The Detroit Tigers had one of the most fun late-season runs in recent memory, but it culminated in a disappointing Game 5 exit at the hands of a division rival. However, this season shouldn't be viewed as just a fluke; Detroit has a fantastic group of young position players paired with a solid pitching staff spearheaded by one of (if not the) best pitchers in baseball.
Add in a manager and front office seemingly willing to adopt more modern approaches to in-game strategy (see their heavy use of matchups in platooning and deployment of their bullpen arms), and you've got something exciting. But what can the front office do to capitalize on this new crop of young players and continue to be competitive in what could be another fascinating year for the AL Central?
Their payroll flexibility without a lot of committed money moving forward (a little over $40 million next season, most of it unfortunately going to Javier Baez) allows them to make some fun free-agent signings or trades. We'll start with some offensive upgrades they could make on the margins without making any long-term commitments because none of the free agents in this year's class are worth a big deal.
Fortunately, with Colt Keith having a strong start to his career, playing a fine second (+1 OAA) while posting a 97 wRC+ (might not look great on paper, but for a guy who just turned 23, that's actually an encouraging start) and former first-rounder Jace Jung looking to get more solid playing time at third next season, their infield is in good shape moving forward.
There's no reason to move off Spencer Torkelson at first, as despite his 92 wRC+, there are real signs for encouragement from his 23.2% chase rate and 84th-percentile bat speed. Trey Sweeney can platoon with Javier Baez at short with versatile bench pieces, and Zack McKinstry and Matt Vierling have cameos in pretty much every position.
So they don't need to overhaul their lineup, but the outfield could use another corner guy to make a formidable trio of Parker Meadows, Riley Greene, and whoever they decide to sign. Lucky for the Tigers, there are quite a few moderately priced sluggers that could provide some thump to a lineup that ranked in the bottom 10 of most quality-of-contact metrics and was 22nd in slugging overall.
Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander, Tyler O'Neill, and Michael Conforto would all provide fun, short-term solutions for Detroit as their young hitters continue to grow and mature at the major league level. Of those options, Hernandez, Santander, and O'Neill are the most attractive, with the Tigers' lineup leaning slightly lefty-heavy for Conforto to be in play.
Santander and Hernandez could parlay their success into a longer-term deal than the Tigers are looking for, so let's just focus on O'Neill. His injury risk and lack of overall production over the years make him a great candidate for a high-dollar, low-year pillow deal like the one the Tigers gave Jack Flaherty last season.
O'Neill still features that same high-power, high-whiff profile he always has, but the big bug with him has always been health. He has only played over 100 games in two of the six seasons (not counting 2020) in his career. But for the Tigers, even if O'Neill gives them a similar year to his 2024 campaign in Boston, the Tigers can easily give him a fun 1-year, $10-15 million deal.
In the worst-case scenario, there aren't any bad one-year deals, or if their season goes poorly but he's playing well, they can deal him at the deadline to continue to refill their minor league system.
Now we get to their pitching staff. Their bullpen was one of the best in baseball in the last few months of the season, but their rotation had pretty much been Tarik Skubal, and then, uh... well, good luck. Casey Mize, Reese Olsen, Keider Montero, and obviously Jackson Jobe are all fun young arms with upside, but as always, you can never have enough pitching with injuries constantly popping up.
So there's a real opportunity to take a similar approach to the Kansas City Royals this past off-season: spend mid-level money on veteran arms who have been average-to-above-average to fill out their rotation and hope for health from their young guns.
The big names like Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell will likely get big deals from other teams, but the Tigers can still throw their hat in the ring. For now, it'd be better for them to focus on some mid-level guys either coming off injury or underwhelming production over the years. Shane Bieber, Frankie Montas, Jose Quintana, and Kyle Hendricks are all viable options for the Tigers to gobble up some innings, with Bieber and Quintana potentially being too pricey for the Tigers.
So Montas and Hendricks are both fine, as Montas has a mutual option with the Brewers that seems unlikely to be picked up, and Hendricks is coming off seasons where he's averaging about 1 WAR per year. Montas' under-the-hood numbers aren't great, as, despite a solid fastball velocity, his whiff and hard-hit rates are below average.
Hendricks still does his thing, mostly limiting hard contact and getting groundballs consistently with that soft sinker. Both would be excellent rotation fillers while the Tigers continue developing their young pitching and would add depth for any medical issues throughout the year.
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