2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[kdog]

Maybe real baseball trades don't exist any longer? The only one I've seen this offseason is Semien for Nimmo..which was each team offloading a bad contract.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I am always skeptical of prospects, but none of those guys were regarded to be in the same class as McGonigle and Clark.  

Malloy and Sweeney were never top 100 prospects. Sweeney topped out at 22 for the Dodgers system, Malloy at #7 in the Tigers system. Jung topped out at #60 MLB which is (checks math) not in the top 10.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

So, was he a bad draft pick by Avila or not developed properly by Harris?  

Riley was the draft pick everyone else would have taken at the time. He developed into his one 5-win season under Harris in 2024 before taking a step back this year. This upcoming season is a key one for his career.

[Sports_Freak]

14 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Malloy and Sweeney were never top 100 prospects. Sweeney topped out at 22 for the Dodgers system, Malloy at #7 in the Tigers system. Jung topped out at #60 MLB which is (checks math) not in the top 10.

And how highly was Colt Keith rated? My only point is that prospects, no matter how highly rated, sometimes don't work out. A couple (few) of the Tigers top prospects are considered untouchable and can't miss. But...until they produce...they still may miss. 

[chasfh]

6 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

And how highly was Colt Keith rated? My only point is that prospects, no matter how highly rated, sometimes don't work out. A couple (few) of the Tigers top prospects are considered untouchable and can't miss. But...until they produce...they still may miss. 

Speaking of "miss", your comparison of our top prospects like McGonigle and Clark to Jung/Malloy/Sweeney was a huge swing and a miss. 😉

But hey, maybe you'll catch a break, McGonigle and Clark will do no better than Jung and Sweeney and Malloy, and then you can lord that over me for a news cycle or two. 😉

[Stormin]

27 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

And how highly was Colt Keith rated? My only point is that prospects, no matter how highly rated, sometimes don't work out. A couple (few) of the Tigers top prospects are considered untouchable and can't miss. But...until they produce...they still may miss. 

Should the Tigers keep all their prospects and hope that a certain percentage become good MLB players?  This seems to be the Tigers current direction.

or

Should the Tigers keep the prospects with the contact skills they desire (McGonigle and Clark) and trade away prospects with higher swing and miss while their stock is high (Briceno, Rainer, Liranzo)?

[Longgone]

6 minutes ago, Stormin said:

Should the Tigers keep all their prospects and hope that a certain percentage become good MLB players?  This seems to be the Tigers current direction.

or

Should the Tigers keep the prospects with the contact skills they desire (McGonigle and Clark) and trade away prospects with higher swing and miss while their stock is high (Briceno, Rainer, Liranzo)?

Like everything in life, it depends. You trade if you get back more organizational value/fit than you give up. Myself, I would lean more towards accumulating young, ascending players, and less on older, descending ones. I also admire a GM who has the patience and discipline to wait for players on which he has full conviction, and not panic and settle for what's available to address immediate perceived needs.

[Tigermojo]

Most teams are holding onto their prospects and placing a very high value on them.

[Edman85]

This is kinda where the Emily's of the world blowing smoke up people's butts about Dixon Machado or Brock Deathrage leads people to think all prospects fail. McGonigle is generational and the best Tigers position prospect of my lifetime. Could he fail? Yes. But lumping him in because others before him took some lumps is overly simplistic. McGonigle is on another level, and I don't think that is emphasized enough.

[Tiger337]

17 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

This is kinda where the Emily's of the world blowing smoke up people's butts about Dixon Machado or Brock Deathrage leads people to think all prospects fail. McGonigle is generational and the best Tigers position prospect of my lifetime. Could he fail? Yes. But lumping him in because others before him took some lumps is overly simplistic. McGonigle is on another level, and I don't think that is emphasized enough.

I think most people here know that Emily doesn't really know anything about the potential of prospects.  

[TcFlint]

If winning the division is all you care about then Harris is 1 out of 2 with one huge collapse.  If you simply care about winning the wildcard so be it.  With this roster that is all you are getting in 2026 if we are lucky.  All I am saying is that where we are on December 18th, this is not s World Series team.

Edited 19 hours ago by TcFlint

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

Speaking of "miss", your comparison of our top prospects like McGonigle and Clark to Jung/Malloy/Sweeney was a huge swing and a miss. 😉

But hey, maybe you'll catch a break, McGonigle and Clark will do no better than Jung and Sweeney and Malloy, and then you can lord that over me for a news cycle or two. 😉

No, I'll just blame Harris...😅😅

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, Stormin said:

Should the Tigers keep all their prospects and hope that a certain percentage become good MLB players?  This seems to be the Tigers current direction.

or

Should the Tigers keep the prospects with the contact skills they desire (McGonigle and Clark) and trade away prospects with higher swing and miss while their stock is high (Briceno, Rainer, Liranzo)?

Trading secondary prospects for established talent wouldn't be the worst idea. But those established players can be expensive. So we're better off just signing the talent we have, even if they get expensive.

[chasfh]

46 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I think most people here know that Emily doesn't really know anything about the potential of prospects.  

And yet I see Ed's point in that the memory of it can activate in the subconscious and still lead people to intellectually acknowledge Emily's shortcomings in prospect evaluation but still have the feeling prospects fail at a much higher rate than they actually do.

 

[chasfh]

19 minutes ago, TcFlint said:

If winning the division is all you care about then Harris is 1 out of 2 with one huge collapse.  If you simply care about winning the wildcard so be it.  With this roster that is all you are getting in 2026 if we are lucky.  All I am saying is that where we are on December 18th, this is not s World Series team.

Well, the Tiger did beat division winners as a wild card playoff team two years in a row, so ...

I do like division titles, but in the final analysis, just get me to the dance.

[papalawrence]

49 minutes ago, TcFlint said:

If winning the division is all you care about then Harris is 1 out of 2 with one huge collapse.  

Actually Cleveland has won the past 2 AL Central titles. Detroit was wild card both years. They haven't won their division since 2014

[Tiger337]

32 minutes ago, chasfh said:

And yet I see Ed's point in that the memory of it can activate in the subconscious and still lead people to intellectually acknowledge Emily's shortcomings in prospect evaluation but still have the feeling prospects fail at a much higher rate than they actually do.

 

I guess I am fortunate not to have Emily Waldon living in my subconscious.  Fans of all teams pump up their prospects way too much.  In reality, the Tigers have had ****ty prospects for most of the last 40 years.  I am glad they finally have some legitimate ones.  

[IdahoBert]

6 hours ago, chasfh said:

Colt Keith is not done quite yet. He may not even be at his optimal self yet. He's just finished his age 23 season.

This is true. I just hope the other boys coming out of the pipeline hit the ground running a little bit quicker with fewer missteps. We have such high hopes that this all works out. I don’t think anyone was expecting Keith to be Vlad Guerrero and hit 48 homers at age 22 or anything.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

This is true. I just hope the other boys coming out of the pipeline hit the ground running a little bit quicker with fewer missteps. We have such high hopes that this all works out. I don’t think anyone was expecting Keith to be Vlad Guerrero and hit 48 homers at age 22 or anything.

Keith was more productive overall in '25, but at the expense of becoming a platoon player. In '24 he had 88 PA against LHP and OPS's at 718 - basically no platoon split - slightly negative in fact. In '25 he had only 46 PA against LHP and OPS'd 403. The eternal question arises here. Would he have sustained his hitting against LHP if he had seen more? 

[SoCalTiger]

25 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Keith was more productive overall in '25, but at the expense of becoming a platoon player. In '24 he had 88 PA against LHP and OPS's at 718 - basically no platoon split - slightly negative in fact. In '25 he had only 46 PA against LHP and OPS'd 403. The eternal question arises here. Would he have sustained his hitting against LHP if he had seen more? 

If the Tigers have in fact decided to play Keith at 3B and not sign or trade for somebody else I would like to see them commit to Keith and play him every day or at least 120 games. We have to remember the mistake of Issac Parades who we moved around and played only in spurts only to find out with extended playing time he was solid. 

[Tigeraholic1]

11 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I guess I am fortunate not to have Emily Waldon living in my subconscious.  Fans of all teams pump up their prospects way too much.  In reality, the Tigers have had ****ty prospects for most of the last 40 years.  I am glad they finally have some legitimate ones.  

I never understood that hate shown for her. It must be the fact she is a woman. They don't rail on any other writers quite the same way.

[chasfh]

14 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

I never understood that hate shown for her. It must be the fact she is a woman. They don't rail on any other writers quite the same way.

That might be part of it.

Another part of it is that she is legitimately a lightweight when it comes to baseball journalism. 

[Hongbit]

14 hours ago, Edman85 said:

McGonigle is generational and the best Tigers position prospect of my lifetime. Could he fail? Yes. But lumping him in because others before him took some lumps is overly simplistic. McGonigle is on another level, and I don't think that is emphasized enough.

I am hoping Bryce Ranier can have an injury free season and show that he’s in the same category

[Tiger337]

22 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

I never understood that hate shown for her. It must be the fact she is a woman. They don't rail on any other writers quite the same way.

I would argue that a lot of people are nice to Waldon because she's a woman which makes some posters push back.  They rail on Lynn Henning and Chris McCosky (Hackosky) all the time.  There is a whole thread here dedicated to making fun of McCosky.  Jerry Green was another one.  

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

I never understood that hate shown for her. It must be the fact she is a woman. They don't rail on any other writers quite the same way.

IDK about that. Outside of Stavenhagen and Jason Beck I'm hard pressed to think of any Det baseball writer that hasn't doesn't get savaged here. Back in the day I think Tom Kowalski was pretty widely liked, but that's been about it.