2025 Detroit Tigers General Discussion Thread

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

He's going to have to give up something to get something back so there is lot of potential for disaster. Which goes back to the fact that they basically the pitching pipeline that Avila built has dried up. We knew a lot of those guys wouldn't pan out, which is why we needed to have a lot of them. After Melton,  AA or AAA look pretty bare of top flight arms. Last time I looked our highest ranked pitching prospect was #10 in the org (Hamm) and he's 2-5 with an almost 5 ERA. That's not going to cut it.

Well, we really don't need 4 catching prospects or 8 infield prospects in our minor league system. As I've been saying, a strong minor league system is for more than to just feed the MLB team with talent, they're also an asset to acquire talent from other teams. The problem for the Tigers is that young minor league players are cheap labor compared to established quality players. Harris wasted 15 million dollars on a broken down pitcher who wanted to retire and ignored other quality arms who were much better. And his trade deadline pickups actually hurt our team more than helped. We may have been better off without Morton or Paddack. Giving Keider Montero and Melton those starts may have gotten us better results. We'll never know...

[4hzglory]

1 hour ago, lordstanley said:

 

Which means the odds for a first round bye are actually in this teams favor 

[Edman85]

Been largely out of pocket since Wednesday morning... Not a bad time to be.

[papalawrence]

If only they could have gone 2-4 on the home stand

[HugoD]

8 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

Been largely out of pocket since Wednesday morning... Not a bad time to be.

As have I, and yes, it was a good time to be a bit away from it.   Easier to be philosophical, at least for me, when you're not hanging on every at bat.

[HugoD]

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Well, we really don't need 4 catching prospects or 8 infield prospects in our minor league system. As I've been saying, a strong minor league system is for more than to just feed the MLB team with talent, they're also an asset to acquire talent from other teams. The problem for the Tigers is that young minor league players are cheap labor compared to established quality players. Harris wasted 15 million dollars on a broken down pitcher who wanted to retire and ignored other quality arms who were much better. And his trade deadline pickups actually hurt our team more than helped. We may have been better off without Morton or Paddack. Giving Keider Montero and Melton those starts may have gotten us better results. We'll never know...

When everything came down at the deadline, I'll admit that I was one who thought may be this would be OK.  I was especially hopeful that Morton would continue on the path he'd been leading up to the deadline.  It's pretty apparent to me that I totally misjudged the situation.   Granted, would  be hard to predict that total team performance would take such a complete 180. 

As others have said, I think the biggest failure was with SP; I too have been thinking that we would have been way better off with Keider and Melton - certainly couldn't have been worse. Obviously, they've been beset by other woes beyond the rotation, but it started there.  And, as @gehringer_2 and @Sports_Freak pointed out, the system is bereft of promising pitching talent at the high minor level.  That's a recipe for disaster.  

[papalawrence]

This year has been up and down for most contenders. The Mets were 25 over .500 and now are 4 above. It's just been a strange year. A lot of decent teams. Few, if any dominant teams. Det is still in good condition going forward.

[lordstanley]

16 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

This year has been up and down for most contenders. The Mets were 25 over .500 and now are 4 above. It's just been a strange year. A lot of decent teams. Few, if any dominant teams. Det is still in good condition going forward.

 

[papalawrence]

11 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

 

Detroit gave them their boost

[casimir]

36 minutes ago, HugoD said:

When everything came down at the deadline, I'll admit that I was one who thought may be this would be OK.  I was especially hopeful that Morton would continue on the path he'd been leading up to the deadline.  It's pretty apparent to me that I totally misjudged the situation.   Granted, would  be hard to predict that total team performance would take such a complete 180. 

As others have said, I think the biggest failure was with SP; I too have been thinking that we would have been way better off with Keider and Melton - certainly couldn't have been worse. Obviously, they've been beset by other woes beyond the rotation, but it started there.  And, as @gehringer_2 and @Sports_Freak pointed out, the system is bereft of promising pitching talent at the high minor level.  That's a recipe for disaster.  

I felt the same way about the trade deadline and Morton.  I was wrong.

Part of my rationale with being willing to move on from Carpenter or another OF is to acquire pitching from that bit of OF depth that i think they have.

[casimir]

5 hours ago, chasfh said:

Harris and Hinch haters, rejoice: 

FYI, this appears to be a stolen article, since it was written by Cody Stavenhagen for the Athletic and neither are credited within.

Stavenhagen mentioned on the pod that the Tigers will have only 2 LHPs available vs LHB heavy Cleveland.

[papalawrence]

Morton signs with  Braves. Guessing to get a start and retire?

Braves Sign Charlie Morton - MLB Trade Rumors https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/09/snitker-charlie-morton-returning-to-braves.html

[Tigermojo]

Poll: Jack Flaherty's Player Option - MLB Trade Rumors

[lordstanley]

42 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Morton signs with  Braves. Guessing to get a start and retire?

Braves Sign Charlie Morton - MLB Trade Rumors https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/09/snitker-charlie-morton-returning-to-braves.html

Wish the Tigers’ move and the Braves’ move on this had been made prior to this past weekend. Even the Tigers’ bats would have been able to hit his pitching Friday. 

[monkeytargets39]

2 hours ago, Tigermojo said:

Poll: Jack Flaherty's Player Option - MLB Trade Rumors

There’s no way he doesn’t exercise the option.  He hasn’t been good this year.

[chasfh]

34 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

There’s no way he doesn’t exercise the option.  He hasn’t been good this year.

But he’s been really good under the hood, and that will probably be really attractive on the market. I think we offer him the QO and be happy if he takes it.

[Tiger337]

4 minutes ago, chasfh said:

But he’s been really good under the hood, and that will probably be really attractive on the market. I think we offer him the QO and be happy if he takes it.

Yeah, if you look beyond ERA, he ranks in the top 30 of MLB starters on every predictive stat.  He has been really frustrating, but he seems like a good candidate to turn it around next year.  

[gehringer_2]

10 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Yeah, if you look beyond ERA, he ranks in the top 30 of MLB starters on every predictive stat.  He has been really frustrating, but he seems like a good candidate to turn it around next year.  

I don't know if hard hit rate and GB rate are considered predictive, but this season they are pretty much the worst of his career. 

Edited Tuesday at 01:42 AM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I don't know if hard hit rate and GB rate are considered predictive, but this season they are pretty much the worst of his career. 

The statcast measures are not very predictive for pitchers.  

[monkeytargets39]

37 minutes ago, chasfh said:

But he’s been really good under the hood, and that will probably be really attractive on the market. I think we offer him the QO and be happy if he takes it.

Yeah I just think he would want to exercise the option, try to have a better year optically and get a bigger deal than test the waters this year.  He’s been a bit Jekyll and Hyde-ish since we dealt him last year.

Edited Tuesday at 02:01 AM by monkeytargets39

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Yeah I just think he would want to exercise the option, try to have a better year optically and get a bigger deal than test the waters this year.  He’s been a bit Jekyll and Hyde-ish since we dealt him last year.

He is going to be 30 next year, and 31 the year after, so he might want to try to cash in on years while he still can. Plus there’s no guarantee the ball bounces his way in 2026, so if he has another year with bad topline numbers like this, he might not be able to get years at 31, whereas he probably could now. Worst case, he could always go out onto the market and if it doesn’t shape up quite his way, he takes another single-year contract which he could probably get at least 20 for, and then try again for 2027. I think going out is the better option for him.

[monkeytargets39]

51 minutes ago, chasfh said:

He is going to be 30 next year, and 31 the year after, so he might want to try to cash in on years while he still can. Plus there’s no guarantee the ball bounces his way in 2026, so if he has another year with bad topline numbers like this, he might not be able to get years at 31, whereas he probably could now. Worst case, he could always go out onto the market and if it doesn’t shape up quite his way, he takes another single-year contract which he could probably get at least 20 for, and then try again for 2027. I think going out is the better option for him.

True.

 

Im indifferent on him returning, but there also isn’t much in the free agent market that’s exciting either.  Zach Littell could be an interesting pickup.  Maybe we could make a run at Suarez or Cease instead.

[gehringer_2]

If I'm Flaherty, I'm looking at what the Tigers do to shore up the bullpen. His OPS against just explodes in the 6th inning, he needs to be on a team that can protect him better than the Tigers have been able to this season. 

Now to be serious, I doubt any player thinks that way, but if he wants to optimize his market value he should.

Edited Tuesday at 03:29 PM by gehringer_2

[Edman85]

28 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

If I'm Flaherty, I'm looking at what the Tigers do to shore up the bullpen. His OPS against just explodes in the 6th inning, he needs to be on a team that can protect him better than the Tigers have been able to this season. 

Now to be serious, I doubt any player thinks that way, but if he wants to optimize his market value he should.

The option window is the first five days after the World Series. He isn't going to get the chance to make that evaluation.

[gehringer_2]

29 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

The option window is the first five days after the World Series. He isn't going to get the chance to make that evaluation.

I've always wondered what brought him back to Detroit. Maybe the Tigers just made the best offer and there is nothing more to read into it.