Tigers might've offered a preview at future strategy with speed outburst in Dodgers series

In recent years, the Tigers have been especially strategic about their base running. They're dead last in stolen bases this year, but they also lead the league in XBT% (extra bases taken). This has been curbed slightly since they parted ways with third base coach Joey Cora — and that's probably for the best — but that aspect of the running game is still a core part of this team's identity.

The Tigers have largely been hustlers rather than speedsters, opportunists rather than daredevils. It worked for them very well during their miracle run in 2024, but letting go of Cora was a sign that something needed to change.

With Detroit dropping slowly but surely out of the Wild Card picture, they've gotten a little more experimental with things lately. The most obvious example was promoting infielder John Peck, who only logged six games at Triple-A Toledo, but we got a glimpse at an evolving on-field strategy during the Dodgers series, too.

On Saturday, the Tigers' lone win in the series, both Zach McKinstry and Hao-Yu Lee stole bases. Max Clark laid down two sacrifice bunts, "the first time the Tigers laid down multiple sac bunts in a game since June 27, 2021."

AJ Hinch said after the game, "There are certainly some areas where I think we can grow to take more risks in terms of the way that the running game is evolving."

Tigers seem ready to let their speedsters a little looser on the base paths

It took the Tigers 20 games to let Clark steal his first major league base, even though he stole 21 before being called up from Toledo and projects to be a perennial 20/20 major league player when he's at his best. Clark, Ben Malgeri, and Brett Callahan add a lot in the way of speed, but Lee and Kevin McGonigle also aren't to be underestimated on the base paths. If Parker Meadows makes it back next year, he'll be a threat, too.

The Tigers may have taken a cue from the Rays, who they'd just lost a series to before the Dodgers came into town. Unsurprisingly, the Rays did against the Tigers what they do against everyone else: they put the ball in play any way they could, and then they ran.

With a team as streaky as the Tigers, with as much as they tend subsist off of home runs, they could do well with manufacturing some of their own luck. These younger players especially have the tools to make it happen, and with Detroit almost fully out of contention, now's the time to try.

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