Projected 2025 Tigers lineup if they go wild and sign Alex Bregman, Anthony Santander

Despite a lot of early indications that the Tigers were going to leave fans wanting more by the time Opening Day rolls around in March, they've actually started to give us reasons to hope for a massive free agent signing (or even two, if we're going to get really optimistic about it).

Gleyber Torres' signing was already a bit of a welcome surprise. Even if it's just a one-year deal and Torres has given no indication he'll ever return to his old Yankees glory, he'll still provide a veteran righty bat with some pop that the Tigers need. Maybe it actually made the Tigers ... hungry for more?

Alex Bregman and Anthony Santander are two of the top remaining free agents on the market, and the Tigers have shown interest in both of them. Their interest in Bregman definitely seems to run deeper than just interest, and Detroit is one of the only destinations being consistently mentioned in discussions surrounding his free agency. Santander's is a newer name to crop up, and Bregman is both more likely and probably more desired by fans ... but absolutely no one would complain if the Tigers went with a one-two punch to get both of them.

In a perfect world where Detroit takes the plunge and spends the money necessary to acquire Bregman and Santander, this year's Opening Day lineup could be one of the best we've seen in years.

Predicting Tigers' 2025 lineup if Detroit makes some big splashes in free agency

1. Parker Meadows (CF)
2. Alex Bregman (3B)
3. Riley Greene (LF)
4. Anthony Santander (RF)
5. Kerry Carpenter (DH)
6. Gleyber Torres (2B)
7. Colt Keith (1B)
8. Javier Báez/Trey Sweeney (SS)
9. Jake Rogers (C)

This looks a lot more like the kind of lineup that fans have been begging the Tigers to put on the field. Bregman, Santander, and Torres are proven talents who only make up 1/3 of the lineup, while the rest of the spots go to promising young players and rookies (Riley Greene is already getting some AL MVP dark horse hype).

Torres' signing meant a move to first base for Colt Keith, and despite the fact that the Tigers love to mix and match their lineups under AJ Hinch, it feels incredibly unlikely that they'd go with Spencer Torkelson at first base over Keith on Opening Day. The Athletic's Cody Stavenhagen called the Torres signing "an indictment of how the organization feels about Spencer Torkelson" on Foul Territory, and Torkelson will have to take advantage of whatever plate appearances he manages to get with an uneven split with Keith at first (if the Tigers don't knock him down to Triple-A altogether).

Javy Báez and Trey Sweeney's situation at shortstop will continue to be frustrating, because unlike Torkelson, the Tigers have no easy way of getting rid of Báez (unless they were willing to eat money, which they've made incredibly apparent that they aren't). Who Detroit lands on as their starting Opening Day shortstop will probably depend on who their opposing pitcher is; if he's a lefty, it'll probably be Báez, and the opposite is true for Sweeney.

Fans can and should still hold onto hope that the Tigers will make things happen with Bregman especially. Although that's a tall order for a fanbase that's used to being underwhelmed and disappointed, this time feels a little different. Bookmark this for later use, Tigers fans.