2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Sports_Freak]

4 hours ago, papalawrence said:

He had some big hits for the Tigers. His playing time was I inconsistent with the big club. I think he has potential to be a .270/.370/.470 dh, which is decent but replaceable most free agency years. I wish him well. He's going to a good org. 

I think it was him that had a walk off base hit against Boston last season. I think it was in extra innings? 

[Edman85]

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

That would be quite valuable if he could do it.  So far, he has not been close.  

I could still see him being roughly replacement level with that line if he was playing in the field.

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

I could still see him being roughly replacement level with that line if he was playing in the field.

Someone with an OPS of .840 could play most of the time at DH.  Rooker and Ozuna had OPS significantly lower than that, played mostly DH and had value.  The problem is I don't see Malloy hitting .370/.470 over enough plate appearances to be valuable.  

[Edman85]

36 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Someone with an OPS of .840 could play most of the time at DH.  Rooker and Ozuna had OPS significantly lower than that, played mostly DH and had value.  The problem is I don't see Malloy hitting .370/.470 over enough plate appearances to be valuable.  

Yeah. In addition to his cement glove, he is a clear platoon guy on the short side. That does have value, but it is limited.

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Edman85 said:

Yeah. In addition to his cement glove, he is a clear platoon guy on the short side. That does have value, but it is limited.

The best I can see from him is a Jahmai Jones type season (and that did have value) but that's going to hard for Jones to repeat.  

[gehringer_2]

30 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

The best I can see from him is a Jahmai Jones type season (and that did have value) but that's going to hard for Jones to repeat.  

Granted, from year to year you never know what guys with thin resumes *might* do, but from almost any angle, Jones gives you a better probability of value than Malloy. Malloy did improve his OBP in 25 over 24, but it came with the nearly complete disappearance of power.

No question the crazy high MiLB walk rate made Malloy intriguing enough to take a look at, but MLB pitchers are going to make you hit your way on so there was no chance that was going to hold, and there was not enough behind his OPS once the walk rate came down to earth. If he can turn it around for Tampa good on him. Teams with enough talent to be pushing the 90 win and up level should have less room on their rosters for project players.

[Tiger337]

Minor league contract for Dugan Darnell.  🔥🔥🔥

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2026/01/06/detroit-tigers-dugan-darnell-free-agency/87941082007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z115125p119650c119650u113725d00----v115125&gca-ft=226&gca-ds=sophi

 

[Stormin]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

The best I can see from him is a Jahmai Jones type season (and that did have value) but that's going to hard for Jones to repeat.  

This is the Tampa Bay Rays.   Malloy will find his MLB power stroke and hit 20 bombs.   Wherever the Tigers put the cash considerations, the investment will tank and be worthless by midseason.   The only redeeming aspect of the trade is the Rays will still finish in last place in the AL East this year.

If the Tigers could just avoid trades with the Rays,  Willy Adames and Isaac Paredes may have been manning the left side of the infield for several seasons.

Edited Wednesday at 02:11 AM by Stormin

[gehringer_2]

Quote

The Detroit Tigers continue to add pitching depth.

Right-handed reliever Burch Smith signed a minor-league contract Dec. 23 with the Tigers.

The deal includes a non-roster invitation to MLB spring training and pays $1.5 million if he makes the MLB roster, plus $250,000 available in incentives-- https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2026/01/07/detroit-tigers-free-agency-burch-smith/88064602007/

If there is a route to wining a WS by being the team to sign the most MiLB pitching, the Tigers are going to be in fantastic shape.

[alex]

Is there a link to the 'Tiger Talk' podcast on 97.1 Tuesday, Jan. 6 '26 with AJ joining DD/Marc Ryan?

I looked and could not find one as of yet... Thanks

[papalawrence]

Harris is at it again - Tigers sign non-mlb pitcher Burch Smith to a minor league deal with an invite to training camp. I have a hunch this MO will be repeated 194 times during his gm tenure 

 

Tigers Sign Burch Smith To Minor League Deal - MLB Trade Rumors https://share.google/N4VTaGTVzXFeD6sw4

[Edman85]

I mean this in the nicest way possible.

People who criticize minor league free agent signings are tacitly admitting their limits of baseball roster management knowledge.

[Edman85]

The Tigers had 41 pitchers who ended the year on either the Detroit or Toledo roster. 9 were on the IL at season's end. 20 have hit free agency, either through traditional means, minor league free agency, or non-tender/off-season crunch. One more was traded because of roster crunch and one more was lost to the Rule 5. 9 of those pitchers who hit free agency have been re-signed.

They need depth and they straight up need to fill the rosters. They also have a packed 40 man roster, so taking fliers on major league deals forces you to put a valuable piece through waivers, so the bar there is going to be super high. Do you think they DFA'ed Malloy for fun?

Going one level lower, of the 20 pitchers (including 4 injured, one on development lost) on Erie's season end roster, 8 of them hit free agency. Pena has re-signed and was among the signings that people are blindly bashing. Kuhn re-signed as well but was nabbed in the Minor League Rule 5.

So you need roughly 55 or so pitchers in the top 3 levels, and you also want about 10-15 extra in spring training just to see what sticks. The Tigers if they sat idle, would have had 31 plus whoever in West Michigan was ready for AA minus anybody still out with injury. No wonder they are hitting the minor league free agent pitching market hard. No wonder they non-tendered Mattison, Little, and Darnell so they could re-sign them to sweetened deals and bypass waivers. No wonder they took four pitchers in the Minor League Rule 5 draft. They need the bodies.

Edited Thursday at 05:48 PM by Edman85

[Tiger337]

I think a lot of time when people mock minor league or waiver acquisitions, they are just being humorous and not being critical.  

[Shinzaki]

Tork, Greene and Vest all avoid arb by agreeing to 2026 contracts

Edited Thursday at 06:36 PM by Shinzaki

[papalawrence]

1 hour ago, Edman85 said:

I mean this in the nicest way possible.

People who criticize minor league free agent signings are tacitly admitting their limits of baseball roster management knowledge.

Truth in that. I'm a mental health therapist, not a management person. My sarcasm is pointing to the fact that Greenberg stated early on the priority was to add pitching. I assumed that would mean looking to add from proven mlb pitchers. They added a 38 year old in decline, who should help. And brought back Finnegan, good. Flaherty chose to stay. Other than that it's non-proven mlb pitchers who have signed. Of course it doesn't hurt to take fliers on guys and hope staff can help them. It's to a point where going forward, if management states a desire to fill a need, I am going to expect that means filling with non-proven players......or perhaps older players coming off injury. There is value in those additions. But imho there should be more balance of adding proven players as well. 

Edited Thursday at 06:47 PM by papalawrence

[Edman85]

18 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I think a lot of time when people mock minor league or waiver acquisitions, they are just being humorous and not being critical.  

Some are. There is some actual criticism out there from people who just flat out don't understand.

[Tigermojo]

2 hours ago, papalawrence said:

Truth in that. I'm a mental health therapist, not a management person. My sarcasm is pointing to the fact that Greenberg stated early on the priority was to add pitching. I assumed that would mean looking to add from proven mlb pitchers. They added a 38 year old in decline, who should help. And brought back Finnegan, good. Flaherty chose to stay. Other than that it's non-proven mlb pitchers who have signed. Of course it doesn't hurt to take fliers on guys and hope staff can help them. It's to a point where going forward, if management states a desire to fill a need, I am going to expect that means filling with non-proven players......or perhaps older players coming off injury. There is value in those additions. But imho there should be more balance of adding proven players as well. 

Only a few starters have been signed by any team. There are still several starters available.

[papalawrence]

12 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Only a few starters have been signed by any team. There are still several starters available.

True, but Detroit hasn't been linked to any of them. Of course Harris does play things close to the vest. But he also said having the same players next year doesn't mean it's the same team. So I highly doubt they're in convo for the remaining SP. 

Bottom line, Greenberg said their priority was to improve SP. They did that with Anderson and non-proven MLB SP. I'm all for looking for a diamond in the rough. Someone else posted here recently that a balance of that, and adding proven (non injured or old) players via trade or FA might be the better approach. Harris did well with Flaherty. Very poorly with Maeda, Cobb, Paddock and Morton. 

In no way am I in the fire Harris camp. The Tigers have mostly flourished since he came. I've heard many times that going from 60 wins to 80 can happen in a year. Taking that to 90+ is very difficult. I'm a fan of Fetter and the development Harris has brought to the entire system. I would enjoy things more as a fan if once in a while Harris would take a risk on someone like Imai. Maybe he did. I doubt it

[Edman85]

I didn't know this about 5+ year guys having additional leverage in arbitration. MLBTR's estimation for Skubal is likely way under. He could get 30+

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47538606/mlb-2026-tarik-skubal-detroit-tigers-record-arbitration-contract

 

Also, given the unprecedented nature of this, one of the sides could very well want to go to trial. Don't read anything into that. There have been plenty of studies out there that players who go to arbitration are not any less likely to re-sign.

Edited Thursday at 10:25 PM by Edman85

[Tigermojo]

Adding a proven starter will give them the most value this year for the roster. There are some hitters who would be upgrades right now but they would limit someone's playing time and potentially become a detriment in the future. A starter could decline as well but if Skubal does leave, it would be easier to add a starter now and another next year. If they are forced to replace the value of Skubal, Mize and Flaherty all in the same offseason, that is very difficult to do.

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I think a lot of time when people mock minor league or waiver acquisitions, they are just being humorous and not being critical.  

It's not the MiLB signings per se, it's the fact that's the only place anything is happening. So each MiLB signing hightens the contrast to the silence on the MLB side. That's what is being mocked (at least in my case, as I definitely poked fun at the Smith signing. But there is also a bit of information in Edman's post that I don't take as so rosy, which is that the Tigers seem to have an excess of  MiLB pitchers that reached minor league FA without ever sniffing the majors. 

[Edman85]

42 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

It's not the MiLB signings per se, it's the fact that's the only place anything is happening. So each MiLB signing hightens the contrast to the silence on the MLB side. That's what is being mocked (at least in my case, as I definitely poked fun at the Smith signing. But there is also a bit of information in Edman's post that I don't take as so rosy, which is that the Tigers seem to have an excess of  MiLB pitchers that reached minor league FA without ever sniffing the majors. 

Let's go one-by-one before painting with that brush...

• Jack Flaherty: Free Agent signing with an opt out. Didn't opt-out.
• Kyle Finnegan: Deadline Rental. Re-signed.
• Rafael Montero: Deadline Rental
• Tommy Kahnle: Free Agent signing on one-year deal
• Alex Cobb: Free Agent signing on one-year deal
• Jason Foley: Non-tendered for salary/injury reasons
• Sean Guenther: Non-tendered, roster space/injury. Re-signed.
• Alex Lange: Released, roster crunch
• Chase Lee: Traded, roster crunch
• Chris Paddack: Deadline Rental
• Tanner Rainey: Non-tendered, roster space. Re-signed
• Paul Sewald: Deadline Rental
• Jose Urquidy: Free agent signing on one-year deal.
• Randy Dobnak: Deadline Rental/salary dump.
• Troy Watson: Minor League free agent find. Re-signed.
• Nick Margevicius: Minor League free agent find.
• RJ Petit: Lost in Rule 5
• Matt Seelinger: Minor League free agent find. Re-signed.
• Wilkel Hernandez: Long time org soldier.
• Jordan Balazovic; Minor League free agent find.
• Woo-Suk Go: Minor League free agent find. Re-signed

Any minor league free agent signed to a second contract is eligible for free agency after the year. But the upper levels were littered with injuries last year. It's why the Tigers went so hard for depth at the deadline. It's also why a bunch of free agents were signed as stop gaps. Heck, guys like Watson and Seelinger were such stopgaps, but they realized they may have found something in them. Minor league free agency after the season is pretty common for most AA and AAA pitchers, so the Tigers didn't really have that anomylous of a season in that regard. What really happened is they had a ton of rental pitchers from the deadline who were gone. I also didn't include Codi Heuer here, who was released in September. Released being a procedural thing because he was injured and couldn't be outrighted. They also had six guys they had to protect (and clearly a 7th in Petit they probably should have if they had room) , had 7 guys to activate from the 60-Day IL, and the last two 40 man moves have been contributors off the 2025 team who were not going to clear waivers. You are basically having to lop off a potentially valuable piece every time you sign a Major League free agent right now, so there are diminishing returns. You get some relief in February when you can 60-Day IL Jobe. That is probably your next MLB Free Agent move.

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, papalawrence said:

True, but Detroit hasn't been linked to any of them. Of course Harris does play things close to the vest. But he also said having the same players next year doesn't mean it's the same team. So I highly doubt they're in convo for the remaining SP. 

Bottom line, Greenberg said their priority was to improve SP. They did that with Anderson and non-proven MLB SP. I'm all for looking for a diamond in the rough. Someone else posted here recently that a balance of that, and adding proven (non injured or old) players via trade or FA might be the better approach. Harris did well with Flaherty. Very poorly with Maeda, Cobb, Paddock and Morton. 

In no way am I in the fire Harris camp. The Tigers have mostly flourished since he came. I've heard many times that going from 60 wins to 80 can happen in a year. Taking that to 90+ is very difficult. I'm a fan of Fetter and the development Harris has brought to the entire system. I would enjoy things more as a fan if once in a while Harris would take a risk on someone like Imai. Maybe he did. I doubt it

I like what Harris has done with the bullpen. He has 3 closers for Hinch to mix and match. Hopefully, we'll be like KC was several years ago and shorten games up. Having a lead going into the 6th inning would mean a win in most games. Bullpens really do decide many of the games these days...

[Tiger337]

12 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I like what Harris has done with the bullpen. He has 3 closers for Hinch to mix and match. Hopefully, we'll be like KC was several years ago and shorten games up. Having a lead going into the 6th inning would mean a win in most games. Bullpens really do decide many of the games these days...

Three closers, but still no dominant reliever.  That's OK, but I wouldn't say that their bullpen is a real strength.  On the other hand, give Hinch some reliever depth and he can take it a long way.