The Detroit Tigers made their trade deadline stance abundantly clear by shipping away key players like Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha, Carson Kelly, and Andrew Chafin. They were sellers, and nobody really batted an eye.
On deadline day, Detroit was 52-56 sitting 6.5 games back of a postseason spot and being given slim 2.8 percent odds to make the postseason according to FanGraphs. They had a puncher’s chance to get in for the first time since 2014, but not a realistic one. Or so we thought.
Despite those trades, the Tigers have been one of the best teams in baseball since the trade deadline and have especially played well lately. They’ve won four in a row and nine of their last 11 including a series sweep in Kansas City against a Royals team that they’re competing with for one of the three Wild Card spots in the AL…