mtutiger

As hard as I've been on Willi, there's a pretty compelling argument to be had (mostly based on age and future ability) that , if you had to keep one of the two, he'd be worth keeping around more than Harold. In a perfect world both wouldn't be around, but I suspect at least one of them will continue to be employed by the club.

I honestly wonder how secure either Castro is - discussions here have generally centered on Willi, but while Harold has a decent bat relative to the 2022 Detroit Tigers, I don't know that you can completely count on them penciling him in next year given the issues with his defense. My gut tells me Harold's back, but IDK.

At a minimum, it's the end of the Zack Short era one imagines.... possibly Willi too given arbitration. Regarding the bolded, yes yes yes. As much as some would deride "call em up" comments around here during the season, the fact that a team with a historically bad offense was as hesitant to use transactions and the waiver wire as the Tigers were during the season (among other things, of course) really spoke to how bad AA was at this whole general managing thing.

According to mlb.com, Drew Hutchison has been DFA'd. So I'm guessing he's off the table unless they continue their codependent relationship via minor league deals

Yordan launched that ball somewhere out by Nacogdoches... damn lol

Exactly. Maybe some of the prospects like Keith are likely to pan out, but they shouldn't limit the building out of their ML roster based on guys who haven't played in AA yet.

This is right, but also our views maybe colored a bit by watching Al work his "magic" over the past few years. Our new GM may be of different stock in terms of orchestrating trades and maximizing value... the Darin Ruf for JD Davis+prospects deal being a good example. If the Giants could pull that off, the Tigers are capable of surprising us even with the chaff on this roster IMO

Brandon Drury?

My own read on his presser is that he's open to both trades and free agency.

For all the attention that the Rio Grande Valley gets (and the Dems problems down there), you'd think more attention would be given to Tarrant, Collin, Denton etc. and their shifts over time. Especially given the scope of population at play

Played briefly with the Tigers but did as well as he could with it.... seems like a decent guy to keep in the org as a coach if he's interested.

There is the 60 Day IL... one imagines with his physical condition, they wouldn't have to be too creative to place him on it

This all makes a lot of sense to me, though it's speculative. Clearly it's a balancing act that Harris has been tasked with here of keeping Miguel happy while keeping him motivated to be the best version of himself in 2023 while also having to build out next year's roster.

And one last thing - I know that some feel that this team will, in all likelihood, not be competitive next year so it doesn't matter if Miguel comes back or not. And I get it, I doubt they will be as well. But after many years of Al Avila, you would think the fanbase would expect the organization to set higher expectations that they do. Put another way - just because my expectations aren't high doesn't mean I feel the organization should be setting low expectations or pulling punches in terms of building out a 2023 roster. Even though Harris says he will work around it, it is completely justified to feel that Miguel is an impediment to that goal at this point.

And I think the opinions frame it more about who he would be blocking internally and kinda sidesteps the fact that the Tigers very well could be looking outside of the organization (through free agency and trade or even waiver wire) in order to upgrade going into 2023. 1B depth is the most obvious example - Torkelson struggled this year and, despite a stretch of improved play upon his callup, it is less than ideal to have to roll into 2023 with a situation where you have Harold Castro or Eric Haase as your fallback options for depth. With Miggy on the roster, you can't go out and get a Brandon Belt or Eric Hosmer on a one year deal because Miggy, who doesn't field or run the bases at this point, takes that spot. Outfield is another one - lets say they go want to go out and get someone like Adam Duvall or Mitch Haniger), from there, it's not hard to see them in a situation where they are having to relegate someone to Toledo who is capable of putting up better numbers than Miguel (Kerry Carpenter comes to mind). Put another way, Miguel isn't just blocking people internally, he could have an impact on how you build this roster from the outside as well. Now, Scott Harris says that he will work around it and, given his track record, I'm good with that. Personally, though, it's hard not to see Miguel as an impediment to the goal of putting the best possible version of the 2023 Detroit Tigers out on the field.

It stands to reason Miggy's presence on the roster or being committed to him can have impacts on their strategy or who they may bring in for 2023. Hence some of the concern. But if Harris says he can make it work, we should get behind it tbh.

Buck Showalter calling for the full strip search of Joe Musgrove... been that kinda night for the Mets lol

It's baseball's version of 28-3... lol

Cardinals Nation seems like they all want to fire Nolan Arenado out of a cannon today... Incredible

Gotta imagine Chadd will have his time in the barrel at some point

Harris seems hard at work offloading the deadwood

Haase is another great example of why it isn't ideal to have to carry Miguel for another year because it would be relatively easy to utilize him as a backup catcher and utilize him as a DH on most days he's not behind the plate. But it is what it is... and I'd be surprised if they didn't bring him back next year.