MCB Detroit Tigers season prediction roundtable

The Detroit Tigers 2023 season will begin pretty much when this goes live. To celebrate Opening Day, some of us here at Motor City Bengals got together to discuss our expectations for the upcoming season.

Co-experts Matthew Scheidel and Tyler Kotila, as well as contributor Rogelio Castillo will be offering their thoughts on how the Detroit Tigers will fare this season. Let's get started.

Rogelio Castillo

What I expect from the Detroit Tigers to be at least an offense that can come back from one of the worst offensive outputs in team history. There has been a different vibe to the roster under Scott Harris. They are turning every stone over looking for talent via the waiver wire, but the drafts of Al Avila are finally churning out prospects who could play on a next level. 

Who gets the credit for if they win will be debated, but yes, another long season awaits. I think the Tigers will win 70 games and by the All-Star break, we may see the likes of Parker Meadows, Andre Lipcius in Detroit. For the first time in quite sometime Detroit may get minor league prospects who are not just first-round draft picks that could contribute. 

And finally, it’s Miguel Cabrera’s final season in Detroit. He has given Tigers fans plenty of memories. Clearly he isnt the same player and fans should expect a reduced role. However, that should not deter fans to enjoy his final season in the sun. 

-Rogelio Castillo

Tyler Kotila

The 2023 season is a fresh start for the Detroit Tigers. After owner Christopher Ilitch proclaimed that the rebuild was over when the team got underway in 2022, it is still well underway. The team has a new man with a plan in Scott Harris. While some seem to be wavering on their support for him already, I want to give him a chance. It’s hard to do worse than what Al Avila had done to the Tigers during his tenure.

I expect the Tigers to stink. I’ll be honest. It’s going to be a long summer of Tigers baseball and they’re likely going to finish under the 70-win mark, but it’s not time to freak out and bring the pitchforks to Comerica ready to oust Harris. This is his first season, he’s still trying to bring in depth guys that he wants, make waiver claims to fill out the minor league roster with guys he thinks may have a cup of coffee in the bigs. 

The biggest thing is, he has not even gone through a full-year with this team. With the team’s two best arms still recovering from injury, who could seriously have expected the team to come out and be a competing team in 2023? 

The team itself may end up becoming a dumpster fire by the end of the season but I think there are some individual storylines to keep an eye on. Mostly, Austin Meadows looking to bounce back could become trade bait down the line (just a hunch). Riley Greene is going to continue to improve and make it seem like he deserves a nice hefty contract extension. Spencer Torkelson looking to break out should be fun to watch.

As much as it may suck to watch the strings of losses pour in, the Tigers do have some specific areas of the game & players to key in on. Fans should try to make the most of it, if nothing else, they will have a potential lottery pick in 2024 to go grab the NCAA version of Shohei Ohtani in Jac Caglianone.

That being said, Happy Opening Day & Go Tigers!

-Tyler Kotila

Matthew Scheidel

What do you expect from a team that had playoff aspirations a year ago but flopped harder than Grayson Allen does on a nightly basis? Well, the guy that constructed that team is gone. There’s a new guy in charge, and he wants to see what he has before making any major moves.

I really don’t have any expectations for the Tigers this season. I just want to see some of the youngsters like Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson develop, and to see guys like Spencer Turnbull and Eduardo Rodriguez have big years on the mound. They also need players like Javy Baez and Austin Meadows to bounce back from down years.

I don’t think they’ll be as bad as they were last year. They can’t be. Everything that could have gone wrong, did. Expect things to even out. 

I’m going with a record of 72-90. They’ve won on Opening Day three of the last four years, so it would be nice to see them get off on the right foot once again. 

-Matthew Scheidel