Tom Gores has shown on numerous occasions that he’s okay with spending money. Dude would’ve probably locked top free agents within a week. I’m not sure how Chris would run the pistons though.

I don’t know if I would want either on the roster…but out of the two, which would you rather have? (Purely for discussion, not implying Scherzer even wanted to come back)

I wrote a list earlier this month on players I find to be a good fit for Detroit and they should target:

• Jose Ilgesias - Still a free agent

• Kirby Yates - Signed with Dodgers

• David Robertson - Still a free agent

• Paul Sewald - Signed with Guardians

• Tommy Kahnle - Signed with Detroit! Best changeup in baseball.

• Spencer Turnbull - Free Agent, but not likely to come back with how he left

• Austin Hays - Signed with Reds

• Tommy Pham - Still Free Agent

I was looking a couple other gems I still like:

• Kevin Pillar - Everybody that read that is going "what the hell is he thinking?!" but Pillar is a great fit for Detroit. He is a very good defender in all three OF spots. Played mostly CF last year as a very good defender. Most importantly is he is a Right handed bat that kills LHP. Last year Pillar slashed .310/.352/.500 against LHP. That is a .852 OPS. That is better than Ibanez .802 even. He would short side platoon and upgrade our defense while giving Detroit the balance in hitting they need. He was originally going to retire but said in December he wants to play another year. He would be VERY cheap, maybe even accept a minor league deal. Great piece for Detroit especially if Jung starts in AAA.

• Randal Grichuk - Still just 33 and Boy did he look great in Arizona last year. In 279 PA, Grichuk slashed .291/.348/.528, 875 OPS! He rarely strikes out at only 16.5% last year. Arizona primarily used him as a platoon guy with 184 of those PAs coming against LHP, where he slashed .319/.386/.528 which would be 913 OPS! He can't play CF like Pillar, but Grichuk is a very good corner OF. While he will not be super cheap like Pillar, but considering he platooned in 2024, he won't be too expensive. He doesn't have to be platoon either. If Vierling is the everyday 3B, Grichuk can be your everyday RF. In his career he has an .737 OPS vs RHP. While that is not as good as his career .833 OPS vs LHP, it is still very good.

• J.D. Martinez - I know we already have a strong side platoon DH in Kerry Carpenter, but Carpenter isn't an "AWFUL" fielder. We could put him out there frequently and mixing it up. For sure JD would be the DH vs all LHP and hopefully if we signed him the DH vs most RHP. He is 37 years old and did have a down year coming back from injury. But some of that was bad luck as he still had very good statcast stats of xAVG .256 and xSLG .472 He is still a very good hitter. He did have an OPS of .836 vs LHP last year. Lower than his amazing career average of .945 He would require a major league deal, but something relatively cheap like $8 million maybe.

• Kenley Jansen - AS I stated last time the Tigers could use some experienced strength in the back end of the bullpen. While I absolutely LOVE the Kahnle signing, I would also like somebody with closer experience. Jansen was fantastic as always closing for Boston last year. His closing experience and big game experience, would be a fantastic addition to Detroit. Love the strike outs and ability to come in the game during jams. He would not be cheap though. Probably wants something similar to the $13 million deal Yates got. But him and Kahnle late in games would be an amazing security.

• Craig Kimbrel - He would not be sexy or exciting as he completely blew up second half of last year and forgot how to pitch. But 1st half of the season he had a 13.50 K/9, .150 batting average against, 0.96 WHIP, and 2.80 ERA. This is still Craig Kimbrel. Clearly he still has the stuff and something just happened mentally. Because of the last part, you are getting a potentially dominant closer in Kimbrel for a fraction of Yates or Jansen. He is 36 and probably looking for one year $4 million maybe? Something similar to but probably lower than Chris Martin's one year $5.5 million. A $3 million dollar deal with $6-7 million in incentives makes a lot of sense.

Just some guys that have peaked interest since last time. Just fun to look and thought I would share what I found. Jeff Greenberg take notice ;)

To add: I still don’t want Bregman over 3 years. And it sounds like he is going at least 5 years since Astros reopened talks.

W Perez last year vs Righties .709 ops
Randall Grichuk vs Lefties last 3 years an OPS > 900 and pretty solid vs righties, even.

...I would be okay with this platoon next year of these two, and the depth that gives especially if you're going to have Matt at 3b most days. Go get RG, let Vierling and Jung play 3b and go sign Jack if Bregman isn't coming here. This would still be a B- offseason,

I liked Perez but he is still kind of an unknown in my book...I think RG would be a really good add for the depth and allow AJ to do a lot with mixing and matching.

Next Tigers Game: Sat, Feb 22, 01:05 PM EST vs. Phillies (23 days)

^^^Posted: ^^^01/30/2025 ^^^06:36:39 ^^^AM ^^^EST

As we slowly approach Spring Training (14 days!!) what do you think the starting rotation might look like as things stand now if you don’t account for bullpen days.

Skubal, Olson and Cobb are obvious choices as of now. If you had to pick a few more starters of players on the 40 man roster to fill the rotation, what would it look like for you?

Here are the players available on the 40 man:

Matt Manning

Jackson Jobe

Kenta Maeda

Casey Mize

Keider Montero

Sawyer Gibson-Long

Ty Madden

(I couldn’t remember if twitter screenshots were allowed, feel free to delete if not)

I

I think it will still be vierling mostly with a lot of Ibanez and mckinstry mixed in. RF will have some vierling, but also a lot of wenceel Perez and some Carpenter. It’s possible if Jung rakes in Spring that they decide to go with him, but based on how it seems they like Perez and Jung still has a lot to prove I think that would be the decision on opening day.

Didn’t have tickets but if my kids ever question my loyalty i’ll show them this picture for proof of 20 year old me hanging on a fence for 3 hours

So the Padres are looking to shave salary, find a cheap 1B with some high potential upside, and find a cheap and controllable outfielder- and they're shopping both Cease and King on their end. Sounds like a potential match here with Tork and JHM as part of the package. Probably need to add someone like Liranzo though to really get it done. I'd do the deal for King, but not Cease. Love Cease more- but I don't love Boras and the probability of him walking after next year for FA. Tork+JHM+ Liranzo for King. Then extend King immediately.

Just wanted to throw out a comparison between success rates for top prospects and the performance of Bregman's top-10 comps from Baseball Reference as of age-30.

There was a really good post at Royals Review a long time ago that crunched the numbers on 14 years worth of BA top-100 prospects to see how well guys typically did in their years under team control. It was broken down into "busts" that didn't get 9 WAR, "success" that got 9+ and "superior" that got 15+. Among Bregman's comps, 7 were busts (with 4 of those getting less than 3 WAR overall, same rate as for prospects), 3 succeeded and among those 2 were superior (Jack Clark and Robin Ventura). So... signing a 6 year deal for Bregman is a similar gamble to handing the job to a prospect in the middle of the list. Jace Jung was only BA #81, so his odds would be a bit worse than Bregman at putting up 15 WAR over the next 6 years.

https://preview.redd.it/iri6mitj6pfe1.png?width=478&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c6d9bea66357ec3e02ee6bf811fbe491168f331

Max Clark (6), Jackson Jobe (11), Kevin McGonigle (23), Thayron Liranzo (47), Josue Briceno (59), Bryce Rainer (70), and Jaden Hamm(!) (94).

His write ups had some rave reviews too, imo.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6078454/2025/01/27/top-100-mlb-prospects-2025-keith-law/?source=user_shared_articleTop100MLBprospects2025:KeithLaw%E2%80%99srankings,withRomanAnthonyatNo.1

https://www.click2houston.com/sports/2025/01/27/with-pressly-trade-near-final-astros-continue-to-pursue-alex-bregman-reunion/

Just reflecting on Jack Flaherty's Foul Territory Podcast interview, as it is written up by MLBTR. The impression is that he'd like to come back to Detroit and he's frustrated that the team hasn't made a formal offer, even a short-term offer, although they keep calling in to check on him. I personally don't understand either, I'd love to have him back in Detroit, the more years the better. I assumed his market would be hotter than it is, and that the Tigers might just get outbid. But as is, if the Tigers are interested at all I don't know what the holdup is. Do they want to make him another straight 1-year offer and figure he's more likely to accept it if Spring Training is right around the corner...? Is Harris actually operating on a budget where Chris I. wouldn't approve contracts for both Bregman and Flaherty?

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/jack-flaherty-discusses-free-agency.html

The speculation in the interview about the reasons for his soft market are interesting too - that for many, many teams they think the offseason goal is just to be good enough for a Wild Card spot and not to get better than that. I guess that fits Detroit. Others too. The current playoff structure does seem to incentivize building an 88 win team. Only a team like the Dodgers is going to do what it takes to try to put together a roster to target a 1st round bye.

Hello,

I am going to the tigers game on Sunday April 6th with my dad and brother. We are also going to the red wings game later that day. What is the best option to park near both (closer to LCA if anything)?

I was on the park whiz app for a bit after seeing that was a consensus-positive option, but can’t seem to find anything for the duration of both games. Is there an easier way to get a spot for the length of both games?