***Official 2025 Detroit Tigers Thread***

[hairysasquatch]

Kicking it off - let the complaints, doomposts, and general skepticism flow!

[regularp]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/m...y/76224827007/



They are going to platoon Javy Bozo and Sweeney.

"If he comes back and he can rotate the way he did, certainly in Chicago (with the Cubs from 2014-21), there's a role for him on this team," Harris said, adding Báez has complained about rotating his body for two years. "We're just focused on trying to get him healthy first and then seeing what a greater ability to rotate will do to his swing. We have every expectation that he'll be able to help us."

"There is a relative scarcity of shortstops out there," Harris said. "A lot of teams are looking for shortstops right now. The best version of Javy can still really help us. There's still a role for him on this team."

How can you not be pumped for this winter and next season?

[hairysasquatch]

Not the news anyone wanted to see re: Javy.

[base set]

Noticed the other day that the Tigers re-signed with Diamond / now “FanDuel” sports. New is an option to add an FD account to an existing Amazon Prime Video account. For me I lost the plot on Amazon Video when so much of it started to cost extra. No prices of any bundles/packages were announced yet - except one - games can now be paid for, one at a time, @ $7 each. I figure it will be more than the previous $20/month - but how much more?

Upsides I guess would continue to be the short periods when the Wings & the Tigers are both playing. One could also say that the revenue certainty on the Tigers end -could- enable a little trigger pulling on the spending.

Downside is maybe the example of Cleveland last winter, when they had no TV deal and did essentially nothing. Which sort of worked out for them, sort of didn’t of course.

As for Baez I knew this route was sealed when the surgery was announced; their perfect excuse for one more last chance. Though really I always thought the idea of lighting $50 Million on fire was always a fantasy with the fans. Even though spending $10 Million or whatever it turns out to be before a $40 Million fire is lit is likely the same result in the end, that’s just the way she goes, boys, that’s the way she goes.

[hairysasquatch]

It would really suck to lose Skubal.

[base set]

Twice now I’ve seen article headlines about the Tigers and this year’s results in the Arizona Fall League. But have been too lazy to dig into the details.

A simple thing about Beisból is there’s always … the year after next. What are the timelines on the 2 guys who seemed to have just lit up the AFL?

On a related note - is the Campos experience finally over?

[bub838]

Originally Posted by base set

Twice now I’ve seen article headlines about the Tigers and this year’s results in the Arizona Fall League. But have been too lazy to dig into the details.

A simple thing about Beisból is there’s always … the year after next. What are the timelines on the 2 guys who seemed to have just lit up the AFL?

On a related note - is the Campos experience finally over?

The hype is certainly long, long gone. He's just good enough he'll probably stick around as minor league filler for a while.

[JustinVerlander07]

Skubal wins the Cy Young this week!

[base set]

Another topic altogether - one of the AFL headlines was in that old fashioned thing called the “newspaper” that I even saw on actual paper when someone whooshed past the rack they were on, suddenly revealing the top of today’s sports section.

It was in the Detroit …. I already forgot which one.

But that reminded me of my plan to pick up a subscription to the Detroit News mostly to be able to read McCoskey’s Tigers coverage every day. That’s mostly because I enjoy hearing him on the radio with Dickerson during Spring Training as he sounds fun to drink a beer with. But I’ve always preferred the Free Press, maybe just more used to the typography.

Is there much real difference between McCoskey and Petzold (Freep beat writer)?

[regularp]

5/$182 for Blake Snell. Might as well trade Skubal now. These penny pinchers probably offered something ridiculous like 3/$90 million.

[regularp]

https://x.com/bythewaybro/status/186...LgIRjDXMQ&s=19

Stavenhagen on a potential Tigers Nolan Arenado trade: “This is a little bit more than a hypothetical. This is real, the Tigers have crunched the numbers, I assure you, and they are thinking about this….”

This will probably be their "big" move of the winter.

[regularp]

And Evan Petzold is saying Detroit has interest in Ha-seong Kim. This team definitely needs more .700 OPS guys with minimal power...

[base set]

Originally Posted by base set

Did maybe McCoskey or Petzold comment on this with McKinstry in the outfield last night? What was the point of that? McKinstry won’t be on the 40 Man on October 2 this year.

Yeah so this was wrong, we re-signed McKinstry already. So we got the bench locked down (Ibanez) too, wheee.

Have read that the Padres need to dump arbitration players but can’t see how Kim would be more than a 2nd Vierling.

Seems Arenado is surely on his way out of St. Louis but is still owed piles of money for 3 more years. Has been playing at a $15 Million for each WAR level the last 2 seasons. Would St. Louis essentially purchase prospects by paying some of Arenado’s salary, like we did with Verlander?

Do we have some sort of surplus with the new arms just put on the 40 man?

Cubs and Angels didn’t wait around to give $20 mil to #3 starters.

I thought Harris would almost certainly go for the Boyd reunion. Hopefully Fetter has a plan here.

[hairysasquatch]

regularp doing regularp things in here!

[base set]

Well some MLB.com writers pegged the Tigers as having the #6 best pile of surplus prospects available, though they aren’t up on the same plane as the Orioles.

The only two chips they identify by name are, well, I’ll try some practice here on typing these guys’ names - Briceno (recent AFL Triple Crown winner), and Liranzo (maybe also hot in AFL 24 play?).

Maybe what creates that theory is that they each have the same pair of positions: C/1B

So it might be a more interesting Winter Meeting than usually having little to do but drool over what can be found on the Rule 5 list.

[regularp]

O's signed Tyler O'Neill for some reason so Santander is on the move. Would be a good signing. Legit power and he never gets hurt.

[JustinVerlander07]

Alex Cobb. Chris Ilitch off to a rough start this winter!

[regularp]

The big move we've all been waiting for.

[regularp]

And because everyone in this thread loves my whining, I'm just putting this out there to stash away for a rainy day:

Most people are down on Corbin Burnes because his strikeout rate has dropped, even though his velocity has remained the same. I'm guessing he'll get at least 8/$240 million in free agency, which is just $30 million a year. Let's go high and say he gets 8/$300 million; that's $37.5 mil per.

The Cobb details aren't out but considering that scrub Matt Boyd got 2/$29 million, Cobb probably got in the $12-15 million range. They'll probably sign a couple more reclamation projects like Buehler to similar money. It'll end up being more than Burnes makes and there's a very high likelihood all of these guys spend some time on the DL while Burnes will make every start.

In short, just sign the premier player for the high salary. He's reliable, will make every start and will far exceed what they'll end up paying (more) to go dumpster diving.

The Phillies rotation always keeps them in the mix because Wheeler and Nola are horses who don't miss starts and eat up innings. It's not complicated.

There is an opportunity to have the best 1-2 starting pitching punch in baseball locked down for close to a decade. I know they're not going to do that and it's just a terrible business decision.

[JustinVerlander07]

Burnes reminds me of a better version of Jordan Zimmmermann when he hit free agency.

Not missing bats is a sign of something.

[regularp]

Originally Posted by JustinVerlander07

Burnes reminds me of a better version of Jordan Zimmmermann when he hit free agency.

Not missing bats is a sign of something.

You might be right. I won't argue to the death about it but all his "stuff" is basically the same as 2021. His cutter velocity was the same in 2024 as 2021. Slider and sinker are about the same; curveball and changeup are slightly down.

When Fetter gets ahold of someone with the raw stuff like Burnes, I expect the best results possible.

I could also be biased because I watched him completely dominate the Tigers twice in September when they were on fire and could do no wrong. He also carved KC in the playoffs.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by JustinVerlander07

Alex Cobb. Chris Ilitch off to a rough start this winter!

Chrissy knows what he's doing!

[base set]

Well you gotta eat innings but I’m not sure a 37 year old Starter who battled 4 different injuries last year is a sure thing for that goal. In a roundabout way that is a kind of “they gotta spend” deal in that the risk is large. Is the price of the contract released before Cobb passes a physical? Whatever that is, it isn’t likely an example of “spend” that fans seek.

Maybe, however, the bigger risk is the roster spot. I would hope they are smart enough to not have him take the physical until after the Rule 5 draft soon.

[bub838]

It’s the same as Flaherty or Lorenzen. Hope Cobb has a good first half and flip him at the deadline.

[regularp]

Morosi says they're interested in Goldschmidt. LOL

If they aren't gonna be serious this winter, they need to just open the Skubal sweepstakes. He is not re-signing with this organization in two years with Boras as his agent. Just end this farce now and maximize the return.