2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

It would seem weird to me for Ilitch to spend the millions he did on infrastructure to become one of the most modern and forward-thinking franchises in preparation for building a perennial winner, and then stop short of spending on players when the time is right so we can put a perennial winner on the field.

I think it’s a combination of several things: we’re not at the point where a top-tier free agent or blockbuster trade ices the cake to make us a World Series favorite; we are still not considered a destination for top-tier free agents; other teams are demanding the very top of our prospects in return for short-term fixes because they don’t trust that anyone below McGonigle/Clark are going to be any good; or maybe they still think they can hold out and get an Avila-level lopsided trade out of this franchise.

They were one hit away from the ALCS this year.  They are ready.  Whether or not the right player is available or whether they have the financial resources to land that player are open questions.  

[Tenacious D]

48 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

it was probably written by a bot. 

I can verify this.  The bot’s name is Petzold

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

It would seem weird to me for Ilitch to spend the millions he did on infrastructure to become one of the most modern and forward-thinking franchises in preparation for building a perennial winner, and then stop short of spending on players when the time is right so we can put a perennial winner on the field.

I think it’s a combination of several things: we’re not at the point where a top-tier free agent or blockbuster trade ices the cake to make us a World Series favorite; we are still not considered a destination for top-tier free agents; other teams are demanding the very top of our prospects in return for short-term fixes because they don’t trust that anyone below McGonigle/Clark are going to be any good; or maybe they still think they can hold out and get an Avila-level lopsided trade out of this franchise.

But then Chris says "I've spent the money, I've given you the tools to build it, so build it with what I've given you".  

Spending doesn't always work.  It hasn't for the Padres or Mets, but it did for the Rangers and Dodgers.    

But they don't have to go crazy with it -they are only one or two players away from getting to a World Series.  Seems like they were one consistent hitter away from getting to the ALCS this year.     Maybe a healthy Torres makes that difference, but we've won the Wild Card round two years in a row and lost the ALDS in 5 games two years in a row.   Anything short of the ALCS now should be considered a failure.    They can get there with just two good free agents.  I  don't think they're going to do much of anything.   I feel like we'll be grateful just to get Michael King, if we even get him (and because he might be the only decent FA, we'll overinflate him and be disappointed when he just does his normal thing)     But this is the time.  NOW is the time to go for it.  Even if the mega prospects pan out, they won't be really good until 2029/2030.   They could lose 3 starting pitchers after this season.   And I know people have fallen out of love with Jack Flaherty, but I still think he can bounce back strong in 2026.  That's his M.O., ,up and down.  It seemed like Flaherty would have one-inning meltdowns, but was really good except for that.   And Mize was really good except for the middle third of the season.   Skubal, Mize, Flaherty - all gone after 2026 is a real possibility.    I like Troy Melton and Reese Olson, but that's not enough - and 2027, if it even happens, is going to be Jobe's TJ-rebound year and we know how that usually goes.  and let's face it - Melton's going to end up getting TJ surgery, right?   Because it seems like they ALL get it.   Now's the time

Then what happens with your mega prospects like McGonigle and Max Clark.   If they are doing well in Toledo - do you call them up?   If you add them to the 40 man in 2026 does that mean they can't play in the minors during the labor stoppage in '27 (which will happen and could take the whole season away).   

I feel like Chris got burned on Javy and remembers dad getting burned on Jordan Zimmermann and just isn't going to do that again.     Maybe the philosophy up at the top is just be good enough to sell a lot of tickets and merch, we're never going to win the whole thing while Ohtani is still playing.  

Do they get extremely creative with Skubal?   A similar style contract as Ohtani where you save now but pay him like he's active when he's 50?    I feel like that's the only way we keep him and what happens post-labor stoppage with a contract like that?    There is going to be some sort of Salary Cap.  The owners aren't going to budge this time.   It might not be the same as the NFL/NHL model, and could be a very elastic type of cap,  but there's going to be something.    The unbalance is totally out of hand.   When a superstar becomes available, it feels like its always going to be Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and maybe a 4th team pops up from time to time, but it sucks

 

Now's The Time.   Bird knows

 

 

[Sports_Freak]

50 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

But then Chris says "I've spent the money, I've given you the tools to build it, so build it with what I've given you".  

Spending doesn't always work.  It hasn't for the Padres or Mets, but it did for the Rangers and Dodgers.    

But they don't have to go crazy with it -they are only one or two players away from getting to a World Series.  Seems like they were one consistent hitter away from getting to the ALCS this year.     Maybe a healthy Torres makes that difference, but we've won the Wild Card round two years in a row and lost the ALDS in 5 games two years in a row.   Anything short of the ALCS now should be considered a failure.    They can get there with just two good free agents.  I  don't think they're going to do much of anything.   I feel like we'll be grateful just to get Michael King, if we even get him (and because he might be the only decent FA, we'll overinflate him and be disappointed when he just does his normal thing)     But this is the time.  NOW is the time to go for it.  Even if the mega prospects pan out, they won't be really good until 2029/2030.   They could lose 3 starting pitchers after this season.   And I know people have fallen out of love with Jack Flaherty, but I still think he can bounce back strong in 2026.  That's his M.O., ,up and down.  It seemed like Flaherty would have one-inning meltdowns, but was really good except for that.   And Mize was really good except for the middle third of the season.   Skubal, Mize, Flaherty - all gone after 2026 is a real possibility.    I like Troy Melton and Reese Olson, but that's not enough - and 2027, if it even happens, is going to be Jobe's TJ-rebound year and we know how that usually goes.  and let's face it - Melton's going to end up getting TJ surgery, right?   Because it seems like they ALL get it.   Now's the time

Then what happens with your mega prospects like McGonigle and Max Clark.   If they are doing well in Toledo - do you call them up?   If you add them to the 40 man in 2026 does that mean they can't play in the minors during the labor stoppage in '27 (which will happen and could take the whole season away).   

I feel like Chris got burned on Javy and remembers dad getting burned on Jordan Zimmermann and just isn't going to do that again.     Maybe the philosophy up at the top is just be good enough to sell a lot of tickets and merch, we're never going to win the whole thing while Ohtani is still playing.  

Do they get extremely creative with Skubal?   A similar style contract as Ohtani where you save now but pay him like he's active when he's 50?    I feel like that's the only way we keep him and what happens post-labor stoppage with a contract like that?    There is going to be some sort of Salary Cap.  The owners aren't going to budge this time.   It might not be the same as the NFL/NHL model, and could be a very elastic type of cap,  but there's going to be something.    The unbalance is totally out of hand.   When a superstar becomes available, it feels like its always going to be Dodgers, Mets, Yankees and maybe a 4th team pops up from time to time, but it sucks

 

Now's The Time.   Bird knows

 

 

Agreed. And sometimes you get teams like the Brewers in 2025, all the young talent peaking at the same time. They had a very, very impressive season but there was no way they could compete with the Dodgers. So why bother having a huge payroll if LA is just going to spend twice as much to acquire all the available talent anyway? Just to satisfy a fickle fan base? No, baseball is a business and any properly run business makes as much money as possible. And payroll is pure overhead, the enemy of businesses.

[Tiger337]

I really dislike the narrative that nobody can compete with the Dodgers.  This year's World Series was arguably the most competivive World Series in history.  It went seven games wiith one game going 18 innings and the 7th game also going into extra innings.   During the regular season, four teams won more games than the Dodgers.  

Edited 8 hours ago by Tiger337

[chasfh]

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

They were one hit away from the ALCS this year.  They are ready.  Whether or not the right player is available or whether they have the financial resources to land that player are open questions.  

Tigers have the financial resources, so that's not the issue.

Right player being available is legitimately an issue. Even if we're among their top targets, which seems unlikely to me, maybe Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette or Alex Bregman are not the answer for this team. Maybe Ha-Seong Kim or Jorge Polanco are better fits.

I'm not inside the organization, so I can't know for sure. I can only speculate on what they might be thinking, which is the main thing I like to do (rather than projecting my own desires on whatever I might declare the Tigers are most definitely thinking). But from the outside, I see a bunch of possible holes they would need to fill to put a championship-level team on the diamond, mainly, right field, center field, third base, shortstop, and maybe even first base depending on which Tork shows up next year. (Even the good Tork was worth barely two wins in 155 games last year, and that's the best one we have seen so far.) We also have the larger part of an effective bullpen to construct. We wouldn't be solving all those problems by signing a single top free agent, after which there would be multiple other holes.

Of course, the front office may be seeing things very differently from how I see them even as a relatively informed outsider. Heck, it is almost certain that they see things differently than I do. That's why I am wrong nearly all the time! 😁

All this said, I am not against signing Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette or Alex Bregman. If we were to sign any of them, I'll be happy to trust that the Harris front office knows what they are doing, until they demonstrate to me that they do not.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

But then Chris says "I've spent the money, I've given you the tools to build it, so build it with what I've given you".

I don't know where you're getting this, but it is demonstratively untrue that Chris Ilitch has never and would never spend any real money on payroll.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

Agreed. And sometimes you get teams like the Brewers in 2025, all the young talent peaking at the same time. They had a very, very impressive season but there was no way they could compete with the Dodgers. So why bother having a huge payroll if LA is just going to spend twice as much to acquire all the available talent anyway? Just to satisfy a fickle fan base? No, baseball is a business and any properly run business makes as much money as possible. And payroll is pure overhead, the enemy of businesses.

It may be starting to dawn on people that spending 10/700 on Shohei may not have been the galactically stupid overpay practically everybody at the time thought it was.

[SoCalTiger]

The Bregman buzz 🐝 is heating up but doesn’t it just put Colt Keith on ice developmentally as a DH ? It seems we should just play him at third base and see what we have at this point. 

[SoCalTiger]

13 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Tigers have the financial resources, so that's not the issue.

Right player being available is legitimately an issue. Even if we're among their top targets, which seems unlikely to me, maybe Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette or Alex Bregman are not the answer for this team. Maybe Ha-Seong Kim or Jorge Polanco are better fits.

I'm not inside the organization, so I can't know for sure. I can only speculate on what they might be thinking, which is the main thing I like to do (rather than projecting my own desires on whatever I might declare the Tigers are most definitely thinking). But from the outside, I see a bunch of possible holes they would need to fill to put a championship-level team on the diamond, mainly, right field, center field, third base, shortstop, and maybe even first base depending on which Tork shows up next year. (Even the good Tork was worth barely two wins in 155 games last year, and that's the best one we have seen so far.) We also have the larger part of an effective bullpen to construct. We wouldn't be solving all those problems by signing a single top free agent, after which there would be multiple other holes.

Of course, the front office may be seeing things very differently from how I see them even as a relatively informed outsider. Heck, it is almost certain that they see things differently than I do. That's why I am wrong nearly all the time! 😁

All this said, I am not against signing Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette or Alex Bregman. If we were to sign any of them, I'll be happy to trust that the Harris front office knows what they are doing, until they demonstrate to me that they do not.

Considering this is a very plausible evaluation that Harris as a conservative GM might agree combined with the valid argument that paying pitchers 350 million for 8 plus years is fools gold it could lead to trading you know who and just continuing the step by step approach to building a winning team while evaluating the fallout of the new labor agreement   

[Sports_Freak]

9 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

The Bregman buzz 🐝 is heating up but doesn’t it just put Colt Keith on ice developmentally as a DH ? It seems we should just play him at third base and see what we have at this point. 

The article in freep said;

"Bregman, a three-time All-Star who turns 32 in late March, opted out of the final two seasons of his three-year, $120 million contract with the Red Sox, making him a free agent for the second straight offseason."

I'm no math genius but thats $40m per season. If that's correct, there's absolutely no way the Tigers sign him. And I wouldn't want them to, it's way too much, IMO. 

[Sports_Freak]

27 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Tigers have the financial resources, so that's not the issue.

Right player being available is legitimately an issue. Even if we're among their top targets, which seems unlikely to me, maybe Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette or Alex Bregman are not the answer for this team. Maybe Ha-Seong Kim or Jorge Polanco are better fits.

I'm not inside the organization, so I can't know for sure. I can only speculate on what they might be thinking, which is the main thing I like to do (rather than projecting my own desires on whatever I might declare the Tigers are most definitely thinking). But from the outside, I see a bunch of possible holes they would need to fill to put a championship-level team on the diamond, mainly, right field, center field, third base, shortstop, and maybe even first base depending on which Tork shows up next year. (Even the good Tork was worth barely two wins in 155 games last year, and that's the best one we have seen so far.) We also have the larger part of an effective bullpen to construct. We wouldn't be solving all those problems by signing a single top free agent, after which there would be multiple other holes.

Of course, the front office may be seeing things very differently from how I see them even as a relatively informed outsider. Heck, it is almost certain that they see things differently than I do. That's why I am wrong nearly all the time! 😁

All this said, I am not against signing Kyle Tucker or Bo Bichette or Alex Bregman. If we were to sign any of them, I'll be happy to trust that the Harris front office knows what they are doing, until they demonstrate to me that they do not.

Interesting article from this website I've never heard of. They want the Tigers to sign multiple expensive free agents;

https://www.sportskeeda.com/baseball/news-3-free-agents-tigers-must-sign-2026-season-boost-playoff-chances-ft-alex-bregman

[4hzglory]

6 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

The article in freep said;

"Bregman, a three-time All-Star who turns 32 in late March, opted out of the final two seasons of his three-year, $120 million contract with the Red Sox, making him a free agent for the second straight offseason."

I'm no math genius but thats $40m per season. If that's correct, there's absolutely no way the Tigers sign him. And I wouldn't want them to, it's way too much, IMO. 

His deal with the Red Sox had significant deferrals making it more like $30 mil/yr. 

[Tiger337]

30 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

The Bregman buzz 🐝 is heating up but doesn’t it just put Colt Keith on ice developmentally as a DH ? It seems we should just play him at third base and see what we have at this point. 

I don't think they will sign Bregman, but I suspect they already have a good idea of what they have in Bregman defensively.  

[Tiger337]

18 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Interesting article from this website I've never heard of. They want the Tigers to sign multiple expensive free agents;

https://www.sportskeeda.com/baseball/news-3-free-agents-tigers-must-sign-2026-season-boost-playoff-chances-ft-alex-bregman

"Website I've never heard of" is my favorite source.  

[Sports_Freak]

9 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

"Website I've never heard of" is my favorite source.  

It says the Tigers MUST sign these players....if they want to compete...lmao

[Sports_Freak]

27 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

His deal with the Red Sox had significant deferrals making it more like $30 mil/yr. 

So his price would start at $30M per year? Again, hard pass.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, SoCalTiger said:

The Bregman buzz 🐝 is heating up but doesn’t it just put Colt Keith on ice developmentally as a DH ? It seems we should just play him at third base and see what we have at this point. 

I think this is accurate. Gleyber's return has pushed Colt to 3rd and other than some deal that is too good to be true, I think that leaves the probability of the Tigers bringing in a full time 3d close to zero. If they had gone soft on Torkelson that would be another matter, but considering they hardly gave him a day off at all in the 2nd half, I don't see the evidence of that. My guess is If they bring in any kind of 3B it has to be a 3b/SS combo player.

Edited 6 hours ago by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

10 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think this is accurate. Gleyber's return has pushed Colt to 3rd and other than some deal that is too good to be true, I think that leaves the probability of the Tigers bringing in a full time 3d close to zero. If they had gone soft on Torkelson that would be another matter, but considering they hardly gave him a day off at all in the 2nd half, I don't see the evidence of that. My guess is If they bring in any kind of 3B it has to be a 3b/SS combo player.

Bregman came up as shortstop, but was moved to third because the Astros had Correa.  I doubt they would move him back there again as his primary, but it's possible he can still play there adequately if needed.     

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Bregman came up as shortstop, but was moved to third because the Astros had Correa.  I doubt they would move him back there again as his primary, but it's possible he can still play there adequately if needed.     

True - we can never discount the possible, but to TBH - I'd put the odds as high that the ship has sailed on Bregman playing anymore SS in his career. 

I do wonder how much they plan on McKinstry being productive. I'd love the story there, but I've seen enough guys of his profile flame out after one good year. To my mind, the downside risk with McKinstry means they really should looking at shoring up SS, because Javy's bat might continue to fail or even if it doesn't he may up needed in CF. Sure - maybe McGonigle is lightning in a bottle by May 1st and really can play SS at MLB level, but do you really want to pin the success of a team that should be challenging to get to the WS on that much good rookie luck?

[SoCalTiger]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

The article in freep said;

"Bregman, a three-time All-Star who turns 32 in late March, opted out of the final two seasons of his three-year, $120 million contract with the Red Sox, making him a free agent for the second straight offseason."

I'm no math genius but thats $40m per season. If that's correct, there's absolutely no way the Tigers sign him. And I wouldn't want them to, it's way too much, IMO. 

I think there was some deferred salary so it was closer to 30 something but still yeah he’s gonna want 170 million so that in total he’ll get 200 million that he’s got the hard on for. 

[Edman85]

That Sportskeeda site has really gamed Google's SEO of late. They've popped up here a few times, and atop my google search a time or two. It appears to be an AI Slop site, though.

[Sports_Freak]

24 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

True - we can never discount the possible, but to TBH - I'd put the odds as high that the ship has sailed on Bregman playing anymore SS in his career. 

I do wonder how much they plan on McKinstry being productive. I'd love the story there, but I've seen enough guys of his profile flame out after one good year. To my mind, the downside risk with McKinstry means they really should looking at shoring up SS, because Javy's bat might continue to fail or even if it doesn't he may up needed in CF. Sure - maybe McGonigle is lightning in a bottle by May 1st and really can play SS at MLB level, but do you really want to pin the success of a team that should be challenging to get to the WS on that much good rookie luck?

I would rather take a risk with Zack or some rookie over giving a 32 year old 170 million dollars.

[casimir]

5 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I would rather take a risk with Zack or some rookie over giving a 32 year old 170 million dollars.

But what are the other options to consider?  This proposition isn’t at the mercy of a coin flip.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

Considering this is a very plausible evaluation that Harris as a conservative GM might agree combined with the valid argument that paying pitchers 350 million for 8 plus years is fools gold it could lead to trading you know who and just continuing the step by step approach to building a winning team while evaluating the fallout of the new labor agreement   

I still don’t see Harris forcing the team to take a step back from contending for a pennant by trading their two-time-defending Cy Young pitcher for the possibility that they might be this good again three years from now.