2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Tiger337]

23 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Are players able to sign yet? I forget what the window is post WS conclusion. I still want the Tigers to go for him. A couple upgrades and Detroit has a shot in 2026

yes they can sign now.  

[Tenacious D]

11 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

This is a cruel time of year to be a fan. During the regular season, you can share in the superstitious group mind fantasy of fandom that somehow you have an effect upon events.

But it’s hard to support that fantasy when it comes to the arcane machinations of wheeling and dealing in the off-season. 

I enjoy the Hot Stove. But liked it much better when the majority of moves were completed by Christmas.  Now things drag a long too far into February.

[buddha]

On 11/10/2025 at 11:12 AM, Tiger337 said:

OPS+ is kind of a subset of WAR (except WAR uses wOBA, wRC+ instead). 

As to which one is better to use, it depends on the question.  If you are only interested in offensive contribution, then I would not look at WAR.  I would just look at OPS+ or wRC+.  If you are interested in comparing the overall value of players at different positions, then WAR is better, because players who contribute more than just hitting need to get credit for that.   

it's almost like you wrote a book about this once...

[Tiger337]

3 minutes ago, buddha said:

it's almost like you wrote a book about this once...

And you helped me write up the defensive measures!

[SoCalTiger]

6 hours ago, 1984Echoes said:

Are you on the "Bregman Watch List"?

Let us know ASAP as soon as it happens!!!

I have Boras on speed dial..or wait maybe it's Borax in the laundry room. But on a more serious note :

Bregman or Bichette ? ( I know you want Tucker but play along)

[SoCalTiger]

5 hours ago, papalawrence said:

Are players able to sign yet? I forget what the window is post WS conclusion. I still want the Tigers to go for him. A couple upgrades and Detroit has a shot in 2026

I believe it's now 24-7-365 shopping time. 

[Tenacious D]

Just now, SoCalTiger said:

I have Boras on speed dial..or wait maybe it's Borax in the laundry room. But on a more serious note :

Bregman or Bichette ? ( I know you want Tucker but play along)

Bichette is probably the better fit—no clear internal answer at SS for the next 3 seasons. Baez can fill in at 2B, SS and CF, basically a RH utility complement to McKinstry.

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, papalawrence said:

FYI Murakami hit .095 vs pitches 93+ last year. I do not see Harris bidding on him

Murakami is not coming to Detroit anyway, so that works out fine.

[1984Echoes]

9 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

I have Boras on speed dial..or wait maybe it's Borax in the laundry room. But on a more serious note :

Bregman or Bichette ? ( I know you want Tucker but play along)

FIRST CHOICE:

I want Bregman AND Tucker.

Fat chance that...

[1984Echoes]

9 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

Bichette is probably the better fit—no clear internal answer at SS for the next 3 seasons. Baez ...

McGonigle may not be a perfect-fielding SS...

But is he any worse than Bichette?

So...

If the team actually believes McGonigle is ready for MLB... then Bregman is the better fit. And, we still have Baez and McKinstry so, IMO, SS really is covered.

[Sports_Freak]

9 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

I have Boras on speed dial..or wait maybe it's Borax in the laundry room. But on a more serious note :

Bregman or Bichette ? ( I know you want Tucker but play along)

The Tigers need to offer Bregman a contract so Boras can shop it around to other clubs and get him a max contract. A totally unethical agent...

[chasfh]

On 11/9/2025 at 2:33 PM, Tiger337 said:

It doesn't suggest he lost two games with his glove.  It's all about valuation.  It means that he has a lot less defensive value (when he's not pitching) than someone that actually plays a position.  Do you think that a shortstop and DH with the same exact offensive statistics have the same value to a team?   

 

Oh, that’s right, now I remember—we were talking about this and I didn’t help close the loop on it.

Of course I get that WAR is, at its core, a business metric: if we lose our current major leaguer to injury or gambling or whatever, how many wins would we lose on a season-adjusted basis if we have to replace him with a freely-available replacement player? That is what the acronym stands for, after all: Wins Above Replacement. (Remember when Prospectus call their similar statistic “WARP”? I wonder what the P stood for … ?)

I thought I saw this in this here thread, although maybe not, but I do remember seeing somewhere that inherently, the first base position is worth something like -12 runs (or -1.2 wins) defensively, and shortstop is worth +9 defensive runs (or +0.9 wins), versus the average player regardless of position. The numbers I’m using are probably not right, but that’s the principle, anyway. So, to fill the position to some minimally acceptable standard such that an organization can field at least a replacement-level team, they would be willing to accept up to, but not exceeding, two wins less at the plate (i.e., 1.2 plus -0.9 = 2.1) from a shortstop than a first baseman to even them out. OK, makes sense.

However, we fans also have evolved (or devolved, take your pick) to using WAR as a rule-of-thumb overall benchmark stat to estimate the value of a player on the field, and not as much economically. As such, we see WAR as roughly summing up a player’s oWAR and dWAR, so if he has 5.0 oWAR and -2.0 dWAR, his overall WAR is about 3.0. OK.

And I can accept the idea that on average, the league’s first basemen combine to lose, on average, -1.2 games in defense for their respective teams, whereas the leagues shortstops combine to win, on average, +0.9 on defense for their teams, all when compared to a league’s average player regardless of position. I can wrap my head around this.

The disconnect for me is how the league’s DHs could be considered to lose, on average, -1.7 games on defense for their teams, since that’s what their dWAR suggests. Again, I get that WAR is an economic metric for front offices to evaluate the acquisition or deployment of a player to DH versus the average positionless player. But if first basemen and shortstops can be reduced to an average defensive value for economic purposes based on how many games the average one of them wins or loses for their average teams on the field, how can DHs be evaluated defensively in such a way when their contribution to a team’s actual defense on the field is N/A?

Maybe the answer is that we need a different bottomline metric to evaluate a player’s on-field performance, as opposed his economic value, such that DHs’ defensive value is properly regarded as zero, so DHs spend zero time on defense. Maybe that’s what it comes down to?

[papalawrence]

Beck with some thoughts about the dilemma of to trade, or not to trade. He mentions past trades of DD, and when DD refrained.

What Tigers history says about trading or keeping Skubal https://share.google/Wva1YFzdclkmtfa6L

[chasfh]

27 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Beck with some thoughts about the dilemma of to trade, or not to trade. He mentions past trades of DD, and when DD refrained.

What Tigers history says about trading or keeping Skubal https://share.google/Wva1YFzdclkmtfa6L

Nothing is coming up, probably because it's a link to "share.google" rather than "share.google.com", although when I add the .com nothing comes up there, either.

What does it say?

[theroundsquare]

hmph, it worked for me.  it recounts the way the granderson trade worked out, with max coming over, and the non-trade of max heading into his final year of team control after the exchange of pissy press releases from the team and boras

[papalawrence]

14 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Nothing is coming up, probably because it's a link to "share.google" rather than "share.google.com", although when I add the .com nothing comes up there, either.

What does it say?

I'll try it again

 

Tarik Skubal trade rumors examined through Tigers' past trades https://share.google/traGkK3GseIkp5aJK

[4hzglory]

47 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Nothing is coming up, probably because it's a link to "share.google" rather than "share.google.com", although when I add the .com nothing comes up there, either.

What does it say?

It basically says the Granderson trade made sense at the time based on where the team was at.  And it says the Scherzer non trade, even though we knew he wasn't going to resign, made sense based on where the team was at.  IMO, it is confirming what you and those of us who think it would be foolish to trade Skubal now believe with the team coming off 2 post season appearances and being favorites to make it to the postseason again.

 

Also, an article in the Athletic from the GM meetings also implies that Tiger Brass is saying they want to win with Skubal.

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said:

McGonigle may not be a perfect-fielding SS...

But is he any worse than Bichette?

So...

If the team actually believes McGonigle is ready for MLB... then Bregman is the better fit. And, we still have Baez and McKinstry so, IMO, SS really is covered.

I just looked up Bichette's fielding numbers.  They are worse than I thought.  They say McGonigle might not stay at shortstop, but Bichette may not either.    

Bregman has always been the perfect fit for the Tigers, exactly what Harris says he wants.  The question, of course, is his age.  I suspect his bat will last longer than most because he is all about plate discipline, but his fielding make be gone soon and then if his offense does NOT last, they would get screwed by a 5-year deal.   

Edited 12 hours ago by Tiger337

[1984Echoes]

11 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I just looked up Bichette's fielding numbers.  They are worse than I thought.  They say McGonigle might not stay at shortstop, but Bichette may not either.    

Bregman has always been the perfect fit for the Tigers, exactly what Harris says he wants.  The question, of course, is his age.  I suspect his bat will last longer than most because he is all about plate discipline, but his fielding make be gone soon and then if his offense does NOT last, they would get screwed by a 5-year deal.   

If we signed Bichette with the express purpose of playing 3B...

I could see him as a 1B or 1A to Bregman.

Not as good OBP, but much younger and therefore less Age Risk Exposure.

I could definitely get on board with that, thinking in those terms.

And... he could even be signed (with his knowledge) as a SS/3B... holding SS until McGonigle is ready for MLB.

That gives less pressure to force McGonigle onto Detroit's roster "RIGHT NOW!!!"... just in case he is not quite yet ready.

And if Rainer moves quickly, or if/when he is ready for Detroit... The best SS of the 3 holds the spot, the other two are at 2B and 3B,

[Dan Gilmore]

We have another week to see if Torres accepts the QO. That likely affects various potential options/plans by the Tigers. Either in terms of where a player like Bichette might play on the field or if some of the many MiLB IFs would be offered in trade.

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

Maybe the answer is that we need a different bottomline metric to evaluate a player’s on-field performance, as opposed his economic value, such that DHs’ defensive value is properly regarded as zero, so DHs spend zero time on defense. Maybe that’s what it comes down to?

Or just apply positional value metrics after a players O-War and D-War are rated against the actual replacement player at the position - People could still have the post positional adjusted shorthand number but also get a more realistic take on the player by just stepping a single level deeper into the data. With the positional adjustment put in before the calc of dWar, it makes the data more opaque (and counter-intuitive)  than it needs to be -- IMHO

Edited 11 hours ago by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Bregman has always been the perfect fit for the Tigers, exactly what Harris says he wants.  The question, of course, is his age. 

yeah - you don't want to get the perfect fit for 4 yrs ago.

[RatkoVarda]

Bichette's age make him a much better bet than Bregman; The Athletic predicts 8/212 for Bichette; I'd do that.

[Edman85]

There is a fascinating thing people here do, and that is projecting their opinion on Scott Harris. e.g. "I think Harris would like (player I like)."

It is kinda funny once you see it once, like the beat guys loving on former Tigers.

[roarintiger1]

1 hour ago, RatkoVarda said:

Bichette's age make him a much better bet than Bregman; The Athletic predicts 8/212 for Bichette; I'd do that.

I'll predict he is not even considering Detroit as a destination.