2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

The article in freep said;

"Bregman, a three-time All-Star who turns 32 in late March, opted out of the final two seasons of his three-year, $120 million contract with the Red Sox, making him a free agent for the second straight offseason."

I'm no math genius but thats $40m per season. If that's correct, there's absolutely no way the Tigers sign him. And I wouldn't want them to, it's way too much, IMO. 

I don’t care as much about the money as I do the years. They can pay him $30 or $40 or $50 million for all I care as long as they don’t go on the hook for him for the next nine or more years. I have no interest in how black their 2026 profit statement is.

[Sports_Freak]

38 minutes ago, casimir said:

But what are the other options to consider?  This proposition isn’t at the mercy of a coin flip.

True. There's always an old and maybe expensive Suarez.

[Sports_Freak]

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I don’t care as much about the money as I do the years. They can pay him $30 or $40 or $50 million for all I care as long as they don’t go on the hook for him for the next nine or more years. I have no interest in how black their 2026 profit statement is.

Just my 2 cents worth but if the Tigers plan in spending 40 million dollars or so, I would rather it be on pitching.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think this is accurate. Gleyber's return has pushed Colt to 3rd and other than some deal that is too good to be true, I think that leaves the probability of the Tigers bringing in a full time 3d close to zero. If they had gone soft on Torkelson that would be another matter, but considering they hardly gave him a day off at all in the 2nd half, I don't see the evidence of that. My guess is If they bring in any kind of 3B it has to be a 3b/SS combo player.

They didn’t give him a day off there because who else were they going to put there? Tork was their guy there, especially after his first half. But his second half was very meh—107 wRC+ with a 0.6 WAR in 64 games. That’s not close to first overall pick quality. That’s why I say: first base could be considered a hole, depending on which Tork shows up.

[Sports_Freak]

7 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I still don’t see Harris forcing the team to take a step back from contending for a pennant by trading their two-time-defending Cy Young pitcher for the possibility that they might be this good again three years from now.

They won't sign him and won't trade him. After he walks, we'll hear stories that the Tigers offered him a fair contract and he refused it.

[chasfh]

Just now, Sports_Freak said:

Just my 2 cents worth but if the Tigers plan in spending 40 million dollars or so, I would rather it be on pitching.

Oh, they’ll get pitching all right. There are several top quality candidates out there, although the $64 question is, would any of them commit to Detroit—a team with a recent history of blowing it up and starting it all over—for the next four or five or six years?

[chasfh]

Just now, Sports_Freak said:

They won't sign him and won't trade him. After he walks, we'll hear stories that the Tigers offered him a fair contract and he refused it.

I will be mad at Scott Harris after he fails to retain Tarik Skubal without putting an acceptable replacement rotation in place, and not before.

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I will be mad at Scott Harris after he fails to retain Tarik Skubal without putting an acceptable replacement rotation in place, and not before.

IDK, free agent prices can be franchise killers. Signing Skubal would be great but a guy who pitches every 5 days, for 100 to 110 pitches? I would rather have a few shut down relief pitchers and a couple hitters who make contact. And to go along with a couple of #2 and #3 type pitchers. Harris doesn't seem the type to put all his eggs in one basket. But....we'll see.

[chasfh]

17 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

IDK, free agent prices can be franchise killers. Signing Skubal would be great but a guy who pitches every 5 days, for 100 to 110 pitches? I would rather have a few shut down relief pitchers and a couple hitters who make contact. And to go along with a couple of #2 and #3 type pitchers. Harris doesn't seem the type to put all his eggs in one basket. But....we'll see.

Are we seriously still debating the value of pitchers because they don't pitch every game?

Pitchers don't have to play every game like position players have to because a pitcher has five times the impact on winning or losing a game as a position player does. That's why a pitcher can be just as valuable starting 30 games in a season as a position player is starting 150 games. Top-of-the-line pitchers are worth every penny that top-of-the-line position players are.

I would like to sign Skubal to a number of years, although preferably not ten, and if it takes $40 million a year to do that, it's worth it. I mean, it's worth it just for the idea that if Skubal commits to Detroit long-term, that's going to signal to the rest of the market that Detroit is committing to winning, and that's going to make us a lot more attractive a destination than we are now.

 

[Sports_Freak]

5 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Are we seriously still debating the value of pitchers because they don't pitch every game?

Pitchers don't have to play every game like position players have to because a pitcher has five times the impact on winning or losing a game as a position player does. That's why a pitcher can be just as valuable starting 30 games in a season as a position player is starting 150 games. Top-of-the-line pitchers are worth every penny that top-of-the-line position players are.

I would like to sign Skubal to a number of years, although preferably not ten, and if it takes $40 million a year to do that, it's worth it. I mean, it's worth it just for the idea that if Skubal commits to Detroit long-term, that's going to signal to the rest of the market that Detroit is committing to winning, and that's going to make us a lot more attractive a destination than we are now.

 

Yeah, I saw the stats of the Tigers record in Skubal starts the last 2 seasons against games he didnt start. We were barely a .500 team in games he didnt start. We don't make the playoffs the last 2 seasons without him. But again, that's a whole lot of money. Maybe A position player isn't as important as the best pitcher in baseball but how about 2 or 3 position players and a couple of very good arms for the bullpen? Harris (and Chris) are going to do whatever they think is best for the entire franchise. I will be quite surprised if they sign Skubal, not that I don't want them to but because of the money involved. 

[casimir]

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

True. There's always an old and maybe expensive Suarez.

Just as a data point, Suarez is estimated as a 3/$63M contract per MLBTradeRumors.  I’m not interested 3 years with him.

[casimir]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

I don’t care as much about the money as I do the years.

In general, I agree.  The salary concern for me is in terms of opportunity cost.  So the salary paid to Cobb, who else was a target for that?  There was risk there and it eventually played out to the worst possibility.

[Sports_Freak]

23 minutes ago, casimir said:

Just as a data point, Suarez is estimated as a 3/$63M contract per MLBTradeRumors.  I’m not interested 3 years with him.

Makes sense, a 34 year old player looking for his last contract.

[Tenacious D]

I think the only bat will be an OF, if at all.  Unless they try and trade Tork, opening 1B for Keith.

[4hzglory]

5 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

So his price would start at $30M per year? Again, hard pass.

I don’t see where his market is this year.  Last year it was us and Boston, and I don’t see us in it for him this year.

 

 IIRC we were at 6 and 162-so 26/yr.  I think the Boston deferrals actually got his AAV close to that.  They gave the opt out after 1, we offered after 2.  I personally don’t know if he will top that in present value (including last year) as I think his market has shrunk even more. Houston doesn’t have the $ now that to have Correa back.  Maybe NYY?  But they usually try and reset the luxury tax.  

[Tiger337]

I've always been a big fan of Bregman, but I don't see them chasing him this year either with Torres back and McGonigle right around the corner.  

[4hzglory]

6 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I've always been a big fan of Bregman, but I don't see them chasing him this year either with Torres back and McGonigle right around the corner.  

Yeah, I wanted him last year, but it doesn’t make near as much sense now.

[SoCalTiger]

7 hours ago, chasfh said:

I still don’t see Harris forcing the team to take a step back from contending for a pennant by trading their two-time-defending Cy Young pitcher for the possibility that they might be this good again three years from now.

I hope you are right and I tend to agree but it would not surprise me either.

[Motor City Sonics]

Isn't Bo Bichette the right guy for the Tigers?      Except for one bad year (injuries?) he's a lifetime .300 hitter.  Contact hitter.    Not the greatest SS, but the perfect bat for them.   

I don't even care about McGonigle right now.  We're probably not going to see him for a couple of years.  We'll deal with that when it happens.    

[papalawrence]

5 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Isn't Bo Bichette the right guy for the Tigers?      Except for one bad year (injuries?) he's a lifetime .300 hitter.  Contact hitter.    Not the greatest SS, but the perfect bat for them.   

I don't even care about McGonigle right now.  We're probably not going to see him for a couple of years.  We'll deal with that when it happens.    

 I like Bichette, but I do not see Toronto letting him walk.

[Motor City Sonics]

6 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

 I like Bichette, but I do not see Toronto letting him walk.

Can Toronto afford him?   After signing Cease, don't they have 6 9-figure guys now? 

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Yeah, I saw the stats of the Tigers record in Skubal starts the last 2 seasons against games he didnt start. We were barely a .500 team in games he didnt start. We don't make the playoffs the last 2 seasons without him. But again, that's a whole lot of money. Maybe A position player isn't as important as the best pitcher in baseball but how about 2 or 3 position players and a couple of very good arms for the bullpen? Harris (and Chris) are going to do whatever they think is best for the entire franchise. I will be quite surprised if they sign Skubal, not that I don't want them to but because of the money involved. 

I will bet that’s will Harris will do, and I will double bet that you will whine about how Harris cheaped out on free agents yet again. 😉

[chasfh]

8 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

I hope you are right and I tend to agree but it would not surprise me either.

It would surprise me, a lot, and disappoint me, a lot, to see Harris make us purposely worse this year by trading away Skubal just so we can, maybe, get back to the same position in three years.

[chasfh]

14 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

 I like Bichette, but I do not see Toronto letting him walk.

I also don’t see Bichette taking just a little more money to leave the defending American League champs. That’s the only home he’s ever known, and they are on the championship upswing, so it would have to be more years than anyone else plus the most money by a fair amount to get him to leave.

[Shelton]

16 hours ago, chasfh said:

They didn’t give him a day off there because who else were they going to put there? Tork was their guy there, especially after his first half. But his second half was very meh—107 wRC+ with a 0.6 WAR in 64 games. That’s not close to first overall pick quality. That’s why I say: first base could be considered a hole, depending on which Tork shows up.

It’s also why I don’t think things like “Torres back” and “McGonigle close” and “7 years of Bregman made sense last year with Trey Sweeney penciled into SS but a year later with McGonigle penciled in there it no longer makes sense” carries a lot of weight. 
 

I think Bregman makes as much sense now as he did a year ago, which is quite a bit of sense. If there was any year to be happy with a bit of depth and stuffing the roster, at the cost of mere dollars, it’s this one. It’s not like we have a great answer in RF either if Kerry is your DH. Spending a year having colt split time between 2B, 1B, and DH is just fine. 
 

If you insist on defining a healthy game 7 lineup against a RHP in a world where Tork is good, Colt/Torres at DH/2B and Kerry in RF works for me.