2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Edman85]

36 minutes ago, HeyAbbott said:

Well, It looks like another exciting Harris styled off season. This year has had all the excitement of the breath-taking, non-stop action, of a paint drying tournament , white semi-gloss division.

I do think there has been one thing said in this thread that makes sense. Given that the Tigers have not resigned Skubal, and the pitching looks might suspect for '27 and beyond, why would someone want to commit long term and sign here when the team can't go all in on its best player, and one of the best in the game? If you're a player and want a ring, why come here when you can go elsewhere, have a better chance at winning all, while being in a bigger market with better weather, and a more committed ownership?

I suddenly have the feeling that every passing cloud contains a cast iron anvil with my name on it.

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

[chasfh]

Hmmm ... the "options and risks" ... 

 

[Edman85]

I am just going to make a note and remember that contributions for players acquired after December 1 don't count.

[Shelton]

18 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I believe he can still play in the minors.  I am sure Edman will tell us.  He is smarter than AI.    

Everyone is smarter than Avila. 

[papalawrence]

2 hours ago, Shelton said:

Everyone is smarter than Avila. 

Maybe not

[Tiger337]

51 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Maybe not

Avila was likeable but inept, whereas Smith was an inept douchebag.  

[Toddwert]

Talk about born on 3rd base.... i see hes currently working in Japan for The Ham Fighters 

[IdahoBert]

7 hours ago, Edman85 said:

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

I wish the Tigers were at least a Five Guys, but they’re not. 

[Tiger337]

The Tigers are apparently interested Brad Keller...as a starter.  

[romad1]

The AI slop about Skubal is beyond awful.  

[Tiger337]

AI has killed the internet.  As expected, it's being used as a way to make money, not to make informatiion better.  

Edited Sunday at 02:13 PM by Tiger337

[TcFlint]

Drew Anderson pitched well in Korea and has pretty good heat.  I can see him in our bullpen.

[papalawrence]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

The AI slop about Skubal is beyond awful.  

You have to scroll in several minutes, but here is some Skubal info directly from Onley yesterday. Executives are telling him they expect Skubal to be traded and the haul will be huge

 

Edited Sunday at 03:09 PM by papalawrence

[Toddwert]

11 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

The Tigers are apparently interested Brad Keller...as a starter.  

cant we just get a legit starter for this season and for after Skubal leaves.... the 27 rotation is going to be interesting  at this rate. no starters all pitching chaos

[1984Echoes]

1 hour ago, TcFlint said:

Drew Anderson pitched well in Korea and has pretty good heat.  I can see him in our bullpen.

He's not going to the bullpen.

He's going on the roster as the 5th starter OR he's going to Toledo as the 6th/7th/8th starter...

How ever that plays out.

But...

No, he's not going to the bullpen.

[romad1]

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

AI has killed the internet.  As expected, it's being used as a way to make money, not to make informatiion better.  

Killed?  My chief criticisms:

- creating slop for profit (as you said)

- giving bs information as answer to poorly constructed searches

- raiding intellectual property because the creators can’t screw it down anymore because AI is so damn intrusive

i’m sure there are other things. The explosion of data center construction in my neck of the woods is driving power bills up and up because the data centers are getting subsidies.  

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, papalawrence said:

You have to scroll in several minutes, but here is some Skubal info directly from Onley yesterday. Executives are telling him they expect Skubal to be traded and the haul will be huge

 

Gets Buster Olney into the public conversation.

[Tigermojo]

6 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Gets Buster Olney into the public conversation.

Click$

[chasfh]

4 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Click$

And the thing about this is that Olney and everyone else has figured out that there is no longer any price to pay for being wrong on wild predictions such as this. Once Skubal starts the season with Detroit, it's not as though Olney's going to get roasted for predicting Skubal would get traded. It will have been long forgotten by then and we'll just move on to the next media cycle.

I don't think it used to be like that, and I'm wondering whether the reason is, back before the Internet, in the three-network era, this kind of prediction might have been the only one made, with a person's name attached to it. Making a public prediction like that in, say, 1985 would have been considered a Big Hairy Deal. Now, here in the online era, there are literally thousands of people predicting Skubal is going to get traded. Olney is merely one of them, and no one will remember even tomorrow that he predicted that today. But it was enough to have us contemplate it for an hour or so.

[Tiger337]

7 minutes ago, chasfh said:

And the thing about this is that Olney and everyone else has figured out that there is no longer any price to pay for being wrong on wild predictions such as this. Once Skubal starts the season with Detroit, it's not as though Olney's going to get roasted for predicting Skubal would get traded. It will have been long forgotten by then and we'll just move on to the next media cycle.

I don't think it used to be like that, and I'm wondering whether the reason is, back before the Internet, in the three-network era, this kind of prediction might have been the only one made, with a person's name attached to it. Making a public prediction like that in, say, 1985 would have been considered a Big Hairy Deal. Now, here in the online era, there are literally thousands of people predicting Skubal is going to get traded. Olney is merely one of them, and no one will remember even tomorrow that he predicted that today. But it was enough to have us contemplate it for an hour or so.

Without getting into topics we can't discuss here, the whole country is like that now.  

[gehringer_2]

Everything Buster said has been covered 16 ways to Sunday in this thread already. But the key word is value. The correct analysis for the Tigers is to establish for themselves some scale upon which to rank the value to the Tigers of Skubal in 2026 vs any proposed trade on the same value system. If the return is greater, you make the deal. 

When I hear people argue whether the Tigers should trade him, what it usually comes to is that the people that think he should be traded think he will fetch a huge return (e.g. Olney), while the people that say 'keep him' believe no-one is going to give up enough for one year of any pitcher to make the Tigers whole in the deal. I don't imagine many disagree with the idea that "If the trade is good enough, make, if it isn't pass." 

But we aren't going to see what the offers are.                                                   

Edited Sunday at 05:59 PM by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

58 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Killed?  My chief criticisms:

- creating slop for profit (as you said)

- giving bs information as answer to poorly constructed searches

- raiding intellectual property because the creators can’t screw it down anymore because AI is so damn intrusive

i’m sure there are other things. The explosion of data center construction in my neck of the woods is driving power bills up and up because the data centers are getting subsidies.  

Not actually killing it if you know how to recognize BS, but that's a skill not everyone has.  Maybe even the majority don't have it.  

[casimir]

On 12/6/2025 at 9:59 AM, Edman85 said:

Dirty little secret about pitchers is that signing one to a multi year deal doesn't guarantee they will capably fill the role you signed them for through the duration of the contract. 

 

On 12/6/2025 at 10:13 AM, Tiger337 said:

It's no secret.  There are no guarantees, especially with pitchers.

Kenta Maeda agrees with Lee.

[casimir]

4 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

AI has killed the internet.  As expected, it's being used as a way to make money, not to make informatiion better.  

I would say a lack of “I” has killed the internet as well as making every day life more complicated, but that’s just my opinion.

[IdahoBert]

4 hours ago, papalawrence said:

You have to scroll in several minutes, but here is some Skubal info directly from Onley yesterday. Executives are telling him they expect Skubal to be traded and the haul will be huge

 

Get on YouTube and fast forward to the 10:30 mark - beyond the banal foreplay all podcasts seem to mimic of warming up the audience, and the obligatory rite going down on rhe sponsors and it’s really nothing that we haven’t always already heard or knew ourselves without anybody’s help. It’s only two or three minutes long and after that, I stopped listening because I don’t care about other teams. You’re welcome.