MLB history is not on Tigers’ side after dropping 16 games below .500 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Detroit Tigers are having a nightmarish 2026 season so far through May. After a mediocre start to the season, with a 16-16 record, the Tigers came into May with some optimism.
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Then in May, the Tigers lost 22 games, winning just six total, dropping all the way to 22-38 on the season. Somehow, the Tigers lost as many games in May alone as they’ve won all season so far. They’re tied for the worst record in MLB this season.
Now, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal highlighted, the Tigers are very much in dangerous territory. MLB history is not on the Tigers’ side right now, as there is no modern team, and only one team in MLB history has made the postseason with such a poor record.
MLB history is not on Tigers’ side amid playoff hunt
“No team this many games under .500 has made the playoffs under the current format, according to STATS Perform,” Rosenthal writes. “Only one team in AL/NL history, the 1914 Boston ‘Miracle’ Braves, reached the postseason after going 16 games under .500.”
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Even with the expanded playoffs, there hasn’t been a team with as poor a record, being 16 games under .500 at any point in a season, that has ever made the playoffs.
Across all of Major League history, the 1914 Boston Braves were the only team to be as many as 16 games under .500 to even make the playoffs.
Simply looking at their 22-38 record is enough to know it’s a massive uphill battle for Detroit to make the postseason.
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However, if there were ever a season to make some history, it would be this one. Despite their awful record, the Tigers are, somehow, only 7.0 games out of a playoff spot.
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The 29-31 Toronto Blue Jays own the third and final Wild Card spot, making for a much shorter climb than anticipated for the Tigers to get back into the playoff hunt.
If Tarik Skubal comes back, and the offense can finally get things going with Kerry Carpenter back in the lineup, maybe the Tigers could make their own MLB history.
But, as things currently stand, MLB history doesn’t bode well for the Tigers to make the postseason, as no team this many games under .500 has ever reached the postseason in modern times, and only one team has ever done so in all of MLB history.
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