This story was excerpted from Jason Beck's Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Tigers ran away with an American League Wild Card spot down the stretch last season. It wasn’t just a figure of speech for them, it was a baserunning strategy. Now, they’re aiming to get off to a running start to 2025 however their roster looks at the end of the offseason.

Aside from pitching chaos, one of the most chronicled factors behind Detroit’s late-season success was an aggressive approach on the basepaths. A mid-August meeting with third-base coach Joey Cora set the tone.

“When you have no letup,” Matt Vierling said in September, “it puts a lot of pressure on the outfielders.”

By the eye test, the Tigers were more aggressive than most of their opponents in taking extra bases on hits and trying to score from second or even first. Now that Statcast has released Baserunning and Basestealing Run Value breakdowns and leaderboards, we have a way to measure the impact.

Individually, the Tigers did not dominate the baserunning value leaderboards. As a team, however, they ranked 10th in MLB for the season with six Baserunning Runs. Only the Royals (nine) and Red Sox (seven) had a higher rating among AL clubs. It’s the third time in four years under manager A.J. Hinch that Detroit has ranked in the top 10.

“If you look at our season as a whole, it will not tell the whole story of who we are,” Hinch said last week at MLB’s Winter Meetings. “If you look at the beginning part of the season, we didn't put a ton of pressure on teams. We didn't run the bases quite as aggressively. We did mix and match quite a bit. …

“The second half of the season, we got younger, we got more athletic. We could run the bases a little more aggressively. We could start runners a lot more.”

We can’t break down the difference between how well the Tigers ran the bases early in the season compared to late, but we can break down how well they ran the bases on balls in play compared to stolen bases.

In terms of Run Value, the Tigers rated at plus-10 on runs via extra bases taken, second in the Majors behind the Diamondbacks (plus-13). By comparison, Detroit came in at minus-4 on runs via stolen bases; only the White Sox (minus-6) were worse.

The Tigers had the largest gap in Run Value between extra bases taken and stolen bases. Had they ranked at breakeven on stolen bases, their plus-10 rating would’ve put them in the top five among MLB clubs for Baserunning Runs.

The difference isn’t necessarily for overaggressiveness. While Detroit ranked 11th with 441 extra-base attempts, its 95 stolen-base advance attempts ranked 22nd.

Individually, the Tigers’ strength was focused on a few players, none of them particularly surprising. Zach McKinstry (plus-4), Parker Meadows (plus-4) and Vierling (plus-3) led the team. Just four other Tigers finished in positive territory: Wenceel Pérez, Mark Canha, Akil Baddoo and Ryan Kreidler, all at plus-1. But while McKinstry’s strength was stolen bases (plus-2 runs, reflecting his 16-for-16 success in steals), Meadows, Vierling and Pérez rated stronger in extra bases taken with plus-3 runs each.

Given that Meadows’ success came in basically a half-season in the Majors last season, there’s ample upside there, particularly if Detroit can get him to take advantage of his speed for more stolen bases. But Hinch sees baserunning upside for the roster in general.

“I think the pressure part is something that we've been working toward over the past four years, and our personnel is starting to match that pressure mindset,” he said. “We started putting a ton of immense pressure on the opponent with ball in play and us being able to take advantage of bases.

“We have now something that was in real time, high-end baseball, playoff-chasing to playoff-caliber baseball. You think I'm going to use that in a video? You're darn right I am. Do you think I'm going to use that as motivation? Absolutely, I'm going to. I hope that becomes our identity, because our personnel matches that and we can utilize our guys the best we can.”