2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[AlaskanTigersFan]

Painter's 16 overall, Miller is 32 overall and Crawford is 50. (Phillies prospects whose match is perfect with Tigers). Even if we kick back a prospect like Hamm or Anderson, I'd still do that..... Just makes too much sense.

[Tigermojo]

Corbin Burnes netted a comp pick, a defense first shortstop and a reliever. I would just keep Skubal then get a comp pick for him. 

[4hzglory]

1 hour ago, holygoat said:

Let's see what I actually said:

By your logic, keeping Skubal with the knowledge that he's adamant about becoming a FA after 2026 is punting on 2027.

In 2027, we would have more internal options (a healthy Jobe with a year of recovery being a main one)to make up some of the loss of Skubal.  We also should have McGonigle and Clark and maybe others.  In other words, there are more opportunities for a Tiger team without Skubal to be better in 2027 than in 2026.  

Trading Skubal definitely would punt 2026 IMO-it could potentially improve 2027 and beyond.  Keeping Skubal and letting him leave as a FA should keep us the favorites in the central and gives time for prospects/other options to help improve the overall team in 2027 and beyond.

Edited October 12 by 4hzglory

[Sports_Freak]

3 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

Just my initial thoughts for 2026 without much research or thinking I come to the following :

1. Trade Skubul. We won't sign him, we have fallen short twice with him at his best and starting pitching is fragile. Best option is the Phillies- the owner is motivated and DD will deal - I offer them Skubull- Jaden Hamm- Jake Rogers  and Jace Jung for Andrew Painter- Eden Miller - Johan Duarn and Nick Costellanos ( a salary dump for DD to help sign Schwarber back). I would be willing to exchange Max Anderson for Jace Jung if required. I'm adding good minor league talent to help offset the Phillies loss of two top 100 prospects. But they have the same core for three yers now and will want one more push which Skubs provides. 

2. Sign Bregman. Third base needs to be fixed and with Skubs gone we can overpay.

3. Offer Gleyber Torres the one year qualifying offer. Try to keep him for one more year if possible.

4. Keep Mize and take the 4 million option on Urquidy for depth.

5. Sign or trade for Zac Gallen or similar level solid # 3 starter for 3 to 4 years around 15-17 per year

6. Sign or trade for a solid lefty for the bullpen. Keep Finigan  to pair with Vest and Duran at the end. 

7. move on from mediocre- Jung-Ibanez - JHM- Sweeny -etc

This is beyond what Scott Harris  is capable of. At least, in the past. He doesn't make blockbuster trades. And if (when) he trades Skubal, it will probably be for young, cost controlled prospects. I'm not sure he would be allowed to double our payroll. A smart GM would let it be known that an NL team is interested, use a bidding war to get some team to overpay. It wouldn't surprise me if the Tigers keep Skubal next season and just take a comp pick.

[4hzglory]

Put it this way.  If you could sign Skubal as a FA for a 1 year $20 mil contract for next season knowing you only get him that year, but you get a comp pick afterwards, would you do it?

[holygoat]

2 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

Put it this way.  If you could sign Skubal as a FA for a 1 year $20 mil contract for next season knowing you only get him that year, but you get a comp pick afterwards, would you do it?

Define "next season." Do you mean 2026 or 2027? Because That's essentially where they are for 2026.

[4hzglory]

2 minutes ago, holygoat said:

Define "next season." Do you mean 2026 or 2027? Because That's essentially where they are for 2026.

I mean for 2026.  

[oblong]

25 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

This is beyond what Scott Harris  is capable of. At least, in the past. He doesn't make blockbuster trades. And if (when) he trades Skubal, it will probably be for young, cost controlled prospects. I'm not sure he would be allowed to double our payroll. A smart GM would let it be known that an NL team is interested, use a bidding war to get some team to overpay. It wouldn't surprise me if the Tigers keep Skubal next season and just take a comp pick.

You don’t think other smart GM’s would be able to see thru that scheme? 

[Edman85]

Don't trade Skubal unless the season starts looking bleak. Then shop him at the deadline and see if you can beat the comp pick. It is possible the Tigers move back to revenue sharing payer status, which would mean a pick after the second round instead of after the first.

[Sports_Freak]

2 minutes ago, oblong said:

You don’t think other smart GM’s would be able to see thru that scheme? 

I don't think Scott Harris is a smart GM. Either his hands are tied on increasing payroll or he's terrified of giving up young players for proven and established players. He did a really good job rebuilding our farm system but trades and free agency are also part of his job. And in those 2 parts, he's failed. But yeah, playing other GM's against each other won't work. Especially against a more experienced guy like DD. 

[Hart]

51 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

Put it this way.  If you could sign Skubal as a FA for a 1 year $20 mil contract for next season knowing you only get him that year, but you get a comp pick afterwards, would you do it?

Of course.  The question is would you take that or two top prospects with a lot more years of control.   

[Edman85]

28 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't think Scott Harris is a smart GM. 

I don't either, but he is a smart POBO.

[casimir]

1. Keep Skubal for 2026 unless blown away by an offer.  If the season goes down the tubes before the trade deadline, make a move then if its more advantageous to do so.
2. Offensive players that can put the ball in play, run the bases, defend well.  3 true outcomes isn't going to work well at Commercial Park.  That first half where they were better at putting the ball in play and taking extra bases worked well.
3. Swing and miss for the bullpen.  This season proves Fetter has to have something to work with.  Can't make chicken salad out of squirrel roadkill. 
4. Open to trading away Greene, Carpenter, and/or Torkelson.  Every other team sees the same deficiencies that we see, so we're not pulling anything over on any other team.  And maybe they'll all be back anyway.  But they're available for a deal, none have earned an extension, and I'm not sure that they will.
5. Keith gets a shot at 3B.  He showed well enough when given an opportunity.  He has a contract, so they're going to find somewhere for him.  2B wasn't it, he lacks the range.  He might have the range and enough of an arm for 3B.  Actually, maybe use spring training to become the primary 3B and get a few more reps to back up at 1B?
6. Fine with Meadows in CF and Baez at SS if they can afford those bats at the end of the lineup.  If the top 6 of the lineup forces Dingler to bat 7th, take the defense up the middle and hope for the best with the bats.
7. McKinstry back to a utility role.  Career year, credit to him.  But he's best served as a utility player, and he could still be able to scratch out semi regular playing time by spelling guys around the field, pinch running, defensive replacement, etc.
8. Qualifying offers to Torres and Flaherty.  If they accept, that's fine, they can fill roster needs.  If they decline, pick wisely.
9. Greene needs to level out his swing, work on conditioning, and solidify his defense.  He's on a path to age out before he hits free agency.

[Hart]

I'm surprised by people being down on Harris.  We are clearly a bottom half team in payroll.  No GM is going to trade top 10 overall prospects for rentals or relievers in that situation.  And you are basically relegated to lottery tickets in free agency.  Until Illitch spends some money, he has very limited flexibility.  

[casimir]

As far as the Ilitch needs to spend some money, the Tigers were in on Bregman.  They brought in Torres.  They spent wrongly on Maeda and Webb for this season.

They probably could have spent more for the bullpen, but that was a strength for them last season.  It was an absurd strength, it'd be difficult to expect an exact repeat.  But the regression to what we saw was a bit of out expectation.  The rest of the pitching staff had pieces and some depth, but injuries dug into it.

They had several position players that they weren't going to upgrade from.  Dingler/Rogers.  Baez.  Greene.  Meadows.  Carpenter.  Keith.  That's 2/3 of the lineup that had reasonable incumbents returning as heavy side of platoon at least.  Torres was added and they were in on Bregman.  That's almost the entire lineup.  Add in Vierling, who unfortunately had a lost season.  He probably plays RF with Carpenter at DH.  

[oblong]

45 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I don't think Scott Harris is a smart GM. Either his hands are tied on increasing payroll or he's terrified of giving up young players for proven and established players. He did a really good job rebuilding our farm system but trades and free agency are also part of his job. And in those 2 parts, he's failed. But yeah, playing other GM's against each other won't work. Especially against a more experienced guy like DD. 

I truly don’t understand where this narrative came from about Scott Harris being “afraid”. Especially when you consider he’s been in charge for only 3 seasons and they made the playoffs in 2 of them.  It’s an urban legend with no basis in reality. 

[monkeytargets39]

I’m fine if we decide to keep Skubal

 

IF

 

We address the deficiencies of this roster.  If we are going to run it back with the current lineup, and then just piece together a makeshift bullpen again—then why keep Skubal?  Two years in a row we’ve seen that what we have now is not enough.  
 

Expecting Jobe to become anything close to what Skubal is now is wishful thinking.  Olsen has had consecutive years of missing good amounts of time.  Flaherty and Mize are high pitch count merchants—so the bullpen has to be rebuilt if they’re both going to be big parts of the rotation next year.  Melton looks great so far, but I’m not going to ink him in as a #2 or 3 just yet.

 

If a Skubal trade can net us a high level arm and a long term solution at either corner outfield or 3B….I think it’s worth it.   As of now, I’m not convinced we should be assuming a playoff run next year just yet.
 

 

[Sports_Freak]

Just now, oblong said:

I truly don’t understand where this narrative came from about Scott Harris being “afraid”. Especially when you consider he’s been in charge for only 3 seasons and they made the playoffs in 2 of them.  It’s an urban legend with no basis in reality. 

All kinds of people want to defend Scott Harris. And I say the Tigers could have gone deeper in the playoffs, last year and this year, with a few tweaks at the trade deadline. Forget the 15 million dollars he wasted on Cobb, but also look at the major players on this team. With the exception of McKinstry and Torres,who did Scott acquire? Most of these guys are Avila's guys. He hung onto many prospects that he promised "would help this season." It was more his inability to get any deals done, other than for guys who helped us lose several games.

[Tiger337]

4 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

All kinds of people want to defend Scott Harris. And I say the Tigers could have gone deeper in the playoffs, last year and this year, with a few tweaks at the trade deadline. Forget the 15 million dollars he wasted on Cobb, but also look at the major players on this team. With the exception of McKinstry and Torres,who did Scott acquire? Most of these guys are Avila's guys. He hung onto many prospects that he promised "would help this season." It was more his inability to get any deals done, other than for guys who helped us lose several games.

You can't blame him for selling at the deadline in 2024.  They were dead and nobody saw the miracle ahead.  

[monkeytargets39]

I’m fine with Harris to this point, but this offseason is his first big test.  I understood everything he was trying to do this year and it unfortunately fell apart unexpectedly.  I will judge him a lot harsher from this point forward because this offseason through the next trade deadline is critical for the direction of the franchise.

[Sports_Freak]

3 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

You can't blame him for selling at the deadline in 2024.  They were dead and nobody saw the miracle ahead.  

True. But then we need to look at what he did last off-season with a playoff team. Other than Torres falling into our lap, in a position that wasn't a glaring need, he did very little. Got played by Boras in the Bregman deal, using our offer to shop him around. Not a good sign if he wants to sign future Boras agents.

[oblong]

You literally made all of that up. Not a single thing has any foundation behind it.  It’s all conjecture. 
 

[4hzglory]

1 hour ago, Hart said:

Of course.  The question is would you take that or two top prospects with a lot more years of control.   

When they are favorites for the division with him and not without, I would definitely take it over 2 top prospects.

[Sports_Freak]

44 minutes ago, oblong said:

You literally made all of that up. Not a single thing has any foundation behind it.  It’s all conjecture. 
 

So...what part of history do you prefer? Scott Harris made outstanding trades that turned us into a playoff team? Or he made screwd free agents signing that got us over the top? Whatever, he didn't do enough, obviously. 

[IdahoBert]

Right now I’m glad I’m not living and dying by what the Lions are doing and I’m afraid to go in that forum right now because some of the people might need the number of the suicide hotline. So I’m glad to pretty much be exclusively a Tigers fan.