2026 DETROIT TIGERS REGULAR SEASON THREAD

[chasfh]

3 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

Tigers are 14 games over .500 outside of May.

Too bad May counts! 😝

[Edman85]

Not sure where this goes, but I enjoyed the Have a Seat with Boog Sciambi. Dickerson swearing when he found out Boog went for his job when Ernie retired, and a lot of technical talk about the profession from three of the best at it.

[Nate7474]

Anyone have a good list of players that need to be added to the 40man this offseason? Seems to me that we are going to have a decent amount of changes to the extended roster. Going to be interesting to see what Harris does either with trading/cutting vets or trying to flip prospects for lower level players that don’t need to be added yet. 
 

[roarintiger1]

On 8/10/2026 at 11:46 AM, RatkoVarda said:

can still marginally improve the team

hoping for a healthy Carpenter, who can get on a HR streak; better than Outman

hoping for Wenceel's eye to be OK; he has done well as a RH bat; better than Malgeri

any pitcher at Toledo (I see Wolf had a nice debut) could come up if they are throwing well

I do hope Wenceel's eye heals up. But I'm not sure he is any better than Malgeri.  He couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper sack at the end of last season and all that he played this year.  He will not help this team.

Edited August 11 by roarintiger1

[4hzglory]

23 minutes ago, Nate7474 said:

Anyone have a good list of players that need to be added to the 40man this offseason? Seems to me that we are going to have a decent amount of changes to the extended roster. Going to be interesting to see what Harris does either with trading/cutting vets or trying to flip prospects for lower level players that don’t need to be added yet. 
 

@Edman posted it in some thread - he has a great master list of current and potential 40 man candidates.  It actually showed a lot of flexibility to add who we need to.

Edited August 11 by 4hzglory

[Edman85]

36 minutes ago, Nate7474 said:

Anyone have a good list of players that need to be added to the 40man this offseason? Seems to me that we are going to have a decent amount of changes to the extended roster. Going to be interesting to see what Harris does either with trading/cutting vets or trying to flip prospects for lower level players that don’t need to be added yet. 
 

Rule 5 Eligible*

Max Alba

Max Anderson

Zane Barnhart

Justice Bigbie

Josue Briceno

Garrett Burhenn

Brett Callahan

Clayton Campbell

Jan Caraballo

Luis Castillo

Rayner Castillo

Enderson Delgado

Donye Evans

Eddy Felix

Connor Fenlong

Colin Fields

Antonio Florido

Samuel Gil

Yendy Gomez

Peyton Graham

Andre Granillo

Xiomer Guacache

Jaden Hamm

JoJo Ingrassia

Andrew Jenkins

Tanner Kohlhepp

Bennett Lee

Zack Lee

Carlos Marcano

Tyler Mattison

Chris Meyers

Trevin Michael

Joe Miller

Hayden Minton

Joseph Montalvo

Donal Montas

Franyerber Montilla

Eliseo Mota

Javier Osorio

Izaac Pacheco

John Peck

Viandel Pena

Jorger Petri

Cristian Santana

Andrew Sears

Eric Silva

Johan Simon

Andrew Sojka

Seth Stephenson

Luke Stofel

Luke Taggart

Juanmi Vasquez

Jackson Wolf

MILB FA Eligible

Max Burt

Danny Cabrera

Joe Campagna

Roberto Campos

Wandisson Charles

Yohandy Cruz

Yoniel Curet

Carl Edwards

E.J. Exposito

Dylan File

Pedro Garcia

Austin Gomber

Rafael Gonzalez

Ryan Harvey

Ricardo Hurtado

Marco Jimenez

Corey Julks

Edgar Leon

Jack Little

Yordy Magdariaga

Nolan McCarthy

Leandy Mella

Dariel Morillo

Raimi Mueses

Andrew Navigato

Tyler Owens

Carlos Pena

Carlos Perez

Fabian Reyes

Gabriel Reyes

Moises Rodriguez

Jonathan Rogers

Yosber Sanchez

Nick Sandlin

Luke Shigler

Mendry Solano

Cal Stevenson

Kevin Tejeda

Seby Zavala

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jRnDAcv86yGYl1Tq6fdXD1VoGr2Ls5PiRBNEFBXHL3Y/edit?gid=156229818#gid=156229818

[Tenacious D]

2028 season should be interesting when the Harris squad takes over:

C : Dingler

1B: Briceno/Valencia

2B: McGonigle

SS: Rainer

3B: Keith/Anderson

LF: Greene

CF: Clark

RF: Hope

DH: Carpenter/Valencia

Bench: Liranzo, Lee, McKinstry, Meadows 

SP: Melton, Jobe, Ryan, Flukey, Olsen, Mayfield

[lordstanley]

For the period June 1-August 11, this is how the Tigers (37-22) have fared compared to the rest of the American League:

Boston                   +1.0

Detroit                       -

Tampa                    2.0

Houston                 3.5

Texas                     6.0

Minnesota            6.0

NY Yankees         6.5

Baltimore              7.5

Chicago WSox    8.5

Toronto                9.0

Kansas City        11.5

Seattle               12.5

Cleveland          13.0

LA Angels         14.5

Athletics            19.0

[lordstanley]

And for the same period June 1-August 11, this is how the Tigers (37-22) would compare if placed in the NL standings;

Chi Cubs      +0.5

Detroit            --

Milwaukee    0.5

Miami            2.5

LA Dodgers  4.0

Philadelphia  4.5

Atlanta          5.5

Arizona         6.0

San Diego     7.0

St. Louis      10.0

Washington 10.0

Cincinnnati   10.5 

NY Mets       11.5

San Franci    12.0

Pittsburgh    12.0

Colorado      12.5

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

2028 season should be interesting when the Harris squad takes over:

C : Dingler

1B: Briceno/Valencia

2B: McGonigle

SS: Rainer

3B: Keith/Anderson

LF: Greene

CF: Clark

RF: Hope

DH: Carpenter/Valencia

Bench: Liranzo, Lee, McKinstry, Meadows 

SP: Melton, Jobe, Ryan, Flukey, Olsen, Mayfield

I can think of some people who would go ape**** at this team not making big trades for impact bats or signing any top free agents by 2028.

[1984Echoes]

4 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

2028 season should be interesting when the Harris squad takes over:

C : Dingler

1B: Briceno/Valencia

2B: McGonigle

SS: Rainer

3B: Keith/Anderson

LF: Greene

CF: Clark

RF: Hope

DH: Carpenter/Valencia

Bench: Liranzo, Lee, McKinstry, Meadows 

SP: Melton, Jobe, Ryan, Flukey, Olsen, Mayfield

That's actually pretty mixed:

10 of 21 you've listed are Avila era, balance is Harris.

But that's good... as Harris's job is to evaluate who is worth holding onto and who needs to move on... And I love the job he's doing so far with that in mind...

Just my 2 cents.

[NorthWoods]

1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said:

That's actually pretty mixed:

10 of 21 you've listed are Avila era, balance is Harris.

But that's good... as Harris's job is to evaluate who is worth holding onto and who needs to move on... And I love the job he's doing so far with that in mind...

Just my 2 cents.

The very best people have assured me he's smart as a whip.

[oblong]

I honestly don’t give a **** whether a player was a “Harris” or “Avila” guy. That’s a tired topic. Many people in the org doing player evaluation work worked under both.   I guarantee you the fact a player was obtained by Avila’s “regime” has zero impact on their decision making process. 

[1984Echoes]

13 minutes ago, oblong said:

I honestly don’t give a **** whether a player was a “Harris” or “Avila” guy. That’s a tired topic. Many people in the org doing player evaluation work worked under both.   I guarantee you the fact a player was obtained by Avila’s “regime” has zero impact on their decision making process. 

Then why are you responding when you don't give a ****?

I was merely pointing it out.

[oblong]

If you were merely pointing out then why are you defensive about it? 

[NorthWoods]

 

[monkeytargets39]

11 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

2028 season should be interesting when the Harris squad takes over:

C : Dingler

1B: Briceno/Valencia

2B: McGonigle

SS: Rainer

3B: Keith/Anderson

LF: Greene

CF: Clark

RF: Hope

DH: Carpenter/Valencia

Bench: Liranzo, Lee, McKinstry, Meadows 

SP: Melton, Jobe, Ryan, Flukey, Olsen, Mayfield

Swap Carpenter with Torkelson.   We have him and Greene through 2028

[1984Echoes]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

If you were merely pointing out then why are you defensive about it? 

Define "defensive".

[diaspora04]

25 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Define "defensive".

 

[AlaskanTigersFan]

16 hours ago, chasfh said:

I can think of some people who would go ape**** at this team not making big trades for impact bats or signing any top free agents by 2028.

I agree with this. I think the Tigers will try to sign some players this year and especially next year. I'd be open to them going after Torres (wish we traded him this year and then get him back, but meh) and bringing back Mize as well. The Tigers should have over 150 million to spend after next year. Lets assume we give 50 to current players that still leaves about 100 million to dole out. Even if we gave 25 a year to both Mize and Torres on four to five year deals, I'd be ok with that. 

Even with our depth, I'd like to see the Tigers go after some mega stars. Someone like Ronald Acuna Jr. whose option will surely be picked up for next year, but after next year, he will be a FA. George Kirby or Logan Gilbert would both be people I'd look at after next season as well. I think we'll need some depth and I think both of those guys would be looking at more four to five year deals than the six to eight that someone like Skubal would be looking at. 

The one thing I DON'T want the Tigers to do is make trades just yet. Unless they are moving some of this infield depth that we have, with all these B level prospects (think Max Anderson, Lee, Jordan Yost....), I hope we stay the course. I'm still not sold on Briceno and Liranzo being legit players, so if we have the chance to move those guys for a legit 1B or something like that, I'd be very open to that. But overall, we need to keep our depth that we've procured. 

https://www.mlb.com/news/baseball-s-next-free-agent-classes (Article that came out yesterday about free agent classes ironically.)

22 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

2028 season should be interesting when the Harris squad takes over:

C : Dingler

1B: Briceno/Valencia

2B: McGonigle

SS: Rainer

3B: Keith/Anderson

LF: Greene

CF: Clark

RF: Hope

DH: Carpenter/Valencia

Bench: Liranzo, Lee, McKinstry, Meadows 

SP: Melton, Jobe, Ryan, Flukey, Olsen, Mayfield

I agree with almost all of this. Again, I'd like to see a true First baseman. I'd love to swap out Greene for Acuna as I don't think there's really any doubt he'd be a better fit. But I think you're pretty spot on. The bench could also use some love, but we drafted a few college players this year that could be pretty intriguing as bench options as well. Tysen Leblanc was an extremely fast riser and some scouts think that if he had one more year in college, he would have been a top 20 pick. I think he could be our 3B of the future pushing Keith to the bench in a super sub role, which I am BEYOND ok with. Those are extremely valuable pieces. Brett Calahan and John Peck both too could be great bench additions.

I also could see Ben Jacobs pushing Olsen to the bullpen by 2028 as well. Dude has learned how to pitch this year. His numbers aren't all that impressive but the underlying numbers are amazing. I think he'll open next year in AA and could make his debut late in the year..... 

The Tigers did the right thing by trading Skubal and Mize. Now stay the course one more year and totally reap the benefits/rewards...... I think the Tigers will have a top five farm system next year. The only ones ahead that I can think of is the Dodgers, Mariners, and Brewers.... Maybe the Orioles. But our system is set to inject a lot of talent in the next two to three years and it's actually good talent. It's been a long time since we can say that..... 

[Sports_Freak]

I remember one year when Riley got injured and the Tigers lost something crazy like 17 out of 20 games. 2022? 2023? Before we were so good.

[NorthWoods]

 

[RatkoVarda]

Braves hold insanely low options on Acuna for 2027 and 2028, so 2029 is earliest you can grab him as FA.

Torres is 95% gone, as you can get 80% of the production for 5% of the cost, and better defense too, by using some combo of 5 or 6 guys

Mize is not coming back

premier FA bats will only come to Detroit if they are paid a premium, so need to draft or trade for them

Adding another young RH OF bat to the mix makes sense to me

the Tigers think they have a gem in Briceno which is why he is at AAA already

not crippling but they let Hicks and Smith go for nothing - they have some more hard 40-man decisions this winter

 

[chasfh]

16 hours ago, oblong said:

I honestly don’t give a **** whether a player was a “Harris” or “Avila” guy. That’s a tired topic. Many people in the org doing player evaluation work worked under both.   I guarantee you the fact a player was obtained by Avila’s “regime” has zero impact on their decision making process. 

It might only to the degree that they have ingrained substandard training while developing under Avila that they can't work their way out of.

[oblong]

but that's a decision ultimately based on performance, not simply due to the GM at the time they entered the org.