Tigers insider has bad news for fans who thought pitching chaos might evolve

One Detroit Tigers flaw that was seriously exposed during last year's playoffs was the lack of a true impact middle-of-the-order bat. When the chips were down, the likes of Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Kerry Carpenter, and Gleyber Torres, among others, came up empty.

Of all the things the Tigers needed to do to shore up the offense and build a World Series-caliber lineup, the only one they truly accomplished was bringing Torres back via the qualifying offer. Unsurprisingly, the word middling comes to mind when describing Detroit's offense so far this season.

Spencer Torkelson is continuing his trend of falling off after a promising year, putting some serious heat on himself as he comes up empty far too often. Though there have been some improvements, Riley Greene has been slow to heat up. Through 19 games, the club is 14th in runs scored with 84, and the club's .711 OPS is 12th in the majors.

That's led to a sobering observation regarding Tigers' pitching from Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic (subscription required), who wrote, "At this point, we should probably mention how pitching has been as big a problem — if not bigger. The Tigers entered Thursday’s game with a 4.40 ERA. Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez both had rough starts in Minnesota. Those guys are good enough that they should be fine. But the Tigers need their staff as a whole to be close to elite to make up for some of the offensive holes. So far, that has not been the case."

The Tigers' big-time arms will bounce back, but that doesn't mean the pitching staff can carry a flawed offense

Between the starting rotation and the bullpen, most would've assumed that the starters would be the stronger group heading into the 2026 season. So far, it's been the opposite, with the rotation posting a 4.12 ERA and the bullpen coming in at a 3.21 mark. Combined, the staff owns a 3.78 ERA, ranking 14th in the league.

Some of the prime culprits for the uneven performance have not been the guys you'd expect. Framber Valdez's blowup in Minnesota had him sitting with a 4.76 ERA. The bullpen has been held back by setup man Will Vest's 6.75 ERA to start.

On the flip side, the best-performing starter to date has been Keider Montero with a 94th percentile pitching run value, despite the fact that he didn't make the Opening Day roster, and the bullpen's best new addition has been minor league free agent signee Connor Seabold, who's only allowed two runs in 8 2/3 innings.

These are just a few examples of how guys who weren't expected to perform are excelling, while guys who the Tigers are counting on have slumped early on. History says we can't expect either trend to continue, and as everyone regresses to the mean, chaos will ensue.

The likelihood of the Detroit staff morphing into an elite unit, as Stavenhagen suggests they need, is very slim, which will have the Tigers lamenting the fact that they didn't add a big bat over the winter.

At the end of the day, it seems like what we'll be looking at is a middle-of-the-road pitching performance combined with an average offense, which will equal a middle-of-the-pack record. That's not ideal for a team that supposedly wants to win the World Series.

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