The Detroit Tigers scratched and clawed their way through an arduous rebuild and the result has finally arrived: The Motor City is home to an October winner again.

The Tigers advanced in MLB's postseason for the first time since 2013 after sweeping the Houston Astros 2-0 in the AL wild-card series. Detroit brought its brand of baseball into the home of the American League kings for the better part of the last decade, and squeezed them out of the World Series equation.

Outside of likely Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal pitching a six-inning gem in Game 1, the Tigers did it with a group that didn't garner much attention outside of the state of Michigan.

That is, until now, after they demanded the attention for two months straight with a miracle 31-11 stretch to lock up a playoff berth. The Tigers put the run together with a full team effort, and manager A.J. Hinch and the coaching staff leveraged each player on the roster to maximize their potential. And the result has been a young and talented group putting it all together and winning, nonstop.

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Here is a rundown of some of the aspects of how the Tigers constructed this playoff roster, from a buy-in to a message of grit, to how Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris went all-in on the Tigers' youth.

How the 'Gritty Tigs' were constructed

They have found every way to win, whether riding Skubal to a Game 1 win or Andy Ibáñez's winning three-run double to deliver a Game 2 win in a bullpen outing where seven pitchers were used. They were just the latest winning moments in this team's run, joining the Parker Meadows grand slam in San Diego, Trey Sweeney's bone-bruising catch in Baltimore, or the comeback win in the final week against Tampa Bay.

From a 0.2% chance to make the playoffs in early August to now facing the Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, the hungry Tigers have found a way despite the odds time and time again. They have earned a nickname, "Gritty Tigs", because of their resilience, matching a winning ethos in Detroit.

“I mean, our city's built on grit,” Hinch told reporters Wednesday in Houston. “I mean, that's what it is. And, you know, I remember saying that I wanted to have a team that the city was proud of. I think the city is pretty proud of what we're doing and how we're doing it, and the fight that this team shows, and we get to advance.”

This has been the plan laid out by Harris and it has unfolded quickly. Rather than going all-in on top free agents last winter, he stayed firm in leaving spots open for young players and adding on the fringes instead. (This, uh, did not work well for Troy Weaver and the Detroit Pistons.) The focus was to maximize the development of players in-house and see what the high-ranked farm system could produce, both short and long-term, to try to build a sustained winner.

The plan looked bleak by mid-summer with the Tigers struggling and trading three of those signings, Andrew Chafin, Mark Canha and Jack Flaherty, in exchange for prospects (including playoff starting shortstop Trey Sweeney). But, the youth movement worked and the Tigers bought into the plan and reacted well to Hinch's vision.

Young hitters like Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter and Parker Meadows re-joined the team after IL stints or a trip down to Triple-A to provide left-handed pop and clutch hitting.

Spencer Torkelson came back from Triple-A and hit .308 in 14 August games, and the stable of pitchers around Skubal turned into the most dynamic bullpen arsenal in baseball.

Here's what Tigers leadership told Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel last Friday about the plan, while wearing champagne-soaked shirts after clinching a playoff spot.

Harris: “Very satisfying. Our job is to adapt our strategy to the players we have. We have a pitching staff right now that is long on stuff and depth and really short on experience. So how do we change our approach to pitching, to put these guys in more comfortable positions, to allow them to help our team win? This is what we came up with and A.J. has done a masterful job of executing the plan, and more than that, the players deserve a ton of credit for the buy-in, and they understand why they're being used in certain situations.”

Tigers owner Chris Illitch: “I knew it was going to happen at some point. I'm not in the business of predicting, but you can see the tremendous progress up and down the organization, at the lowest levels, at the mid-levels, Low-A, High-A, Double-A — you're seeing it everywhere, and we're seeing it now at the major-league level. It's very, very exciting.”

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Detroit Tigers playoff payroll 2024

Now, let's crack open the books and see how this breaks down.

Shock trickled through the baseball internet Wednesday when it was pointed out the Tigers wild-card roster was being paid less collectively in 2024 than Astros reliever Josh Hader — the shutdown lefty who blew Game 2 in the eighth inning. The Tigers' 26-man wild-card roster costs $18.8 million collectively, compared to Hader's $19 million AAV this season. Three other Astros, Justin Verlander, Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve, also fit this description.

The Tigers being as young as they are (25.7 is average age of the 26-man wild-card roster) coupled with baseball's salary construction for players entering the league are the main reasons why. Most players are still early in their careers in the first six years of service time under team control, and are limited to how much they can make through the pre-arbitration and arbitration process.

The Tigers only had four players — Keith ($2.83 million), Skubal ($2.65 million), Rogers ($1.7 million) and Mize ($830,000) — on the playoff roster making $800,000 or more. Keith signed a long-term contract in January before his MLB debut; Skubal, Mize and Rogers signed one-year deals to avoid arbitration. The rest of the roster falls between the MLB minimum salary of $740,000 and $766,300, with closer Jason Foley and Greene on the high end.

Detroit Tigers 2024 payroll

That $18.8 million figure paints a different picture than reality, however.

The Tigers' payroll ranked 23rd in the 2024 season, at $106.5 million, nearly $60 million lower than the average of all 30 teams, but far greater than what the Tigers are working with now.

Of course, this boils down to missed free-agent signings of past and present Tigers regimes.

The Tigers' highest-paid player is shortstop Javier Báez, making $25 million in 2024 as a part of the 6-year $140 million contract drawn by former general manager Al Avila. Báez has been on the injured list since late August and underwent hip surgery.

Second on the list is pitcher Kenta Maeda, who did not make the wild-card roster after being pulled from the rotation in the summer and going 3-7 with a 6.09 ERA this season. He received a 2-year, $24 million deal before the season and makes $14 million in 2024.

So what has been the key to overcoming all of this? Well, in the words of Hinch, it's a gritty mindset along with playing for everyone else in the clubhouse making the same sacrifices as them.

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"If you can switch the psyche and maybe take a tick of the pride and ego out of it, anything's possible," Hinch told reporters Wednesday. "You can make decisions that put guys in a position to be successful.”

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press covering the city's professional teams, the state's two flagship universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers payroll: How Tigers put together MLB playoff roster