the outside looking in. They should be in contention until the very end.

The Tigers won 78 games last year. It's not at all unreasonable to expect them to win 80-85 games in 2024. Recent history would suggest that could just be good enough to sneak into the postseason. Both the Diamondbacks and Marlins made it with 84 wins in 2023, with Arizona ultimately making the World Series. The playoffs are an entirely different animal. You never know what can happen once you get there.