DETROIT – It’s been a really long time since the Detroit Tigers signed an impact bat.
The closest example from the past decade is probably Austin Meadows -- and that was a trade, not a free agent signing. Don’t say Javier Baez, either. I was adamantly against that move from the start and reserve the right to downplay it.
The Tigers were linked to Alex Bregman from the very start of free agency, and it was refreshing to hear them in the mix for one of the offseason’s biggest stars.
But ultimately, the two sides never came to an agreement, and the Tigers missed out. Bregman reportedly signed a 3-year deal with the Boston Red Sox instead.
Bregman and the Tigers
It’s not hard to see why most of the Tigers' fan base had their hearts set on Bregman.
After the Tigers made their magical run to the postseason, all anyone wanted was for them to build on that momentum and make a run at the AL Central Division this coming year.
Bregman would have been a perfect roster fit in the short-term. He’s a right-handed hitting third baseman who walks as often as he strikes out and plays excellent defense.
That pretty much checks all the boxes for what the Tigers needed this offseason.
Third base was a bit of a liability for Detroit last year, with a bunch of players combining for below-average production. Bregman has been a 4.1, 4.9, and 4.6 WAR player the last three seasons, so the position would have gone immediately from a weakness to a strength.
He’s also a poster child for president Scott Harris' offensive mentality. Few manage the strike zone better than Bregman, who walked more than he struck out in 2022 and 2023 and then posted a 98th percentile whiff rate in 2024.
As an added bonus, the Tigers' best hitter would have batted from the right side. Right now, pretty much all of their offensive firepower comes from lefties -- Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Parker Meadows, and Colt Keith.
What will Tigers do now?
We’ll have to wait and see what happens in spring training, but the Tigers will likely fill third base by committee again.
Jace Jung wasn’t bad in his first taste of MLB action, but it wasn’t the type of debut that locked up the job for the top-100 prospect.
His .362 on-base percentage shows why the Tigers love Jung. But he provided no power, struck out too often, and struggled defensively.
If Jung can earn a share of the job during the spring, then he will get starts against right-handed pitching, while Matt Vierling moves in from the outfield against lefties.
Andy Ibanez spent 97 innings at third base last season, so he’s an option off the bench, too.
Tigers offseason
The Tigers have made four major-league additions this offseason -- starting pitcher Alex Cobb, second baseman Gleyber Torres, reliever Tommy Kahnle, and starting pitcher Jack Flaherty.
Flaherty is a great addition, and it actually makes the Cobb signing even better, in my eyes. Cobb is fine, but the Tigers really needed a No. 2 starter to shore up the rotation.
Now, with both in the mix, the likely starting rotation looks really strong: Tarik Skubal, Flaherty, Reese Olson, Cobb, and top pitching prospect Jackson Jobe.
Kahnle is very good and adds much-needed swing-and-miss to the Tigers' bullpen.
Torres is also a nice addition as a right-handed hitter with plenty of upside and a high floor.
The roster certainly improved from those external additions, but for some fans, the offseason will be remembered as the time the Tigers missed on Bregman.
But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not this time.
The Tigers made their run to the postseason last year on the backs of young players, and while they’ll never be able to sustain what they did across a full 162, many of those guys deserve a chance to repeat their breakouts.
This year’s lineup
The one silver lining of the Tigers missing out on Bregman is that the Jung situation is going to have a chance to play out.
Maybe Jung can’t stick at third base and he’ll move back to second in 2026 once Torres has moved on. The Tigers have some highly ranked infielders coming up through the minors, so they kind of need an answer to where Jung is going to end up.
But looking at the projected regulars, it’s hard not to think about how much better the lineup would look with Bregman in the middle.
- Catcher: Jake Rogers.
- First base: Colt Keith.
- Second base: Gleyber Torres.
- Third base: Josh Jung (left) and Matt Vierling (right).
- Shortstop: Trey Sweeney (left) and Javier Baez (right).
- Left field: Riley Greene.
- Center field: Parker Meadows.
- Right field: Wenceel Perez (switch) and Vierling (right).
- Designated hitter: Kerry Carpenter (left) and Justyn-Henry Malloy (right).
Thoughts on the future
If you follow baseball beyond just the Tigers, you know the recent financial trends that have concerned players and fans alike.
Many teams are opting to stay away from high-priced free agents, especially since a sixth playoff team was added to both leagues.
The thought is that instead of entering into expensive, long-term contracts, teams try to stay financially flexible and build a team that’s just good enough to win about 86-90 games every year. That gets them into the playoffs without pinning them with contracts that look bad on the back end.
The days of the “window” are mostly over. Teams don’t want to do the rebuilding part of the process. They’d rather have more bites at the apple than sell out for a couple years.
When the Tigers hired Harris, it was pretty clear they would head in that general direction, and now we know for sure that that’s the case. Detroit is identifying and developing prospects and supplementing young talent with one-year deals in free agency.
If Chris Fetter can get the most out of guys like Michael Lorenzen and Flaherty (and maybe Cobb?), then why open the checkbook for someone like Corbin Burnes, who has entered his 30s and is already shows signs of decreased dominance?
That’s the mindset, anyway. There’s some validity to it, sure, but I don’t think the Tigers can act like a small-market team. They’re not.
If I’m being perfectly honest: Right now, just being competitive sounds pretty darn good. We spent a decade without competitive baseball in Detroit, and those last two months of 2024 were insanely fun.
If the Tigers are at least competing for playoff spots every summer, that doesn’t sound so bad... at the moment.
It would get old if they made the playoffs year after year and never broke through, but we’re not at that point, yet. Right now, this organization is among the favorites to win the AL Central and also has a top-five farm system.
The future actually looks pretty bright.
