Tigers fans looking at Ryan Kreidler’s Twins season and suddenly feeling a little nostalgic are reaching.
Detroit has a habit, like every fan base, of finding one fringe player to carry the blame when things go sideways. This season, that target has been Jahmai Jones. Last year, it was Kreidler.
And for good reason, at least from the Tigers’ side. Kreidler was once a notable prospect, climbing as high as No. 7 in the organization’s pipeline in 2022.
But his run in Detroit never really got off the ground. Across 89 major league games over four seasons with the Tigers, he hit .138 with a .383 OPS.
Detroit designated him for assignment in August 2025, and plenty of fans treated that move like a long-awaited cleanup.
Now Kreidler is getting a fresh look in Minnesota, and he’s done enough to make the conversation awkward. He isn’t an everyday fixture, but he has made real use of his chances.
In 47 games, he’s batting .256 with a .770 OPS, along with five homers and 23 RBI while bouncing around the field for the Twins. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference both have him with his first positive WAR season since his rookie year in Detroit.
That has led to some noisy comparisons, including the idea that he might be more useful than Jones right now. That’s a bridge too far.
“In 99 plate appearances, Ryan Kreidler has 23 RBI with the Minnesota Twins.
That is 2 more than Zach McKinstry and Jahmai Jones combined. pic.twitter.com/zAuBOSCtKr
- Tigers Torkmoil (@bythewaybro) July 1, 2026”
But the bigger picture hasn’t changed. Kreidler’s Detroit numbers were too poor to ignore, and nothing in his Tigers tenure suggested a breakout was waiting around the corner. Jones has taken heat for AJ Hinch’s shaky in-game choices and Scott Harris’ less-than-ideal roster construction at the margins, but that doesn’t mean Kreidler suddenly becomes the player Detroit should have kept.
His ceiling may have been higher than Tigers fans believed after 2022, but it still wasn’t especially high. Sometimes a player just needs a different setting, and in this case that’s what happened. It’s annoying for Detroit that the rebound came with a division rival, but the decision to move on from him last year was the right one.
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Baseball America Just Delivered A Brutal Reality Check On Tigers Prospects
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The Tigers have already watched Kevin McGonigle and Hao-Yu Lee graduate from the system, and the depth behind them has been thinned by a wave of injuries across the organization. Even with Max Clark and Bryce Rainer still among Baseball Americas top-100 prospects, the ranking underscores how much pressure is now on the rest of the farm to rebound and restore some of the luster that made Detroits system so highly regarded not long ago. [Read more 🡒]