Yes, it’s early. And

Now it wasn’t all that along ago that the Tigers were the class of the AL Central, though the clubs led by Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, David Price, Magglio Ordonez, Max Scherzer, Victor Martinez and others never did quite win World Series rings. They last reached the postseason in 2014, began a steady descent that bottomed out at a grisly 47-114 in 2019, and only graduated to the realm of simple decency last season, when my batted ball-based team true-talent rankings saw them as an 80-82 club, two games better than their actual record.

, it is the American League Central. But the long dormant Detroit Tigers appear to finally be rising from a seasons-long slumber to once again join the ranks of the contenders.

MLB’s two Central Divisions are actually among my favorites to watch on an annual basis. There are no cash-flush monoliths like the Yankees or Dodgers in these divisions. Heck, there aren’t many upper middle-class outfits here. The Cubs and Cardinals over in the NL Central are the closest thing there is to “haves” in the flyover divisions.