2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Edman85]

My guess on the other Tigers is Rusty Staub and Frank Howard

[Tiger337]

6 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Guesses; Colovito, Kuenn and Pudge 3 of them?

Those players only did it for two teams.  

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Edman85 said:

My guess on the other Tigers is Rusty Staub and Frank Howard

Rusty Staub is correct.  He is likely the only one to do it with four teams.  

[Tiger337]

21 minutes ago, chasfh said:

You know what I’m going to ask you next, right? 😁

I got some leads from AI and then I worked with that.  

[Sports_Freak]

3 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Those players only did it for two teams.  

I looked up Harvey Kuenn's stats and found something amazing...in 1954, he had 656 at bats and struck out 13 times. That's a good week for Riley. 🤣🤣

[Edman85]

15 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Rusty Staub is correct.  He is likely the only one to do it with four teams.  

Ah, found the other. Perhaps the most underrated player on the 1984 squad...

[CaliforniaDreaming]

Darrel Evans

[Tiger337]

15 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

Ah, found the other. Perhaps the most underrated player on the 1984 squad...

Yes, Evans is the other.  He's also one of the ones who had 10 WAR with each team.  He is very underrated - was also a top defensive third baseman in his prime.  

[papalawrence]

42 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Yes, Evans is the other.  He's also one of the ones who had 10 WAR with each team.  He is very underrated - was also a top defensive third baseman in his prime.  

Bill James has called him the most underrated player of all time

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

People can go position by position to compare the Tigers strengths and weaknesses against the top teams but that wouldn't turn out too good for us. This team has major weaknesses that can't be solved by signing 2 or 3 players or minor trades. It's not like we're two or three players away from being a serious championship contender. So yeah, we all have opinions. It's just my opinion is bringing in all of those horrible arms at the trade deadline did more harm than good. I really feel the Tigers would have been better off without Morton or Paddack. Would they have challenged the Dodgers? No, we're a half a dozen or so players away from competing with them. They're just in another class. Just make the playoffs and anything can happen? It sounds good but in the playoffs, weaknesses are exposed. So I repeat, at this point, it doesn't really matter.

I’m not sure what else Harris could have done. Frontline starting pitchers weren’t even close to falling off trees in July.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

I looked up Harvey Kuenn's stats and found something amazing...in 1954, he had 656 at bats and struck out 13 times. That's a good week for Riley. 🤣🤣

Maybe Riley should go back in time and play in 1954.

[Sports_Freak]

7 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Maybe Riley should go back in time and play in 1954.

I always say the changes in bullpen usage is the biggest difference from 60+ years ago but the approach of hitters is also a huge change. Striking out used to be a much bigger deal, players were benched for striking out too much. But come on, 13 strike outs in over 650 at bats? Eye opening stat. He hit into 19 double plays..lol.  Can you even imagine what kind of money he would make today? 

[Tiger337]

22 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I always say the changes in bullpen usage is the biggest difference from 60+ years ago but the approach of hitters is also a huge change. Striking out used to be a much bigger deal, players were benched for striking out too much. But come on, 13 strike outs in over 650 at bats? Eye opening stat. He hit into 19 double plays..lol.  Can you even imagine what kind of money he would make today? 

Not a lot, since it was only his second full season.  

But even beyond that, he had no power and was not a good defensive shortstop.  He was moved the outfield at age 27.  So, it's not hard to imagine how much he would make.  He'd make a good salary as a free agent, but nothing astronomical.  Maybe 18-20 million?  The salary experts might have a better estimate.      

Then again, if he was playing today he might have been a different player, maybe a multi-position player who batted .290 with 25 homers and 100 strikeouts.  How much is that worth?  Maybe about the same.  I don't really know. 

Edited October 19 by Tiger337

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Some people complain about how unfair the Dodgers are by spending a ton of money on all the best free agents. But in reality, they've done an outstanding job of picking the right players to sign. And a pretty good farm system. I really think they'll make a strong push for Skubal's services. The rest of the baseball teams don't stand a chance against such a well run organization that seems to have an unlimited amount of money. So yeah, we can discuss which players the Tigers should sign or trade for, but does it really matter?

Haven't the Mets actually spent more money with less to show for it? The Dodgers are both good at what they do and rich. But I think the one possibly positive outcome if they sweep right  through to a WS win, is that the other big market teams are frustrated enough to throw in with the rest of the peons to force some marginal reform, but you probably have to have something happens that splits the interests of the big market team (like the Dodgers running away from the rest of them) because as a group they have enough votes to veto (I think it takes 75% for the owners to change things?)  reforms put forward from the rest of the league.

[roarintiger1]

On 10/17/2025 at 4:14 PM, Sports_Freak said:

Can you imagine Skubsl and Boyd in our starting rotation? I say we would have won the division for sure along with the bye.

Why? Can Boyd hit?

[Sports_Freak]

4 minutes ago, roarintiger1 said:

Why? Can Boyd hit?

Touché. The Tigers started 2024 with the whole team in a hitting slump. Tork and Meadows finally demoted and then we were good the rest of the season all the way into September of '25. And then we all slumped again. I hope there's talk of improving our hitting coaches? The hitters approach was pretty pathetic.

[gehringer_2]

11 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Touché. The Tigers started 2024 with the whole team in a hitting slump. Tork and Meadows finally demoted and then we were good the rest of the season all the way into September of '25. And then we all slumped again. I hope there's talk of improving our hitting coaches? The hitters approach was pretty pathetic.

Hinch made the observation in the end of season presser that you can't thinking about what you are trying to do once you are in the box, but I think that is where a lot of the team ended up - for some reason they started getting tentative, and that is just death because then you are always behind or in between. IDK - maybe when they are in that kind of funk just drop all the pregame planning for a while to switch it up and clear their minds? Or something else. But the thing that stood out to me is that we didn't hear word one about them having tried anything - so either they treat all that stuff as top secret (certainly possible, maybe likely as Hinch seems to like keeping his assistants totally underground, but why?) or they weren't doing much as a staff to change the mood. Even in the bad old days with Legendary Lloyd we would hear about Lloyd and various players working on this or that to try and help them break out of a funk.

Edited October 19 by gehringer_2

[Sports_Freak]

19 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Hinch made the observation in the end of season presser that you can't thinking about what you are trying to do once you are in the box, but I think that is where a lot of the team ended up - for some reason they started getting tentative, and that is just death because then you are always behind or in between. IDK - maybe when they are in that kind of funk just drop all the pregame planning for a while to switch it up and clear their minds? Or something else. But the thing that stood out to me is that we didn't hear word one about them having tried anything - so either they treat all that stuff as top secret (certainly possible, maybe likely as Hinch seems to like keeping his assistants totally underground, but why?) or they weren't doing much as a staff to change the mood. Even in the bad old days with Legendary Lloyd we would hear about Lloyd and various players working on this or that to try and help them break out of a funk.

A bunch of pretty young guys who were pressing. I guess it's to be expected from the younger players and Torres was hurting with a hernia, something else we didn't find out about until the end of the season. It was a sad last month of the season but....At. Least. We. Beat. Cleveland. 😅

[This is the year]

My Predicted Lineups

2026

C) Dingler (R)

1B) Tork (R)

2B) Keith (L)

SS) Baez (R)

3B) Anderson (R)

RF) Perez (L)

CF) Meadows (L)

LF) Green (L)

DH) Carpenter (L)

Bench: Mckinstry (L), Lee (R), Rogers (R), Malloy (R), 

Skubal (L), Ranger Suarez (L), Mize (R), Olson (R), Flarety (R), Melton (R)

2027

C) Dingler (R)

1B) Tork (R)

2B) Keith (L)

SS) McGonigle (L)

3B) Anderson (R)

RF) Carpenter (L)

CF) Clark (L)

LF) Green (L)

DH) Briceno (L)

Bench: Eduardo Valenci (R), McKinstry (L), Lee (R), Baez (R), John Peck (R)

Skubal (L), Ranger Suarez (L), Mize (R), Olson (R), Melton (R), Jake Miller (L)

 

Edited October 19 by This is the year

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

A bunch of pretty young guys who were pressing. I guess it's to be expected from the younger players and Torres was hurting with a hernia, something else we didn't find out about until the end of the season. It was a sad last month of the season but....At. Least. We. Beat. Cleveland. 😅

I’m out of reactions today, but, Thanks.

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, This is the year said:

My Predicted Lineups

2026

C) Dingler (R)

1B) Tork (R)

2B) Keith (L)

SS) Baez (R)

3B) Anderson (R)

RF) Perez (L)

CF) Meadows (L)

LF) Green (L)

DH) Carpenter (L)

Bench: Mckinstry (L), Lee (R), Rogers (R), Malloy (R), 

Skubal (L), Ranger Suarez (L), Mize (R), Olson (R), Flarety (R), Melton (R)

2027

C) Dingler (R)

1B) Tork (R)

2B) Keith (L)

SS) McGonigle (L)

3B) Anderson (R)

RF) Carpenter (L)

CF) Clark (L)

LF) Green (L)

DH) Briceno (L)

Bench: Eduardo Valenci (R), McKinstry (L), Lee (R), Baez (R), John Peck (R)

Skubal (L), Ranger Suarez (L), Mize (R), Olson (R), Melton (R), Jake Miller (L)

 

I’m guessing that we will have a lot more players coming in from outside the system than just the one each year.

[Tiger337]

13 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I’m guessing that we will have a lot more players coming in from outside the system than just the one each year.

According to AI: "On average, a Major League Baseball team turns over approximately 60–70% of its 26-man roster over two years. The typical annual roster turnover rate is between 30% and 40%, with most of the change happening during the offseason." 

AI is full of **** sometimes, but I think the Tigers roster will turn over by at least 50% by 2027.  

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

According to AI: "On average, a Major League Baseball team turns over approximately 60–70% of its 26-man roster over two years. The typical annual roster turnover rate is between 30% and 40%, with most of the change happening during the offseason." 

AI is full of **** sometimes, but I think the Tigers roster will turn over by at least 50% by 2027.  

Without looking there had to be a couple of seasons when they were bad that the line-up turned over 65% in one off-season. OTOH- I imagine for a winning team the % drops to the lower end.

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I’m guessing that we will have a lot more players coming in from outside the system than just the one each year.

And I don't think Lee would make the team to sit on the bench. Too many 2nd base prospects?

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

According to AI: "On average, a Major League Baseball team turns over approximately 60–70% of its 26-man roster over two years. The typical annual roster turnover rate is between 30% and 40%, with most of the change happening during the offseason." 

AI is full of **** sometimes, but I think the Tigers roster will turn over by at least 50% by 2027.  

That 15 to 18 players. Seems like a lot.