Detroit Tigers: Finally, a core is forming

The Detroit Tigers have barely had one good hitter at a time for the last several years, let along multiple. But now, they might have three.

And they're all going to be here for the forseeable future.

Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Kerry Carpenter are emerging as core, middle of the order bats for the Tigers. It's the dream fans have been waiting for for quite some time.

Greene has the potential to be an absolute superstar. He's slashing .309/.368/.491 on the season with a 139 wRC+ and 2.7 fWAR. He still has some kinks to iron out, but once he does, look out, folks. He's gonna be a great one.

Carpenter has been a huge victory for the development team. He's come out of nowhere after being a 19th-round pick in 2019 and just raked. He's slashing .286/.347/.521 with 16 home runs, an identical 139 wRC+, and a .236 ISO. His defense may be pretty suspect in the outfield, but the guy just knows how to find the barrel.

And then there's Tork. This may finally, FINALLY be his breakout. He's homered six times in his seven games, and he's up to 21 now on the year. So much has been made about the first year and a half about the lack of power from the former No. 1 overall pick, but now we're finally starting to see everything click.

His ISO is up to .201. The power has arrived. He's consistently crushing mistake pitches for the first time in his big league career. It's a beautiful sight.

The swing mechanics are pretty much fixed. Now, he just needs to make some small adjustments to his approach. Once he does that, we could be looking at a 30-40 homer guy.

The Tigers have three young, controllable bats that are performing at a high level. Now, they just need to add two or three more, and we can start talking playoffs.

They could have one in-house with Colt Keith. They could have one or two more with Parker Meadows and Justyn-Henry Malloy. But they need to capitalize on the emergence of these young hitters and look make a splash, whether it's in free agency or via trade.