Caputo: Tigers' lost summer found

Thing about sports, it's fluid. The world can turn upside-down on a franchise, either way, as if on a whim.

We saw it with the Lions. When they started 4-19-1 under their current regime, the notion a year-and-a-half later the Lions would hold a 17-point lead at halftime of the NFC Championship Game was unimagined.

Could a similar unlikely shift be occurring for the Tigers?

Their 2024 season left for dead less than a month ago, the Tigers have won 13-of-16 games. They keep winning while the Twins keep losing. Subsequently, out of the blue like a lightning bolt, the Tigers are just 4.5 games out in the American League wild card standings.

They've done so without the veterans they moved at the trade deadline, including starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, who had been sensational. Starting pitchers Reese Olson and Casey Mize have been on the injured list.

The Tigers have made bullpen days an art form. Their once dreadful hitting attack has suddenly come alive with the return of Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter from injuries, and Spencer Torkelson and Parker Meadows coming back after long stints in Toledo. Jace Jung, Dillion Dingler, Brant Hurter, Ty Madden, Trey Sweeney, Mason Englert, Bryan Sammons, Keider Montero, Brenan Hanifee…It's like the Tigers are the Mud Hens North.

You'd think Toledo had a great team, right? No, the Mud Hens are well-below .500.

Sure, the Tigers have beaten up on terrible teams like the White Sox and the Angels during their current 6-game winning streak, but they did take two of three from the Yankees and essentially destroyed Seattle's season after the Mariners were buyers at the trade deadline.

The Tigers are two games above .500 and apparently will enter September playing meaningful games for the first time since 2016 when Miguel Cabera had his last great season and Justin Verlander still led the starting rotation.

It's so confusing because the Tigers played horrific baseball after a promising 18-13 start. They featured tremendous pitching, but it was negated by terrible defense and even worse hitting.

This led to an endless stream of social media posts and calls to sports talk radio about president of baseball operations Scott Harris being clueless, manager A.J. Hinch being overrated and owner Chris Ilitch flat-out cheap.

Checked out is the best way to describe a typical sports fan in this town when July ended with the Tigers saving more than $11 million by selling.

Yet, this could be much more than just a nice finish, and it ultimately being hollow, like in 2021 and last season when the Tigers finished strong.

This appears to be genuine progress.

Now, nobody is suggesting the Tigers are a finished product. Hardly.

But if they enter next season with Greene, Carpenter, Meadows and Matt Vierling in the outfield, likely Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal leading the starting staff, and a cast of many out of the bullpen, the Tigers may have developed that core everyone assumed they lacked.

The infield is a problem. Colt Keith can really hit, but defense is an issue for him, and pretty much around the horn.

Will the real Spencer Torkelson please stand up? What is Harris going to do about Javy Baez, the $73 million elephant in the room?

The Tigers remain a puzzle, one that is going to test Harris . Will he spend money wisely? Will he make trades that pan out?

But the good part is at least there appears to be solid pieces to fit together.

It's more than could be said about the Tigers a month ago.

And that is undoubtedly progress.