Don't Rain on Isaac Paredes

21 years old, starting 3rd baseman for the Tigers. Not bad, kid.

So we're living in the Carey Mize era, the era of Isaac Paredes and Tarik Skubal in Detroit. So far, not a hell of a lot different from the previous era. The bullpen is the same amount of snakebitten [thanks to some Joe Jimenez blown saves]. The team is still run by a lot of guys with one-dimensional abilities [JaCoby Jones, Jeimer Candelario, Niko Goodrum, 2020-era Miguel Cabrera], and both Skubal and Mize have 6.75 ERAs.

Even Isaac Paredes, who got off to a great start, still has mellowed out to a .258 average and 6 RBIs. Jonathan Schoop is the statistical leader of this team. A guy who was one of the lower-tier performers in Minnesota last year is now sort of in charge of running things, along with Candelario, Jones and Goodrum. You at least have Spencer Turnbull having a breakout year, and Matt Boyd at least striking a lot of people out in addition to bloating his ERA. But this is still a very pedestrian team, and while they still are at .500, they're along the same lines of okayness as previous teams.

So how long do we need to wait before Paredes, Mize and Skubal are running this team? Probably another year or so. We need to wait for the bulk of this team to dissolve, and for the more senior members and contracts to make room for the team to be centered around them. Having Casey Mize here is one thing, but he can only be so good if A.) the opposing offenses are still better, and B.) if he doesn't get run support.

I wish the Tigers' enigma was a lot less complex, but...not everyone is the Marlins.

Coming Tonight: Catcher for, still, one of the weakest teams in baseball.