The photo feels intentional. Hard to believe on the casualness of it all, but stay with me. 

Tarik Skubal. Framber Valdez. Casey Mize. Justin Verlander. Jack Flaherty.

Five arms. Five timelines. Five different chapters of Tigers baseball standing shoulder to shoulder.

But as Detroit opens Spring Training, the real question isn’t whether the projected front five can compete.

It’s how deep this thing can go when the season inevitably tests it.

And it will.

Now look, I know it’s the first day of Spring Training.

And yes, it might sound like an overreaction.

Pitchers are still building up. Bullpens are controlled intensity. Nobody has thrown a meaningful inning yet. It may be a lot to expect 162 games of dominance from five names neatly printed on a depth chart.

So let’s keep this in perspective.

But when you look around camp, really look, it’s hard not to see what’s there.

Tarik Skubal isn’t theoretical anymore. He’s proven. The fastball shape. The ability to miss bats above the zone. The confidence to pitch backward when he needs to. That’s not projection, that’s production.

Framber Valdez brings something different. Ground balls. Tempo. Postseason experience. He doesn’t overpower lineups. He suffocates them. On days when the offense needs quick innings and double plays, he changes the rhythm of a series.

Casey Mize isn’t about draft status anymore. It’s about execution. When he commands early in counts and trusts his sequencing, he doesn’t have to dominate, he has to stabilize.

Justin Verlander brings gravity. At 43, you don’t pencil him in for nostalgia. You pencil him in because the game still slows down for him in big moments. You pencil him in because October doesn’t intimidate him.

Jack Flaherty is volatility with upside. When the slider tunnels and the fastball plays up, he can look like a frontline arm. In this rotation, he doesn’t have to carry the weight. He just has to complement it.

Is it ambitious to talk October on Day One?

Sure.

But ambition and awareness can exist at the same time.

Because here’s the part that tempers the excitement.

Reese Olson is out for the year.

Before a Grapefruit League pitch is thrown, Detroit has already been reminded that rotations aren’t built on paper,  they’re tested by attrition.

Olson wasn’t just depth. He was insulation. A legitimate sixth starter. A swing option who could step in without the entire structure shifting.

Now the structure gets tested earlier.

And that shifts the conversation.

This isn’t about whether the front five looks strong in February.

It’s about whether the Tigers can absorb the inevitable.

The 2012 Tigers rode elite arms at the top, Verlander, Scherzer, Fister but they didn’t survive on four starters alone.

They went six deep.

Rick Porcello made 31 starts. Drew Smyly stepped in for 18. Aníbal Sánchez arrived midseason and changed the complexion of the rotation.

That wasn’t just star-driven dominance.

That was reinforcement.

When October came, Detroit wasn’t scrambling for innings. They had layers.

Now think 1984, a staff built less on overpowering headlines and more on absorption. Morris, Petry, Wilcox, Rozema, Berenguer. While that is a different time when rotations were still four deep, they could go five deep, when needed. 

That’s the common thread.

It’s never just five.

It’s always six. Usually seven.

Sometimes eight.

Modern baseball doesn’t survive on five starters.

You need six by May. Seven by July. Eight by September.

And that’s where the real evaluation begins.

Keider Montero. Troy Melton. Sawyer Gipson-Long, Bryan Sammons, and Jackson Jobe, when healthy. 

Those names aren’t headline material in February.

But they’re survival material in August.

Can Montero give you competitive innings when someone needs a breather? Can Melton stabilize a stretch when schedules tighten? Can any of the non-roster arms surprise, like Emmanuel De Jesus. 

This is about protecting Skubal’s workload. Managing Verlander intelligently. Not forcing Flaherty or Mize beyond their limits.

Depth doesn’t just win games.

It protects October.

Here’s the truth.

Verlander is 43. Flaherty has mileage. Mize is still proving durability. Skubal is in his prime. Valdez was brought here for this moment.

This isn’t just a rotation.

It’s a layered window, part present urgency, part bridge to the next wave.

Scott Harris isn’t building a rotation to look good in a spring training photo.

He’s building one to survive six months and still be intact when the leaves turn.

And that’s the real difference.

For years, Tigers fans have seen elite arms at the top without enough insulation underneath.

Now, even with Olson lost for the season, Detroit is trying to build waves.

If they can get:

Then this isn’t just a division-contending rotation.

It’s October-stable.

The photo shows five.

The season will test eight.

And how Detroit answers that test will determine whether this is simply a good rotation or the backbone of something bigger.

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