Projecting Detroit Tigers' 2025 lineup as fans get excited about young core

The Tigers left their series against the Cubs at Wrigley avoiding a sweep with a nice 8-2 win on Wednesday, but getting decidedly crushed in Game 3, after Kenta Maeda gave up a grand slam in the bottom of the second and the Cubs poured six more runs on before the game was over.

The series gives a pretty good view of where the Tigers are right now. During their win, the young players stepped up big time — Trey Sweeney got his first MLB homer while Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter both had two-hit, three RBI nights — but in their loss the next day, the offense could barely get anything going (although Spencer Torkelson hit his first homer since his return to the majors).

The young players are capable of propelling this team to wins, but there's also a lot of work to do. However, the Tigers have set a very nice foundation for themselves to work with next season and, since they're not playing for a title this year, it's as good a time as any to think about what this team might look like in 2025.

Projecting the Detroit Tigers' 2025 lineup

• C: Dillon Dingler/Jake Rogers
• 1B: Spencer Torkelson
• 2B: Colt Keith
• SS: Javier Báez
• 3B: Jace Jung
• LF: Riley Greene
• CF: Parker Meadows
• RF: Wenceel Pérez
• DH: Kerry Carpenter
• Bench: Matt Vierling, Andy Ibáñez, Justyn-Henry Malloy, Trey Sweeney

This lineup looks a lot like what the Tigers are rolling with at this very moment, but we have reason to believe the team isn't going to spend money in the offseason when most of the players on this list have either shown nice progress this season or have been great all year. Not only does Detroit's track record say they're not going to spend, Scott Harris wouldn't go on record saying the Tigers would be aggressive on the free agent market.

They'll definitely still need to supplement a little bit. Torkelson's presence next season isn't a given with all of his struggles this year. Pérez, who may be out the rest of this season with an oblique strain, isn't a lock either, and the Tigers will definitely want to see more of Malloy and Sweeney before they're locks as bench players. They're keeping a close eye on Jung, too, but he seems more likely to get an Opening Day tap because of his top-five prospect status. We can probably expect the Tigers to be on the market for a handful of affordable veterans à la Mark Canha and Gio Urshela to supplement where necessary.

Unfortunately, we also don't foresee the Tigers dumping Báez, even though we all know that they should. One player who might/should be out the door, however, is Zach McKinstry. Vierling and Ibáñez already play the role of go-to utility guys very well and have been hitting much better than McKinstry this season. If there's a time to cut him loose, it's now.

Improbably, though, the Tigers look well on their way to accomplishing their main goal: develop a talented, young, homegrown core, and see what they can do. Detroit's real concern next year will be the rotation and bullpen, and that's probably where we can expect to see them put most of their focus if they spend at all in the offseason.