The 2026 Detroit Tigers are looking poised to run back roughly the exact same roster as 2025. This, after AJ Hinch was quoted as saying “We're not going to be naive and think we can just run it back and do this again” during a presser with Scott Harris after being eliminated in the ALDS. Is this necessarily a bad thing? The 2025 team was one good inning away from an ALCS appearance against the Toronto Blue Jays—it’s not difficult to wonder if some improvements from young players can give them an extra push to go all the way next time. History, however, is not in their favor.
Each World Series winning team in modern history had something that the Tigers don’t—hitters with a previous track record of stardom, beyond just an All-Star appearance. Just going one by one for each previous World Series winner:
Los Angeles Dodgers - 2024 & 2025:
• Shohei Ohtani: 2x MVP prior to 2024. Won MVP in 2024 & 2025. Finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2022.
• Mookie Betts: 2x World Series champion prior to 2024. 1x MVP, 6x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2024.
• Freddie Freeman: 1x World Series champion prior to 2024. 1x MVP, 7x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2024.
• Max Muncy: 1x World Series champion prior to 2024. 1x top 10 MVP finish.
Texas Rangers - 2023:
• Corey Seager: 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2023. Finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2023.
• Marcus Semien: 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2023. Finished 3rd in MVP voting in 2023.
Houston Astros - 2022:
• Jose Altuve: 1x World Series winner prior to 2022. 1x MVP. 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2022. Finished 5th in MVP voting in 2022.
• Alex Bregman: 1x World Series winner prior to 2022. 2x top 5 MVP finish.
• Yordan Alvarez: Finished 3rd in MVP voting in 2022.
Atlanta Braves - 2021:
• Freddie Freeman: 1x MVP. 4x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2021. Finished 9th in MVP voting in 2021.
• Ronald Acuna Jr: 1x top 5 MVP finish.
• Marcell Ozuna: 1x top 10 MVP finish.
• Austin Riley: Top 10 MVP finish in 2021.
Los Angeles Dodgers - 2020:
• Mookie Betts: 1x World Series winner prior to 2020. 1x MVP. 3x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2020. Finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2020.
• Corey Seager: 1x top 10 MVP voting prior to 2020. Finished 9th in MVP voting in 2020.
• Cody Bellinger: 1x MVP. 1x top 10 MVP finish. Justin Turner: 2x top 10 MVP finish.
Washington Nationals - 2019:
• Anthony Rendon: 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2019. Finished 3rd in MVP voting in 2019.
• Juan Soto: Finished 9th in MVP voting in 2019.
Boston Red Sox - 2018:
• Mookie Betts: 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2018. Won MVP in 2018.
• J.D. Martinez: Finished 4th in MVP voting in 2018.
Houston Astros - 2017:
• Jose Altuve: 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2017. Won MVP in 2017.
• Carlos Beltran: 2x top 10 MVP finish.
Chicago Cubs - 2016:
• Kris Bryant: Won MVP in 2016.
• Anthony Rizzo: 2x top 10 MVP finish prior to 2016. Finished 4th in MVP voting in 2016.
• Ben Zobrist: 1x top 10 MVP finish.
Kansas City Royals - 2015:
• Ben Zobrist: 1x top 10 MVP finish
• Kendrys Morales: 1x top 10 MVP finish.
• Lorenzo Cain: Finished 3rd in MVP voting in 2015.
For the sake of length, we will end it here, however the trend would continue. Each of these teams had one or multiple players with a record of being among the top 10 players in their league in a given season. The Tigers do have someone that meets that criteria—however that person has mostly been delegated to a bench role at this point in their career. That person is Javier Baez, who won a World Series with the Cubs in 2016 and finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2018. The next closest would be Riley Greene and Gleyber Torres, who each have one 17th place finish in MVP voting.
For this reason, history does not favor this 2026 Detroit Tigers team. For them to win the World Series would be to break a trend that’s been ongoing for quite some time. Because truthfully, my cutoff was harsh. There were plenty more players on these teams with top 15 MVP finishes, some with 5x or more All-Star appearances or Silver Slugger awards. Had I showcased all of that, it would have only made the comparison to the 2026 Tigers team look that much worse.
Nothing is impossible—so of course the Tigers still could win a World Series. There’s no supernatural force preventing them from doing so. But they are a long shot at best. Their refusal to spend and bring in external talent—veteran leadership with a history of success—might cost them. History might look back at how the Detroit Tigers wasted the peak of Tarik Skubal. Only time will tell.