2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Edman85]

Best comps I could find the last five offseasons of SP with 5-5.171 years of service traded roughly on Mize's value tier  were Chris Bassitt and Steven Matz. Both got decent packages of guys who were names at the time, but didn't work out (one of the prospects was the brother of a former swiping app match I never met up with, but every time I see this name it reminds me of that. Can you guess whose sister I matched with? 😄 ).

I think it would be foolish to trade Mize right now, given need and upside. Just pointing out he's got a bit more value than one third tier prospect.

[Tiger337]

Mize pitched like an allstar for a couple of months, but I wouldn't call him allstar caliber based on his whole body of work.  If he pitches the same next year as last year, I'd say he is an average starter.  I do think they could get Max Anderson for him, but that's pretty close to Chas's stated 10-20 range.  He's right around 10 depending on the list.  I wouldn't be OK with that, but they might get a little more.  Still, I'd rather have Mize than anything they could get.  

Edited 14 hours ago by Tiger337

[tiger2022]

5 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

The Tigers acquired 4 pitchers right around the trade deadline. Rafael Montero, Charlie Morton, Kyle Finnegan, Chris Paddack. One of them did a good job (Finnegan) and was signed for 2026. 2 of then sucked and were released. And the other one is a free agent. 

There are a few prospects that our POBO is hanging his hat on to save any credibility in many fans eyes. He hasn't helped the Major League team with his trades or free agent signings. If these prospects don't pan out....well, I won't go there. These kids HAVE to make a big impact in the next couple of years.

Harris has done absolutely nothing to help the mlb team.  Every non-relief pitcher that has provided anything has been an Avila player (except Torres and I suppose Flaherty).  It' unacceptable how poorly Harris has tried to even help the roster.  It's almost like he doesn't care and is only waiting for his draft picks to get to the majors.  He did nothing at the beginning of last year, made the team worse at the trade deadline, and has signed a 38 year old relief pitcher so far this season.

Maybe it's Ilitch confining him but it's almost like he does all his shopping at a garage sale.

Edited 13 hours ago by tiger2022

[Sports_Freak]

38 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

Harris has done absolutely nothing to help the mlb team.  Every non-relief pitcher that has provided anything has been an Avila player (except Torres and I suppose Flaherty).  It' unacceptable how poorly Harris has tried to even help the roster.  It's almost like he doesn't care and is only waiting for his draft picks to get to the majors.  He did nothing at the beginning of last year, made the team worse at the trade deadline, and has signed a 38 year old relief pitcher so far this season.

Maybe it's Ilitch confining him but it's almost like he does all his shopping at a garage sale.

You're preaching to the choir.  😅

[1984Echoes]

3 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

...  A cash strapped team like the Padres should be interested...

Mize has no control left as a free agent after this season though...

What's the selling point?

One year of Mize?

It seems like that would be a bit of a hard-sell...

even to cash-strapped teams...

[Sports_Freak]

4 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I don’t see the Tigers paying Mize $22M for even one season.  They only let him go 3 innings in the playoffs—confidence doesn’t appear to be high. 

Once the free agent starters finally sign, I think Mize’s market will materialize.  The Mets and Padres are viable options.

Trade Mize? I get the idea but I just don't see it happening. Harris hasn't made many meaningful trades, so I dont see him moving what many consider a major starting Tiger pitcher. Maybe he'll surprise us but I just dont see it.

[papalawrence]

Josh Donaldson isn't too impressed with Detroit. While I think most of us here understand the 19 million offer, on the surface I see where it can be interpreted as Detroit being cheap. Foul Territory has made similar comments in the past. Not good if players start to view Detroit as being cheap, fair or not.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16pmuMyCRA/

 

 

 

[Edman85]

6 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Josh Donaldson isn't too impressed with Detroit. While I think most of us here understand the 19 million offer, on the surface I see where it can be interpreted as Detroit being cheap. Foul Territory has made similar comments in the past. Not good if players start to view Detroit as being cheap, fair or not.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16pmuMyCRA/

 

 

 

If they offer a fair offer, the player won't say no because of a reputation of being cheap. It will be because the offer itself is cheap.

[VegasTiger]

10 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

they'll give Bassett two years and he'll be out of baseball at the end of 'April

FIFY

[Stormin]

28 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Josh Donaldson isn't too impressed with Detroit. While I think most of us here understand the 19 million offer, on the surface I see where it can be interpreted as Detroit being cheap. Foul Territory has made similar comments in the past. Not good if players start to view Detroit as being cheap, fair or not.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16pmuMyCRA/

More than anything else, these type of comments will motivate the majority of owners to push even harder for some type of salary cap / shared revenue structure.

 

 

[chasfh]

He will hit in Wrigley. 

 

[chasfh]

That should spell the end of Matt Shaw in Chicago, although if the Cubs end up trading Nico Hoerner instead, they deserve to miss out on the playoffs next year.

I don’t like Matt Shaw the person, but maybe Scott Harris should go after Matt Shaw the player to play third base for us. We have the prospect capital to pay for him.

Edited 10 hours ago by chasfh

[Tigermojo]

No opt outs, no-trade clause.

 

[chasfh]

Looks like Bregman‘s gambit of doing the high-AAV short contract with opt outs last year worked out for him after all. I don’t think there was any ghost of a chance he would ever get $215 million over six years last winter.

[Tigermojo]

Bregman ended up making significantly more than the Tigers offered him last year.

[Tiger337]

22 minutes ago, chasfh said:

That should spell the end of Matt Shaw in Chicago, although if the Cubs end up trading Nico Hoerner instead, they deserve to miss out on the playoffs next year.

I don’t like Matt Shaw the person, but maybe Scott Harris should go after Matt Shaw the player to play third base for us. We have the prospect capital to pay for him.

What don't you like about Matt Shaw, the person?

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Tiger337 said:

What don't you like about Matt Shaw, the person?

Oh, I figured out what it is...

By the way, I see that he went to the same high school as Mark Fidrych.  

[Motor City Sonics]

Thank You Cubs.    

[IdahoBert]

So do we need to condemn Scott Harris for being cheap and not offering him $45 million a year to play in a ballpark far less suited to his abilities? 

[Motor City Sonics]

36 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

So do we need to condemn Scott Harris for being cheap and not offering him $45 million a year to play in a ballpark far less suited to his abilities? 

No, but we should if he thinks that re-signing Gleyber Torres and adding a 38 year old relief pitcher along with a bunch of no-name minor league contracts constitutes an off-season.  

[IdahoBert]

56 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

No, but we should if he thinks that re-signing Gleyber Torres and adding a 38 year old relief pitcher along with a bunch of no-name minor league contracts constitutes an off-season.  

You make it sound so bad… but most everyone in baseball seems to be doing their version of running with the big dogs so you’ve got a point. I was never expecting Bregman. But I was expecting a lot more than what’s happened.

[Tiger337]

5 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

No, but we should if he thinks that re-signing Gleyber Torres and adding a 38 year old relief pitcher along with a bunch of no-name minor league contracts constitutes an off-season.  

He has also re-signed Flaherty and Finnegan.  So, basically, we have the same team coming back plus a 38-year old relief pitcher.  That's the same team that went through an epic collapse last year.  It's also mostly the same team that made an epic comeback in 2024 and was arguauably the best performing team in the first half of 2025.  So, what do they have?

I was hoping for more and there is still time.  

[Edman85]

I do feel like criticizing a move because the one doing the criticizing hasn't heard of the player signed is more of a self own than a legit criticism of the move.

I don't mean that to call out MCS, but it's been something that has perturbed me for 30 or so years at this point, and a very common talk radio/talking head talking point that has never made sense to me. Notoriety isn't correlated with ability, and it is an admission of some degree of ignorance, which in a rational world would weaken the argument.

Edited 1 hour ago by Edman85

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

As is always the case, we don’t agree on your assessment.

Are we not amused? 😁

Edited 36 minutes ago by chasfh

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

He has also re-signed Flaherty and Finnegan.  So, basically, we have the same team coming back plus a 38-year old relief pitcher.  That's the same team that went through an epic collapse last year.  It's also mostly the same team that made an epic comeback in 2024 and was arguauably the best performing team in the first half of 2025.  So, what do they have?

I was hoping for more and there is still time.  

what worries me is that you got almost 9 WAR of improvement between '24 and '25  in the core group of Green, Tork, Dingler, Baez, Keith and Torres. I don't see those 5 players as having the potential to improve by anything close to another 9 WAR as a group. If they are going to actually be any better, you are banking it's going to come from Vierling, Meadows and the possibility of McGonigle or Max Anderson. None of these have near the probability of giving you the kind of gain that you could fairly anticipate the '24 group would grow to in '25. 

They will only be better this year if the pitching is better. It might be, but with the pitching it's just as likely to be worse depending on who gets hurt.

Edited 27 minutes ago by gehringer_2