Detroit Tigers Offseason Can Drastically Improve With These Two Moves
The Detroit Tigers entered the MLB offseason with a ton of positive momentum after making an unexpected run in the playoffs.
Despite trailing by double-digit games in the standings in the second half of the year, they overcame minuscule odds to qualify for the postseason. That led to many experts and analysts predicting they would be aggressive this winter to upgrade the roster.
Alas, those huge splashes have not yet come.
The Tigers have made only two additions in free agency; signing starting pitcher Alex Cobb and second baseman Gleyber Torres to one-year, $15 million deals.
There are some risks for each player, as Cobb struggled to stay healthy making only three starts in 2024. Torres saw his production plummet at the plate, and he'll look to regain his form and enter free agency next winter on a higher note.
With those being the only additions to this point, Jim Bowden of The Athletic has given the franchise an underwhelming grade of a “C” for their work thus far.
But, that grade can greatly improve if they are able to close the deal with arguably the two best players remaining on the free agent market; third baseman Alex Bregman and starting pitcher Jack Flaherty.
The Houston Astros star has been pursued all winter as Detroit looks to reunite him with his former manager, A.J. Hinch.
Adding him would fill a major void at the hot corner and provide the team with another infusion of power to their lineup along with Torres. The defensive concerns the second baseman has don’t exist with Bregman who is coming off the first Gold Glove Award-winning campaign of his career.
With two World Series championships on his resume and vast postseason experience, he is the perfect fit for this Tigers squad.
Flaherty is someone the organization knows well since he signed a one-year deal with the club last winter looking to rehab his value.
That is exactly what he did. He was stellar with Detroit through 18 starts with a 2.95 ERA across 106.2 innings, generating a ton of strikeouts with 133.
Looking to cash in on his value, the Tigers flipped him to the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team he helped win the World Series.
A champion coming off a stellar campaign, many projected Flaherty to get a lucrative multi-year deal, but that hasn’t come to fruition quite yet.
With a month before Spring Training, rumors are swirling that he is willing to take a short-term deal with opt-outs so he can hit the market again next winter.
That is something that might be appealing to Detroit, who has a formula in place when it comes to how they pay pitchers.