We already knew that we would enter 2024. Detroit Tigers It had one of the best young cores in baseball, but many assumed the team was still several years away from completion of the rebuild and true contention.

The 2024 season proved Detroit was poised to win much sooner than anyone expected after selling off its most tradable assets at the deadline, becoming the hottest team in baseball to make the playoffs and lose. Houston Astros In the Wild Card round. After the run ended in five games cleveland and I saw a close trip to the ALCS for the Tigers, that Scott Harris and the entire team is trying to figure out how to take things to the next level.

Harris spoke at the annual MLB GM meetings and explained that the strategy will of course become aggressive when it comes to bringing in outside talent, and getting young stars to play better than they do on the street will go a long way in setting them up for success. A big step forward in 2025, especially the naming Matt Vierling, Kerry CarpenterAnd Riley Greene As men who need to raise the bar of success even higher.

“We have to find a way to raise the bar for each of them this summer,” Harris said of his young stars. via Detroit Free Press. “All of a sudden you start accumulating those gains, and the 2025 Tigers are going to be a lot better than the 2024 Tigers.”

Harris added that his team is focused on both. external additions and internal development, it’s easy to get caught up in the big splashes of free agency and forget that it will be more important for the team to get more production from what’s currently in the clubhouse.

“We must do both, and we are actively doing both,” he said. “This isn’t a moment where we just focus on external additions and forget about development. While we’re trying to add externally, we’re also focusing on development in the off-season. That means we’re putting a lot on our plate.” license plate, but that’s the way it should be.”

It will be fascinating to see what Detroit does in free agency. Everyone wants to sign contracts with the biggest names in the market and they have reason to believe I definitely think the Tigers are a contender for some. But as Harris says, ‘raising the bar’ for young stars will go a long way towards taking the next step than any outside signing.

Expectations have risen in Detroit, but pressure is a privilege and the Tigers certainly have that privilege this summer.