MLB Trade Rumors

For a long time, it seemed like it would be another conservative offseason for the Tigers, but the boldest strike of the Scott Harris era finally came. The Tigers now look like the strongest team in MLB’s weakest division, in what could be their final season with Tarik Skubal.

Major League Free Agent Signings

• LHP Framber Valdez: Three years, $115MM (includes opt-out after 2027, $40MM mutual option for 2029 with $5MM buyout, $20MM signing bonus deferred until 2030)
• 2B Gleyber Torres: One year, $22.025MM (accepted qualifying offer)
• RHP Kyle Finnegan: Two years, $19MM (includes $2.25MM buyout on $10MM mutual option for 2028)
• RHP Justin Verlander: One year, $13MM ($11MM deferred until 2030)
• RHP Kenley Jansen: One year, $11MM (includes $2MM buyout on $12MM club option for 2027)
• RHP Drew Anderson: One year, $7MM (includes $10MM club option for 2027)

2026 spending (not including deferred money owed to Valdez and Verlander): $68.275MM
Total spending: $187.025MM

Trades and Waiver Claims

• Claimed RHP Jack Little off waivers from the Pirates (later non-tendered and re-signed to minor league deal)
• Claimed RHP Dugan Darnell off waivers from the Pirates (later non-tendered and re-signed to minor league deal)
• Traded RHP Chase Lee to Blue Jays for LHP Johan Simon
• Traded OF Justyn-Henry Malloy to Rays for cash considerations

Option Decisions

• RHP Jack Flaherty exercised $20MM player option
• Team declined $4MM club option on RHP José Urquidy, no buyout
• Team declined $6MM club option on RHP Randy Dobnak in favor of $1MM buyout
• Team declined $10MM mutual option on RHP Paul Sewald in favor of $1MM buyout

Notable Minor League Signings

• Tomás Nido, Jack Little, Tanner Rainey, Sean Guenther, Enmanuel De Jesus, Cole Waites, Tyler Mattison, Scott Effross, Dugan Darnell, Burch Smith, Bryan Sammons, Phil Bickford, Corey Julks, Konnor Pilkington, Austin Slater, Colin Poche

Extensions

• None yet

Notable Losses

• Chris Paddack, Rafael Montero, Paul Sewald, José Urquidy, Tommy Kahnle (unsigned), Alex Cobb (unsigned), Alex Lange (released), Andy Ibáñez (non-tendered), RJ Petit (Rule 5 draft), Chase Lee, Justyn-Henry Malloy

The Tigers hired Scott Harris as president of baseball operations in September of 2022. The team was in a rut at that point, having not made the playoffs since 2014. They finally pulled out of rebuilding mode by making the playoffs in 2024 and 2025.

Despite the return to contention, the front office’s approach has generally come across as risk-averse. Last winter, they signed a number of free agents but mostly on the modest side. They were all one-year deals except for their two-year deal with Jack Flaherty. Even that pact was seemingly designed to be a one-year arrangement, with Flaherty having an opt-out halfway through.

The Tigers were quite good for most of the 2025 season, but their deadline was a bit underwhelming. Acquiring Chris Paddack, Charlie Morton, Rafael Montero, Kyle Finnegan and Paul Sewald wasn’t an exciting haul. The Finnegan pickup worked quite well, but Morton was eventually released and Paddack moved to the bullpen. The Tigers remarkably lost their hold on the division lead when they went 7-17 in September and finished second to the Guardians. They limped into the postseason, won the Wild Card series (against Cleveland) but were eliminated in the ALDS.

Going into this winter, it was fair to wonder whether the urgency would get cranked up. With Tarik Skubal entering his final year of club control before reaching free agency, the 2026 season seemed like a good time to put some chips on the table.

The uncertainty there also led to plenty of trade speculation around Skubal, which was understandable from fans of other clubs. Since he’s so talented and with no signs of an extension being viable, it was a logical dream. But from Detroit’s point of view, they went into the winter with a strong team in the most wide-open division in the league. Keeping Skubal and going for a title always seemed the far likelier play.

Some of the offseason moves came fairly quickly. In mid-October, just a few days after being eliminated from the playoffs, it was announced that manager A.J. Hinch had been extended. The deal actually took place during the season but the announcement was held until after.

Not long after that, a few of the chess pieces moved into place. Or rather, they stayed in place. In early November, Flaherty surprisingly decided to trigger his $20MM player option instead of heading to the open market. He wasn’t coming off a great season but still would have had a shot at beating that price point as a somewhat reliable mid-rotation starter. It also would have been possible that the Tigers made him a $22.025MM qualifying offer, giving him a chance to feel out the market. If he didn’t find much to inspire confidence, he could have then decided to return to Detroit with a slight bump over his existing contract. But perhaps due to his extended stay in free agency last time, Flaherty decided to skip the whole thing and just stay in Detroit for another year.

A few days later, the Tigers made a somewhat surprising call of their own, issuing a QO to second baseman Gleyber Torres. They had signed him going into 2025, a one-year deal worth $15MM. He had a strong first half but then slumped in the second as he played through a hernia that ultimately required surgery after the season was done. It didn’t seem like he had done much to increase his earning power in the one year from when he signed for $15MM, but the Tigers were apparently comfortable giving him a raise of almost 50%. Torres was comfortable with that raise as well, as he accepted the QO.

From there, the Tigers shifted their focus to pitching. They were connected to many of this winter’s free agents, including Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, Pete Fairbanks, Michael King, Ranger Suárez and many others.

In the first few weeks of December, they added a few arms to the staff. Drew Anderson signed a one-year deal worth $7MM. He’s not a household name in North America, as he’s been pitching in Asia for the past four years, starting with two in Japan and then two in South Korea. His results in the KBO in 2025 were excellent. Anderson posted a 2.25 earned run average with a 35.3% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate and 45.9% ground ball rate.

It’s not a guarantee that he will translate that to the majors, but it’s not a huge gamble for the Tigers, relatively speaking. Cody Ponce was only slightly better than Anderson in the KBO last year but he had enough juice to get a three-year, $30MM deal from the Blue Jays. Anderson was exclusively a starter in 2025 and looked to have a path to a rotation job with Detroit at the time of the signing. But he also has some relief experience and his ultimate role would depend on what other moves the Tigers made by the end of the winter.

Then came a couple of bullpen additions. In mid-December, the Tigers added Kenley Jansen on a one-year deal worth $11MM and brought back Finnegan on a two-year deal worth $19MM. As mentioned, Finnegan was the club’s best deadline pickup. The Tigers altered his pitch mix, having him throw way more splitters at the expense of his fastball. The result was a massive increase in strikeout rate — from 19.6% with the Nationals to 34.8% with the Tigers. Given that quick jump, it made sense to keep the relationship going.

Jansen is 38 years old and isn’t as dominant as he once was, but he has remained a reliably impactful arm. He has pitched at least 44 innings in each full season dating back to 2011. He didn’t finish any of those with an ERA higher than 3.71. Despite a career-low strikeout rate, Jansen posted a 2.59 ERA in 2025.

On the position player side, the Tigers sniffed around but didn’t bite into anything. They had made a strong push to sign Alex Bregman last winter but weren’t nearly as involved this time around. They were connected to players like Ketel Marte and Ha-Seong Kim without a lot of smoke.

In the end, they’re essentially going into 2026 with the same position player group as they had in 2025. That could be a little worrying for fans, considering that the team stumbled through the second half last year. It seems the club is hoping the big offensive boost comes from within. That could come from better health from incumbent players, including Torres, but also the arrival of some touted prospects.

Kevin McGonigle is a consensus top five prospect in the sport, with many evaluators placing him second behind Konnor Griffin of the Pirates. McGonigle spent the second half of 2025 in Double-A and crushed. He hit 12 home runs in 206 plate appearances and slashed .254/.369/.550 for a 162 wRC+ despite an unlucky .230 batting average on balls in play.

Evaluators aren’t convinced he will stick at shortstop in the long run, but that’s a spot the Tigers have open for now. Zach McKinstry and Javier Báez could be bumped into utility roles. The most likely path forward is that McGonigle starts 2026 in Triple-A, but he could quickly hit his way to the majors. Even if the Tigers aren’t prepared to break camp with him, McGonigle has a good shot to force his way into the majors before too long.

There are some other prospect who could also come up and make an impact, including Max Clark in the outfield, with Thayron Liranzo and Josue Briceño behind the plate. Like McGonigle, those three finished 2025 at Double-A, putting them somewhat close to the big leagues. Infielder Max Anderson isn’t ranked quite as highly as the other prospects covered here, but he hit .296/.350/.478 between Double-A and Triple-A as a 23-year-old. He’ll be in the mix as infield needs arise.

January brought a surprising plot twist to the Detroit offseason. The arbitration filing deadline came and went with the Tigers reaching deals with all their eligible players except for one. That’s a fairly normal occurrence — but the one holdout happened to be Skubal and the gap in the filing numbers was a shockingly high number of $13MM.

Many accused the Tigers of low-balling their star player, but their $19MM filing figure was backed by precedent. No pitcher had ever topped $20MM in arbitration before. Skubal’s camp was arguing that he deserved to buck precedent due to his tremendous accomplishments and because arbitration pitcher salaries had stagnated and fallen way behind hitters. David Price earned $19.75MM in 2015 and no one had pushed that number up in the decade since.

That big gap hung in the air for about a month, with Skubal’s hearing result not expected until February. The day after those filing figures were submitted, there was another development on the financial side. Nine teams, including the Tigers, terminated contracts with the floundering Main Street Sports, the company which owns the FanDuel Sports Network channels. That left the Tigers with uncertainty regarding their broadcast situation and its associated revenue. (It would later be reported by the Associated Press in February that MLB will handle the broadcasts.)

The Tigers were fairly quiet on the transaction front throughout January, which led to some real concern that the offseason would be yet another instance of the club avoiding bold moves. At that time, they had the same lineup as 2025. On the pitching staff, the changes were minimal. The rotation looked like it needed a nice upside play, but rumors in late January connected Detroit to swing types like Nick Martinez and Jose Quintana. With Skubal potentially costing the Tigers $13MM more than expected and the broadcast revenue up in the air, would the Tigers sit on their hands?

Before the Skubal hearing result came in, a resounding answer was sent rippling through the baseball world. It was reported on February 4th that the Tigers and left-hander Framber Valdez had a agreed to a three-year deal worth $115MM. That guarantee and the $38.3MM average annual value made it easily the most significant deal of the Harris era.

It did still have some Harris-ian qualities. This front office clearly likes to avoid long commitments, as mentioned earlier. Three years is the longest free agent deal given out by Harris, but there is an opt-out for Valdez after year two. Even in making their most significant free agent addition, the Tigers are still trying to avoid long-term handcuffs.

Still, it’s a big upgrade for 2026, arguably the best they could have hoped for. Valdez was considered by many the top free agent pitcher available this winter. Dylan Cease was projected to earn more money and did so, but that was mostly due to age difference. The 32-year-old Valdez is two years older than Cease but arguably as desirable from a pure skill standpoint. Valdez has a 3.36 ERA in his career. His strikeout and walk rates are usually around league average, while his ground ball rate is often one of the best in the league. Even if he’s only in Detroit for two years, Valdez increases the club’s chances of capitalizing on what could be Skubal’s final year in Detroit. And if Skubal does depart, Valdez can take over as the de facto ace for a year while the club moves into its post-Skubal era.

A few days later, an arbitration panel ruled in favor of Skubal, awarding him the $32MM salary for which he’d filed rather than the team’s $19MM figure. That’s potentially a seismic result for the players. Its impact on salaries might be felt for years to come. For the 2026 Tigers, it meant an extra $13MM on the books.

That didn’t stop the Tigers from adding, however. A few days later, they reunited with old friend Justin Verlander. His addition to the rotation also came with a subtraction, as it was announced that Reese Olson would miss the season due to shoulder surgery.

Perhaps the Skubal decision led the Tigers to lean on deferrals a bit more. The Valdez deal, which was announced before the Skubal decision but didn’t become official until after, features a $20MM signing bonus which is deferred and paid out from 2030 to 2039. Verlander will only get $2MM this year, with the other $11MM paid out in that same 2030-39 span. Would the Tigers have deferred less if they had beaten Skubal in the hearing?

That’s speculative and a fairly moot point. The larger takeaway here is that the Tigers have stepped on the gas pedal. They had run payrolls near $200MM in the past under previous owner Mike Ilitch. Since Mike passed in 2017, his son Chris has been in charge without the same level of spending. The club was rebuilding for his first few years, but their recent return to contender status didn’t vault them back up to that payroll level, until now. For 2026, RosterResource projects them for a $217MM payroll, with a $242MM competitive balance tax number that puts them right against payor status. Both numbers project to be franchise records.

On the position player side, the Tigers are relying on their guys either improving, getting healthier or bubbling up from the minors — at least for now. If they have holes come July, they can patch them at the deadline. The pitching staff has clearly been upgraded. They can go into the season with a front five of Skubal, Valdez, Flaherty, Verlander and Casey Mize, with Drew Anderson in the mix as well. Jackson Jobe could return late in the year, as he is currently recovering from June Tommy John surgery. Troy Melton could also take a step forward, though he’s been slowed by elbow inflammation in camp and may not be ready for Opening Day.

Time will tell if this is Skubal’s final year in Detroit. It would have been criminal if the Tigers didn’t at least act like it was a possibility. Thankfully, they have been more aggressive than usual this winter as they try to take advantage of having the best pitcher alive, before it’s too late.

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Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images