
From the time he became a regular in 1974 until his last season with nearly full-time play, 1975, he was third in all of baseball among catchers with 42.8 WAR (per FanGraphs). He was also recognized for his skills behind the plate with five straight Gold Glove Awards from 1965 to 1969.įreehan was the premier catcher in the American League during his career. He also made the all-star team for the first of 11 times, including ten in a row from 1964 to 1973. He really came into his own in 1964 when he hit. He came back up in 1963 and began to establish himself as the team’s catcher and team leader. He wasn’t ready to play at that high level, so he was limited to just four games in his first year and was sent to the minors the following year. Because he received such a high signing bonus he had to be kept on the major league roster that year. This was before MLB created the June Amateur Draft. Here is the Detroit Tigers all-time 25-man roster.Ĥ4.8 fWAR (FanGraphs WAR), 44.7 bWAR (Baseball-Reference WAR)

The Detroit Tigers all-time 25-man roster has a mix of players from throughout their history.
#MLB 1992 MINNESOTA TWINS MINI FELT PENNANT SERIES#
Sadly, Ilitch died on February 10 at the age of 87 before he could get a World Series title. Under his ownership, the team has been more than willing to pay for premium talent, like Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, and Victor Martinez, in the hopes of winning the championship. Their most recent run of playoff teams has been under the ownership of Mike Ilitch, who purchased the team in 1992. In their long history, the Tigers have been to the World Series 11 times but have won just four World Series titles.

The Cardinals beat them four games to one in 2006 and the Giants swept them in 2012. Since 2006, the Tigers have been in the playoffs five times and the World Series twice. They got back to the playoffs in 1987, but lost the ALCS to the Minnesota Twins, then went 18 years without a playoff berth. Instead, they won just 84 games the following year and 87 the year after that and missed the playoffs both years. That 1984 team was so good, it seemed they would rule the American League for years to come. They continued their run with a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Tigers in the ALCS and won four of five against the San Diego Padres for their fourth World Series title. The winningest team in Detroit Tigers history was the 1984 squad that started the year 35-5 and finished with 104 wins. The team would make it back to the playoffs four years later but lost in the ALCS to the Oakland Athletics. With Bill Freehan, Norm Cash, Dick McAuliffe, and Al Kaline on the roster, the 1968 Tigers beat the Bob Gibson-led St. It all started to come together again in the late 1960s. They finished second in 1950, then never finished higher than fourth in an eight-team league until 1961. Little did Chicago Cubs fans know that they would be waiting another 70 years before they would finally win a World Series. They lost in seven games to the Cincinnati Reds in 1940, then won their second championship with a World Series victory over the Chicago Cubs in 1945. The 1940s saw the Tigers make the World Series twice. These were the Tigers of Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg. They lost the first but finally earned their first World Series championship in 1935. They went to back-to-back Fall Classics in 19. After that early success it would take another 25 years before the Tigers made it back to the World Series.

They won the pennant three years in a row from 1907 to 1909, but lost the World Series all three years. The Tigers signed Ty Cobb in 1905 and would become the best team in the American League two years later.

In the first season of the league, the Tigers finished third out of eight teams. They are one of four charter members of the American League who still play in their original city, along with the Red Sox, White Sox, and Indians. The Detroit Tigers came into existence when the American League was created to rival the older National League in 1901. We continue our offseason project with a look at the Detroit Tigers all-time 25-man roster.
