2025 Detroit Tigers General Discussion Thread

[Edman85]

14 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

JHen and SGL are coming up.  How soon before we see Watson?

Probably never

[1984Echoes]

15 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

JHen and SGL are coming up.  How soon before we see Watson?

Transactions are showing JHen and Chase Lee... where are you seeing SGL coming up...?

 

 

Edited Monday at 08:19 PM by 1984Echoes

[Tigermojo]

1 minute ago, 1984Echoes said:

Transactions are showing JHen and Chase Lee... where are you seeing SGL coming up...?

 

 

He's with the team. He'll be activated for tomorrow's game.

[IdahoBert]

After today’s loss to the Mets, pitching seems like a pretty big deal. After all the Tigers did score 8 runs and normally that would be enough.

One of the previous knocks on this team was the dearth of bats and position players in the minors. But that issue now seems to have been addressed.

So aside from Jackson Jobe, do the Tigers have some arms in the minors that we can rely upon when the position players come up here?

 

[casimir]

4 hours ago, Tigermojo said:

He's with the team. He'll be activated for tomorrow's game.

Sommers can be gone.

[casimir]

On 8/31/2025 at 6:21 PM, 1984Echoes said:

I think I’m more comfortable with a Melton start.

I shan't disagree here.

[papalawrence]

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

After today’s loss to the Mets, pitching seems like a pretty big deal. After all the Tigers did score 8 runs and normally that would be enough.

One of the previous knocks on this team was the dearth of bats and position players in the minors. But that issue now seems to have been addressed.

So aside from Jackson Jobe, do the Tigers have some arms in the minors that we can rely upon when the position players come up here?

 

They did just bring up Melton. He is a starter being used in the pen now, but I suspect he'll be in the rotation at some point. Hamm is struggling more this season. Madden is still out. Harris may go back to drafting pitchers higher. Who knows. There are no top 100 arms after Melton.

[1776]

According to the Lakeland office, the 2026 spring training schedule is to be released this month. 

[kdog]

Every team in the AL has a flaw...there are no great teams in either league right now.

The goal of the next month is to tick off the milestones(winning the division, clinch a bye or #1 seed, get healthy). After Skubal pitching game 1, I have no idea on which starting pitcher perform well. They probably need a true LOOGY to get lefties out as well. Other than, the offense and back of the bullpen will be fine.

I have no guess on how this will turn out.

[chasfh]

20 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

After today’s loss to the Mets, pitching seems like a pretty big deal. After all the Tigers did score 8 runs and normally that would be enough.

One of the previous knocks on this team was the dearth of bats and position players in the minors. But that issue now seems to have been addressed.

So aside from Jackson Jobe, do the Tigers have some arms in the minors that we can rely upon when the position players come up here?

 

Not meaning you here, but so many people have opinions about whether it's pitching or hitting that wins games. It's not one or the other. It's both. You can't have one without the other. If a team has the best pitching in baseball, they're not going to win squat if they can't hit, and the same the other way others. It's all a big deal. A team needs to be able to at least do one at an average level if they're going to win having among the best of the other.

They haven't been as good at either since the break, but the reason the Tigers have the best record in the American League is because they are 8th in run scoring and 13th in run prevention for the year. That's a pretty good combination to have when it comes to winning games, and honestly, had you told me back in August 2022 that would be where the Harris would have the Tigers in September 2025, along with the most loaded system in Baseball waiting in the wings, I would have fell out of my chair in disbelief. 

[chasfh]

5 hours ago, kdog said:

Every team in the AL has a flaw...there are no great teams in either league right now.

First blush would be to say what about the Brewers, but while the baseball punditry are still referring to them as a juggernaut, they have gone 7-11 in their last 18 games. It happens to everyone.

[gehringer_2]

The missing man made an appearance tonight. Alex Cobb pitched one inning for the Mudhens. Amazingly he gave up no runs, despite surrendering a hit and 3 walks.

[casimir]

Maybe the success of pitching chaos and the pitching factory was much more fortunate than we imagined?

[CaliforniaDreaming]

I wish there was a bit more of the "chaos" still being used. I'm a big fan of the opener strategy, especially now that there is an extra arm in the bullpen. I wish most of our struggling starters (like anyone not named Skubal) had an opener pitch before them.

[chasfh]

On 9/3/2025 at 6:02 AM, casimir said:

Maybe the success of pitching chaos and the pitching factory was much more fortunate than we imagined?

You are probably on to something here. Taking a look at last year’s result for relief pitching from August 11 on, the Tigers had the lowest BABIP (.230) by over 20 points; the second highest LOB% (78.0%); and were 8th in lowest HR/FB (8.3%). All are markers of luck, which helped lead to us having by far the highest RA9-WAR (the results-based WAR) with 6.5, far ahead of Cleveland and Milwaukee, who were tied for second with a mere 4.0.

That said, the Tigers were also #2 in regular WAR (the process-based WAR) with 3.3, behind only Milwaukee at 3.6. We achieved this because while we were #30 of 30 in relief pitcher strikeout rate after 8/11, we were also tops in walk rate and #7 in HR rate. This led to us being 5th in FIP, even though we were 13th in xFIP (the quality of contact FIP). 

TL;DR: even though we did get quite lucky with the results from our relievers after 8/11 last year, we were also very good underneath the hood.

BTW: in the second half of this year, our RA9-WAR from relievers is 2.2, 6th-best in baseball, even though our regular WAR is 21st at 0.3. That’s because we’ve been 3rd in BABIP and 4th in LOB. Either we’ve been nothing but lucky in this way for two years in a row, or there’s something we have that makes this happen—maybe defense? 

[gehringer_2]

24 minutes ago, chasfh said:

That’s because we’ve been 3rd in BABIP and 4th in LOB

Isn't the Tiger emphasis on fly ball hitting going to lower BaBIP as the cost of getting more ISO? i.e. More fly balls than ground balls are fielded for outs, but the unfielded fly ball is extra bases often enough to be worth it.

Edited 11 hours ago by gehringer_2

[kdog]

Jeff Passan article indicated that Flaherty is opting out..I found that surprising.

[4hzglory]

4 minutes ago, kdog said:

Jeff Passan article indicated that Flaherty is opting out..I found that surprising.

Yeah, he’s clearly speculating and after the way last year’s FA went for him coming off a significantly better season, I have a hard time seeing him opt out of $20 mil.  Of course if he’s dominant the rest of the way it would change things.

[chasfh]

29 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

Yeah, he’s clearly speculating and after the way last year’s FA went for him coming off a significantly better season, I have a hard time seeing him opt out of $20 mil.  Of course if he’s dominant the rest of the way it would change things.

I don't think that would change things. Even if he kills it for the next month, is someone going to pay him more than $20 million?

There is also the possibility that he simply doesn't like it here. I have no evidence of this, just that it is a hypothetical possibility.

[chasfh]

This has gone under the radar here, but the last vestiges of Al Avila's Reign of Error are getting swept away. 

 

[kdog]

He left on his own..Menzin left because of his conduct. I guess it's better.

[4hzglory]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I don't think that would change things. Even if he kills it for the next month, is someone going to pay him more than $20 million?

There is also the possibility that he simply doesn't like it here. I have no evidence of this, just that it is a hypothetical possibility.

Completely agree with your first part.

 

Unless something happened this season, the 2nd isn't true as he was out telling others how great his time was here and how he was so glad to come back (at what appeared a team friendly deal).

[Tiger337]

Flaherty is not likely to get 20 million but he got 14 million from the Tigers in 2024 and he is probably worth a little more now than he was then.  He might be able to get a worthwhile two-year deal somewhere.  I agree that he probably won't opt out though unless he surges down the stretch and in the playoffs.   

[casimir]

I wonder if the bigger variable for Flaherty is the upcoming collective bargaining session and how shopping his wares over that offseason seems less desirable than hitting free agency this offseason.

[casimir]

9 hours ago, chasfh said:

You are probably on to something here. Taking a look at last year’s result for relief pitching from August 11 on, the Tigers had the lowest BABIP (.230) by over 20 points; the second highest LOB% (78.0%); and were 8th in lowest HR/FB (8.3%). All are markers of luck, which helped lead to us having by far the highest RA9-WAR (the results-based WAR) with 6.5, far ahead of Cleveland and Milwaukee, who were tied for second with a mere 4.0.

That said, the Tigers were also #2 in regular WAR (the process-based WAR) with 3.3, behind only Milwaukee at 3.6. We achieved this because while we were #30 of 30 in relief pitcher strikeout rate after 8/11, we were also tops in walk rate and #7 in HR rate. This led to us being 5th in FIP, even though we were 13th in xFIP (the quality of contact FIP). 

TL;DR: even though we did get quite lucky with the results from our relievers after 8/11 last year, we were also very good underneath the hood.

BTW: in the second half of this year, our RA9-WAR from relievers is 2.2, 6th-best in baseball, even though our regular WAR is 21st at 0.3. That’s because we’ve been 3rd in BABIP and 4th in LOB. Either we’ve been nothing but lucky in this way for two years in a row, or there’s something we have that makes this happen—maybe defense? 

Yeah, I heard something on one of the pods this week about how the arm barn numerals in this second half are surprisingly good.  If they are good, I am surprised.