The Detroit Tigers were up 15.5 games in the AL Central at one point. Going into Saturday's matchup with the Boston Red Sox, their postseason fate hung in the balance. The Tigers eked out a 2-1 victory, courtesy of a two-RBI knock from Jahmai Jones in the fifth inning. That clinched their spot in the postseason, although it's unclear if Detroit will edge out Cleveland to win the division or slip into a Wild Card slot. Even so, Tigers fans everywhere could feel their shoulders relax and their breaths deepen after Saturday's score went final.
While the Tigers would still do well to win tomorrow's regular season finale, it's no longer an absolute necessity. That gives them a much-needed advantage when it comes to frontline ace Tarik Skubal, who can rest Sunday and prepare to take the mound in Game 1 of the Wild Card round, be it in Detroit or on enemy soil.
By clinching a playoff berth today, the Tigers got a huge advantage.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 27, 2025
They no longer have to pitch Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal on Sunday in the season finale.
He'll now be ready for Game 1 of their best-of-three wild card series on Tuesday. https://t.co/PoAUXprH0S
This is huge for the Tigers. If there has been one constant through the turbulent last few months in Detroit, it has been Skubal's brilliance on the mound. He is going to win the AL Cy Young award for the second straight year, and deservedly so. He finishes the regular season with a 2.21 ERA and 0.89 WHIP, notching 241 strikeouts in 195.1 innings with a 13-6 record.
The hard-throwing lefty was sensational in the 2024 playoffs and should deliver the Tigers a substantial edge in Game 1, no matter who the opponent is or where the game takes place. Very little is guaranteed in October baseball — even the best pitchers throw a dud every now and then — but burning Skubal on the regular season finale would have put Detroit in an immediate hole come the postseason.
Here's how Detroit's rotation should shake out in October now that Skubal is officially in line for the first start.
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Tigers projected postseason rotation with Tarik Skubal in line for Game 1 start
Order | Name | ERA | WHIP | K/9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LHP Tarik Skubal | 2.21 | 0.89 | 11.1 |
2 | RHP Casey Mize | 3.87 | 1.27 | 8.4 |
3 | RHP Jack Flaherty | 4.64 | 1.28 | 10.5 |
4 | RHP Keider Montero | 4.48 | 1.40 | 6.8 |
Even if you chalk up Skubal to a near-guaranteed W, the Tigers will feel the strain of injuries as their first-round series stretches on. The rotation is paper thin right now, without much reliable production behind Skubal.
Keider Montero, Detroit's 25-year-old upstart, was on the mound for Saturday's win over Boston and thus slots easily as the fourth starter come October — especially since he is, without much room for argument, the weakest link in the Tigers' current rotation. Montero was fine in a must-win game against Boston, allowing a single earned run in 4.1 innings, but he coughs up a lot of base-runners and he largely outperformed his underlying metrics (expected ERA of 4.77).
That leaves Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty next in line behind Skubal. There was a time not so long ago when Detroit fans would've felt great about this, especially after Flaherty picked up key outs during L.A.'s World Series run a year ago. But based on the evidence this season, Mize and Flaherty are less than ideal options for a team that typically does not win on the strength of its offense.
Mize keeps walks to a minimum and generally avoids explosive outings, which is a plus, but he can fall victim to some loud contact when he's not locating his fastball. Flaherty is something of the opposite; he throws extremely hard and still racks up a ton of K's, which can come in valuable in October. He's probably better than his current numbers suggest, if only marginally. But he can struggle with command and get into jams quickly, leaving the Tigers a meatball away from catastrophe.
Both Mize and Flaherty have proven, in the past, that they can dial it up and deliver shutout results when needed. There's a world in which the Tigers put this month of craziness behind them, lock in, and start to play like the team we saw before the All-Star break, led by Skubal and a rotation that pitches deep into games. But there's an even better chance that, after Skubal, Detroit's rotation puts them at an elevated risk of falling apart. The Wild Card round is only a three-game series, so Skubal will pitch once. After that, it's up to the rest of Detroit's roster to carry its weight.