2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[papalawrence]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

This was season for Wenceel to improve on his 1st season and cement his future. Instead he treaded water - ended up with almost zero net improvement. Pretty much mush rather than cement.

I see Wenceel having a nice ~ 8-9 year career, mostly as a solid utility player. He has value similar to McKinstry level. But neither are long term starter talent. 

[Tigermojo]

21 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I mean, if he's literally Doctor Who. 

I am a nerd with zero Doctor Who knowledge.

[gehringer_2]

21 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

I am a nerd with zero Doctor Who knowledge.

Mine ended with Tom Baker (who is apparently still kicking in his 90's)

[casimir]

6 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It's hard to imagine Jones not staying on the roster, especially given their need for right-handed batters.  

I don’t know.  Perhaps this season was simply lightning in a bottle for Jones.

[romad1]

23 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

I am a nerd with zero Doctor Who knowledge.

I have only the barest knowledge of all of it.   The guys who smoked dope after school were into that.  I was into D&D.

[Tigermojo]

16 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I have only the barest knowledge of all of it.   The guys who smoked dope after school were into that.  I was into D&D.

If you mentioned Drizzt Do'Urden then I would know what you are talking about.

[AlaskanTigersFan]

Munetaka Murakami - https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25259728-munetaka-murakami-babe-ruth-higo-really-worth-hype

I wonder if Harris would dip his toes into the international market........?

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

I don’t know.  Perhaps this season was simply lightning in a bottle for Jones.

That could very well be true, but there should be a 40-man roster spot for him.   

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Munetaka Murakami - https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25259728-munetaka-murakami-babe-ruth-higo-really-worth-hype

I wonder if Harris would dip his toes into the international market........?

Yeah, he'll get paid. But a possible 30% strikeouts rate? And upper body injuries? Hard pass...go after Bichette?

[Sports_Freak]

Let's give Scott Harris a shopping list 🤣🤣

[Tiger337]

10 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Yeah, he'll get paid. But a possible 30% strikeouts rate? And upper body injuries? Hard pass...go after Bichette?

They won't get either one.  They are going to make another run at Bregman and fall short.  Don't worry though.  They'll sign a pitcher coming off an injury and another one that used to be good 5 years ago.  They'll also get a bunch of relievers off the waiver wire and trade Malloy for a gritty utility guy.  

Edited October 16 by Tiger337

[Sports_Freak]

4 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

They won't get either one.  They are going to make another run at Bregman and fall short.  Don't worry though.  They'll sign a pitcher coming off an injury and another one that used to be good 5 years ago.  They'll also get a bunch of relievers off the waiver wire and trade Malloy for a gritty utility guy.  

You kids shouldn't be so negative. 😆

[AlaskanTigersFan]

Tucker is one guy, I'd build around. 8 years 250.... Gives us veteran leadership, star to build around and a legit bat year in and year out with good defense. That's the one guy I'd pony up for this off-season.  

[papalawrence]

1 hour ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Tucker is one guy, I'd build around. 8 years 250.... Gives us veteran leadership, star to build around and a legit bat year in and year out with good defense. That's the one guy I'd pony up for this off-season.  

While I think his season likely dropped his value some, before the season started, the lowest projections I saw for his value on the market were 400+ and some speculated 500. I think 10/400 is a likely salary for him, and it won't be Detroit 

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, Edman85 said:

47 now, Minimum 6 (Kahnle, Torres, Paddack, Montero, Finnegan, Cobb), maximum 9 (Flaherty, Sewald, Urquidy have options) leaving via free agency. Tanner Rainey seems like an auto-cut.

 

This was my back-of-the-napkin 40 man math:

 

22	5	11	3	6	1	8
Lock	Likely Stay	Bubble	Likely DFA/NT	Free Agent	Must Add	Maybe Add
Javier Baez	Beau Brieske	Jason Foley	Sean Guenther	Alex Cobb	Hao Yu Lee	Garrett Burhenn
Kerry Carpenter	Jack Flaherty	Brenan Hanifee	Tanner Rainey	Kyle Finnegan		Trei Cruz
Dillon Dingler	Jake Rogers	Bailey Horn	Paul Sewald	Tommy Kahnle		Thayron Liranzo
Sawyer Gipson-Long	Dylan Smith	Andy Ibanez		Rafael Montero		Jake Miller
Riley Greene	Matt Vierling	Jahmai Jones		Chris Paddack		Izaac Pacheco
Tyler Holton		Alex Lange		Gleyber Torres		RJ Petit
Brant Hurter		Chase Lee				Gabriel Reyes
Jackson Jobe		Ty Madden				Eduardo Valencia
Jace Jung		Tyler Mattison
Colt Keith		Drew Sommers
Justyn-Henry Malloy		Jose Urquidy
Zach McKinstry
Parker Meadows
Troy Melton
Casey Mize
Keider Montero
Reese Olson
Wenceel Perez
Tarik Skubal
Trey Sweeney
Spencer Torkelson
Will Vest

I think we're gonna take a run at keeping Finnegan, and maybe Montero, although he doesn.t exactly control the strike zone. I can see us also picking up Urquidy's option, depending on how he looks behind the curtain.

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

yeah  - it can't be discounted. If he buys something more than 150 ft at the waterline for her the Tigers could be in trouble. 

Yeah, I think it can be discounted. More than that. Disregarded. It's bonkers to think he will torpedo a high-profile business just to spend the money on a broad instead.

[chasfh]

20 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Scott Harris is just doing it his way, like Frank Sinatra. 

And his way is working. Building up to his team takes time, effort, and development. There simply aren't any All-Star hitters available for the picking on the shelf at Walmart.

[Graterol]

Don’t see Harris making a splash for a position player in FA. Only possibilities I see are Bregman, Bichette, Polanco, and potentially Kim. Don’t see Tucker as realistic nor Bellinger as a good roster fit. I would be pretty surprised if there isn’t a minor trade given the plethora of mediocre 2B/3B types on the 40 man.

[chasfh]

20 hours ago, papalawrence said:

With Starting pitcher acquisitions he more resembled Stevie Wonder

Harris hoped to strike gold by picking up volume. It look like it might work for the first one or two starts, then it stopped working, so that approach did not bear fruit this year. But given that no one was eager to deal frontline starters, what should Harris have done instead? Merrill Kelly? It took the Rangers three top 15 pitching prospects to get him, it didn't work for them, and now Kelly is gone as a free agent. Shane Bieber? What do you suppose it would have taken the Tigers for get the Guardians to trade him to us? Dustin May? Lol. Zack Littell? He couldn't strike out a fly and his FIP was a run and a half higher than his ERA, and the buyers had to pull a third team into the trade to make it happen. Those are the top starters that moved in the market. 

[Tiger337]

23 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I think we're gonna take a run at keeping Finnegan, and maybe Montero, although he doesn.t exactly control the strike zone. I can see us also picking up Urquidy's option, depending on how he looks behind the curtain.

I think they'll be really interested in keeping Finnegan and he might want to stay given that he pitched better with them.  It might be a small sample or it might be that they know how to work with him.  Montero doesn't seem like he would be a priority for the reason you mentioned.  

[Edman85]

I probably would have left Melton in the rotation. But then again, I also am increasingly suspicious that innings limits are pseudoscience.

[Tiger337]

30 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Yeah, I think it can be discounted. More than that. Disregarded. It's bonkers to think he will torpedo a high-profile business just to spend the money on a broad instead.

I am pretty sure nobody is posting seriously about this.  

[Tiger337]

5 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

I probably would have left Melton in the rotation. But then again, I also am increasingly suspicious that innings limits are pseudoscience.

Whatever they are doing isn't working and I am talking about all across the leagues not just the Tigers.  Injuries are becoming no less prevalent with modern practices.  

I would have liked to have seen Montero and Melton left in the rotation.  

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Let's give Scott Harris a shopping list 🤣🤣

I could see us taking a run at Dylan Cease. Good strikeout guy, albeit with a slightly elevated walk rate, and his soft topline numbers are bolstered by some solid numbers under the hood. That might even save us a year. Given that he's coming out at age 30, I could see going for 4/100, although he'll probably want six years. His being a flyball pitcher might scare off teams with short parks, so that might help.

As for the position players listed here, I don't know that we seriously go for any of them, even Bregman. I wouldn't mind seeing Bregman suit up for us for a couple years, but with Max Anderson taking reps at third (and looking good there!) and due to arrive next year, he might be the guy we're looking to step in there. We also have Hao Yu-Lee banging on the door. But if we throw 8/300 at Bregman instead, I'll gulp and support it.

[chasfh]

12 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I am pretty sure nobody is posting seriously about this.  

At least one guy is.