Detroit Tigers Strong Fit to Land Top Starting Pitcher in MLB Free Agency
The Detroit Tigers have the opportunity to fully come out of their rebuild with a big splash this offseason.
As MLB Free Agency gets underway, one of the glaring needs for the organization, is pitching depth. The team arguably has the best pitcher in the world with Tarik Skubal, but the rest of the rotation has some question marks entering the new campaign.
With the team moving on Jack Flaherty, who the Tigers traded to the World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers, the ball club could use another top start to follow Skubal in the rotation. One name that could fit the need in Motown is former Baltimore Orioles ace Corbin Burnes.
On Wednesday, the Athletic listed nine potential fits for the right-hander as he enters his first free agency. The Scott Boras client will most certainly weigh all his options before making a decision and will definitely have plenty of offers on the table. According to Chad Jennings and Sam Blum, the Tigers should take a chance at bringing in the top right-hander on the market.
“Is this the time for the Tigers to invest? After a late-season playoff run, Tigers fans are surely saying yes, but which is the priority: a second front-line starter to pair with Tarik Skubal, or a right-handed bat to ideally play one of the infield corners? (And yes, we know the bullpen needs work, too,)” write Jennings and Blum.
With the likelihood of Skubal coming home with the award this season, adding Burnes would make the team have the possibility of running back-to-back Cy Young award winners out of the rotation. With the questions of manager A.J. Hinch having no choice but to go to a bullpen game multiple times this past postseason, bringing in the 30-year old would help fix a ton of issues that were glaring in the playoffs.
Burnes finished his only season with the Baltimore Orioles with a 15-9 record and a 2.92 ERA. He recorded 181 strikeouts over 194.1 innings of work and was named to his fourth straight All-Star game. Although he wasn’t named a finalist, he will undoubtedly receive downvotes for the American League Cy Young Award as well.
“The Tigers did well last winter by signing Jack Flaherty to a one-year deal, and Burnes might be a tier too high for them this offseason, but he and Skubal would form one of the best one-two punches in baseball, with Reese Olson and top prospect Jackson Jobe giving the rotation even more upside,” writes the Athletic Staff. “Add Casey Mize, Keider Montero and Kenta Maeda and that’s a rotation with impact, upside and depth. The lineup is awfully young and very left-handed, but with Skubal already in place, the Tigers could lean into a strength and try to pitch their way back into October.”
One thing to keep in mind, is that even when Skubal was pitching at Cy Young caliber last season and the team had Flaherty following him in the rotation, the Tigers were sellers at the deadline. Meaning, they didn’t have it all put together. Yes, the team did have a magical run to make it into the postseason, but adding a starting pitcher might not exactly be the most important thing the roster needs heading into the new year.
But it is certainly one of the needs.
If the Tigers decided to spend and bring in Burnes on a long-term deal, it would at least bring some sense of stability to the pitching staff and possibly alleviate some of the ‘chaos’ they unleashed in the second half of 2024.
