Potential Target in Free Agency Comes With Risk for Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers have entered free agency with high hopes and expectations for the future of the franchise after a very successful campaign in 2024.
Last year, the Tigers were one of the biggest surprises in baseball. After being sellers at the trade deadline, Detroit ended up ripping off a bunch of wins in the stretch run and made the playoffs.
It was a lengthy playoff drought that was finally snapped, and the Tigers were also able to eliminate the Houston Astros in the American League Wild Card Round.
Due to success in 2024, Detroit now has much higher expectations than originally thought this winter.
In the playoffs, flaws for the team popped up, as the Tigers could certainly try to upgrade their lineup with a power hitter.
Recently, Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report spoke about his updated free-agent rankings and named Detroit as a potential fit for Anthony Santander, who was ranked in the Top-10 of all free agents.
“It isn't hard to look at Anthony Santander and find nits to pick. For one, his OBP from this year is right in line with his career OBP of .307. For two, he isn't much of a defender. And for three, he likely overachieved as a home run hitter this year. Then again, everyone likes home runs and Santander has been a consistent source of them. Santander is tied to draft-pick compensation after rejecting a qualifying offer from the Baltimore Orioles, but that isn't likely to kill his earning power. Projections for him tend to fall in the $20 million per year range, with B/R's Tim Kelly going for five years, $101 million.”
Santander is a very interesting player in free agency this offseason, as he is the best power hitter in the class based on last season, but there are concerns that the 44-home run season might have been an outlier.
Assuming that Santander can hit around 30 home runs a season and still drive in around 90–100 runs, he would be a massive upgrade for the Tigers.
Where Santander plays will be another question, as he isn’t the greatest defensive outfielder and likely won’t improve as he gets older. Ideally, finding some at-bats for him at designated hitter would be best over the course of his contract.
There is certainly some bust potential when it comes to Santander, as a lot of his value is reliant on hitting home runs. If those numbers drop, it will greatly impact what he could bring to the team.
