Five Things We Liked From Last Week, October 3rd

Welcome to “Five Things We Liked From Last Week”, a weekly list of… five things we liked from last week:

1. Game Three

Well that was awesome.

Just when it felt like the Detroit Tigers were going to limp home after a disappointing second half of the season, the Gritty Tigs showed they weren’t quite done just yet, taking home a decisive victory in Game Three of the Wild Card Round and advancing to the American League Division Series.

Jack Flaherty started the game for Detroit, and delivered with four and two thirds innings of one run ball. And the bullpen took it from there, allowing just two unearned runs the rest of the way.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of the 6-3 victory, aside from the victory itself, was that eight of the nine Detroit Tigers starters recorded a hit in the game. It was a truly well-rounded attack, the exact type of attack that has eluded the Tigers for several weeks.

Hitting is contagious, and that goes both ways. For a while, it felt like Detroit couldn’t string together a rally if their season depended on it. But just when they were left for dead, the offense woke up in a major way, scoring six runs on 10 hits and five walks.

The hope is that the Tigers have found their mojo again, which would make for a fun ALDS against a tough Seattle Mariners club.

We haven’t seen it as much lately, but the Detroit Tigers are a good team. They get one more shot to prove it starting Saturday.

2. Tarik Skubal

2024 was an amazing year for Tarik Skubal.

He went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA, buoyed by a 30.3% strikeout percentage, 4.6% walk percentage and .200 batting average against. In the process, not only did he take over the mantle as the best pitcher in the American League, but he also became just the 40^th pitcher in baseball history to become a unanimous Cy Young Award winner.

Despite all of that, in a cruel twist of fate, with one swing of the bat in October, Skubal entered the 2024-2025 offseason with a bad taste in his mouth.

That swing came from Cleveland Guardians outfielder Lane Thomas, who hit a fifth inning grand slam off Skubal in the deciding Game Five of the 2024 American League Division Series, ultimately leading the Guardians to a 7-3 victory over Detroit.

Players can respond in one of two ways when something like that happens. They can let that moment negatively impact them the rest of their career, or they can use it as motivation to get even better.

Tarik Skubal chose the latter.

In 2025, Skubal improved in almost every way from his banner 2024 season. His ERA went down, his walks and batting average against went down, and his strikeouts went up.

Baseball is funny and has a way of evening out over time. And just as a cruel twist of fate sent Skubal home earlier than he wanted last October against the Cleveland Guardians, he had a shot to compete against those same Guardians in the 2025 playoffs.

He didn’t miss.

Seven and two thirds innings. 14 strikeouts. One run.

After collapsing down the stretch, Detroit needed a big game from Skubal to set the tone in the postseason. And he did exactly that, leading the Tigers to a 2-1 victory in Game One of the Wild Card Round.

3. Erie SeaWolves

After watching their org mates in West Michigan and Lakeland win their respective league championships, last week the Erie SeaWolves had their own chance to take home their league championship.

Game One of the championship series was back on September 21^st, and the game was over almost before it started.

Erie scored two runs each in the first, third and fourth innings to go up 6-0 on Binghamton, and didn’t look back. The SeaWolves got multi-hit games from a whopping six starters, with John Peck launching two home runs and Kevin McGonigle coming up a double short of the cycle in a decisive 14-5 victory over the Rumple Ponies.

Game Two of the championship series was on September 23^rd, and the result wasn’t quite as favorable for Erie. The SeaWolves took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning, until Binghamton broke out for four runs in the top of the seventh to go up 5-2. The SeaWolves rallied back for two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but couldn’t complete the comeback, losing by a final score of 5-4.

That set up September 24^th as a winner-take-all game for the Eastern League championship.

Binghamton took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and that score held until Erie stormed back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Unfortunately for the SeaWolves, those were the only runs they’d score in the game, while Binghamton scored three runs each in the sixth and ninth innings to take home an 8-2 victory over Erie.

Despite the loss in the championship, Erie still had a great season. They finished the year at 84-54 and won their division, in spite of the usual player movement that every Double A team has to manage. Manager Andrew Graham, his staff and his players should feel very good about what they accomplished in 2025.

4. Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark and Josue Briceño

Heading into the 2025 season, expectations were sky high for the Tigers prospect trio of Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark and Josue Briceño.

And not only did they meet those expectations during the 2025 season; they surpassed them.

All three of McGonigle, Clark and Briceño improved in major ways from the 2024 season to the 2025 season, not only on defense but also in the batter’s box, where they each put up some eye-opening numbers.

Just take a look at their improvements year over year:

Kevin McGonigle 2024: .309/.401/.452, 14.0 BB%, 8.5 K%, 5 HR, .143 ISO, 145 wRC+

Kevin McGonigle 2025: .305/.408/.583, 14.9 BB%, 11.6 K%, 19 HR, .278 ISO, 182 wRC+

Max Clark 2024: .279/.372/.421, 12.4 BB%, 19.2 K%, 9 HR, .143 ISO, 132 wRC+

Max Clark 2025: .271/.403/.432, 17.6 BB%, 16.9 K%, 14 HR, .160 ISO, 148 wRC+

Josue Briceño 2024: .278/.381/.377, 12.5 BB%, 14.8 K%, 2 HR, .099 ISO, 123 wRC+

Josue Briceño 2025: .266/.383/.500, 14.9 BB%, 19.7 K%, 20 HR, .234 ISO, 153 wRC+

All three improved across the board in 2025, despite being significantly younger than the league average at each level they played at.

McGonigle, Clark and Briceño finished the ’25 season at the Double A level, after a much ballyhooed promotion in the middle of the season. All three took the promotion in stride despite the fanfare, and helped contribute to the Erie SeaWolves playoff run.

The Tigers organization had a lot of success in 2025, and the improvements these three made is one of the biggest success stories of the season in Detroit’s minor league system. Not only did they show they can succeed at Double A, but they also set themselves up to potentially contribute to the big league club as soon as 2026.

The Tigers will hope they can continue that momentum going into next season. If they do, they’ll be knocking on the door to Detroit sooner rather than later.

5. Toledo Mud Hens

The Toledo Mud Hens were the only minor league full season affiliate in the Detroit Tigers organization that didn’t make the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean the Mud Hens didn’t have a successful season.

Despite ending the first half of the season at 39-36, Toledo finished the year at 84-66, 18 games over .500.

Manager Gabe Alvarez did a commendable job with his squad in 2025, dealing with the usual roster shuffling that all Triple A managers have to deal with and handling it well.

Triple A managers have a tough job, as they not only have to manage their team, but they also have to work around the roster churn of the major league squad and keep players ready and relatively happy, despite most of them wishing and thinking they should be in the big leagues.

The Tigers called on several players from Toledo throughout the year to help fill in, and by and large that contingent did what they were asked of, including Sawyer Gipson-Long, Bailey Horn, Chase Lee, Alex Lange, Tyler Owens, Dylan Smith, Drew Sommers, Akil Baddoo, Jace Jung, Justyn-Henry Malloy and Tomás Nido. Perhaps the best examples of the year were Keider Montero, Troy Melton and Jahmai Jones, who each spent a good chunk of time with Toledo before getting the call to Detroit and playing major roles.

The Mud Hens coaching staff also helped out with several other Tigers who were in Toledo for performance reasons and / or rehab assignments, an underrated part of a Triple A staff’s job duties.

Overall, Alvarez and his staff and players should be proud of the year they had.

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