mtutiger

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.

Wow

They really turned it on at the end... by the time they hit four bombs against Anaheim, it was basically fait accompli that they'd make it to 100

I do think it's possible to criticize AJ's overeliance on certain players while not disliking AJ or wanting him fired. For me, I've been less critical of him since the firing of Al in part because they (finally) called Kerry Carpenter up on the same day... it may be coincidental, but they got more creative transaction-wise once Avila was gone and it was Menzin/AJ handling things, suggesting that some criticism lodged earlier on may have applied more to Avila than AJ.

The caveat on this is how aggressive they may be on guys like Olson or Madden or Flores; all of whom seem like possibilities for debut in 2023 But even with that, I would rather they not be relying on or rushing these guys for the sake of rushing them, which leaves the depth guys mentioned as good possibilities to stick around IMO

The Rule 5 consideration is a decent one... In theory, they could keep a few of the Zack Shorts or Brendon Davis's of the world, but they are going to have to make room for some of these other guys if they want to ensure they stay. And Lipcius and Perez both look like guys who have a good argument to stick around, along with more obvious choices like Parker Meadows. The other thing that hasn't been mentioned as much is trades... it's hard to speculate on who or what guys could be traded, but one imagines there will be trades this offseason that none of us see coming.

Yeah, a lot of pundits keep bringing up (and not without reason) Scott DeJarlais, but he's in a safe district; this race, OTOH, has been close enough where marginal movement can make a lot of difference. There's still a tail risk that Walker can win, but gotta think all of this is pretty harmful to his camp pain.

I'm sure he's paid well for the job, and really it's one of the better jobs in town for a guy in his profession, but no matter how he massaged the reality from time to time during the season (particularly before Avila was fired, I imagine having to follow a team like this grates on him. Probably all of them, as much as we complain about them lol

Oh my...