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Offseason In Review: Detroit Tigers

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After Detroit surprised the baseball world by sneaking into the playoffs off the back of a late-season surge and wound up making it within a game of the ALCS, the club entered the offseason looking to assert itself as a contender but fell short in many of its most significant pursuits.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $67.8MM
Total spending: $77.8MM

Option Decisions

Trades and Waiver Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

Fans in Detroit and many around the game believed that 2024's surprise success would spur the Tigers to act more aggressively this winter than they had during president of baseball operations Scott Harris's previous seasons at the helm. Those expectations made plenty of sense on paper. After all, Detroit had just made the postseason for the first time since 2014 amid a season where they enjoyed a breakout from superstar southpaw Tarik Skubal. He asserted himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning both the Cy Young award and the Triple Crown in the American League, but now has just two seasons remaining before he's scheduled to reach free agency.

When the final years of team control over a breakout superstar were combined with an excellent season from Riley Greene, positive signs from other foundational youngsters like Colt Keith and Reese Olson, and a barren payroll that featured less than $40MM in guaranteed salary commitments for 2025, it seemed clear that this offseason was as good of an opportunity as the Tigers could expect to push their chips in and build a World Series contender. That's not how the 2024-25 offseason panned out for the club, however. While the Tigers were involved on at least some level with a number of potentially impactful players on the market, the vast majority of those efforts to acquire impact talent did not pan out.

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Tigers Place Gleyber Torres On Injured List

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The Tigers announced they’ve placed second baseman Gleyber Torres on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to March 29, because of a left oblique strain. Justyn-Henry Malloy is up from Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move.

Torres departed Friday’s loss to the Dodgers in the sixth inning. He’d experienced what the team initially called rib tightness. Torres didn’t play in the following day’s series finale, and the team evidently diagnosed the side discomfort as an oblique strain. The club has yet to provide an indication of the severity. He’ll be out until at least next Tuesday, and there’s a decent chance this will shelve him beyond the minimum 10 days. Even low-grade oblique strains usually cost hitters a few weeks.

Javier Baez came off the bench in Torres’ place on Friday. The Tigers moved Colt Keith over from first to second base for the following game. They plugged Spencer Torkelson back at first, allowing Kerry Carpenter to work as the designated hitter. That drew Manuel Margot into the lineup in right field. That’ll presumably be the most common alignment while Torres is out of action. Baez and Andy Ibáñez could pick up some extra playing time as well — either at second or at the hot corner, with Zach McKinstry moving over from third base in that scenario.

Torres joins Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling and Wenceel Pérez as position players on Detroit’s injured list. The veteran infielder, who signed a one-year, $15MM free agent deal, was Detroit’s biggest acquisition on the offensive side. He’s coming off a pedestrian final season with the Yankees (.257/.330/.378 with 15 homers), though that’s mostly attributable to a terrible April. The 28-year-old had a more characteristic .267/.339/.409 slash from the start of May onward. He picked up three hits (including a home run) and a walk through his first eight plate appearances as a Tiger.

Malloy replaces Torres on the active roster for what’ll be his first MLB action of the season. The 25-year-old appeared in 71 games as a rookie last year. He struggled to a .203/.291/.366 slash across 230 plate appearances. Malloy has a robust offensive track record in the minors. He’s a career .280/.410/.464 hitter in just shy of 1600 minor league plate appearances. That includes a 5-13 start with a pair of walks through three games in Toledo this year. Malloy doesn’t have a clear defensive home, but he could pick up some at-bats at DH or in the corner outfield, especially against left-handed pitching.

Braves Sign Eddys Leonard To Minors Deal

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1:22PM: The Braves signed Leonard to a minor league contract, KPRC2’s Ari Alexander reports.

7:53AM: The Tigers released Eddys Leonard from the Triple-A Toledo roster, according to the infielder/outfielder’s MLB.com profile page.  Leonard has spent the parts of the last two seasons in Detroit’s organization and re-signed a new minor league deal last December after being non-tendered and removed from the club’s 40-man roster.

A veteran of six minor league seasons in the Dodgers’ and Tigers’ farm systems, Leonard has yet to crack the big leagues during his pro career.  His chances at a call-up in 2024 might’ve been marred by injuries, as an oblique strain and a hamstring strain limited Leonard to only 82 total games (67 in Toledo, and 15 on the Tigers’ A-level teams as part of rehab assignments).

When Leonard did play, he hit .263/.326/.455 with 10 homers over 282 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.  This performance came on the heels of a .302/.374/.530 slash line in 171 PA with Toledo in 2023, so Leonard may have increasingly little to prove in the upper minors.  However, he hit poorly in Spring Training this year, perhaps costing himself a prime opportunity to break camp with a Tigers team was looking to fill some roster holes due to injury.

The 24-year-old Leonard will now return to the open market, looking to land with a team in need of some versatile depth.  Shortstop is Leonard’s primary position, but he has also seen a lot of time at second and third base and in center field, plus a handful of games in the other two outfield positions.  In 2024, Leonard stuck almost exclusively to infield work, which may have been related to his injury concerns rather than a distinct shift towards becoming an infield-only player.

Tigers Acquire Brewer Hicklen From Brewers

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The Tigers announced that they have acquired outfielder Brewer Hicklen from the Brewers in exchange for cash considerations. He was designated for assignment by Milwaukee yesterday as that club set its Opening Day roster. The Tigers have optioned him to Triple-A Toledo and transferred right-hander Ty Madden to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.

Hicklen, 29, has a tiny major league track record. The Brewers sent him to the plate five times last year and he also got four plate appearances with the 2022 Royals. He struck out in eight of those nine appearances without a hit.

The Tigers are surely more interested in his minor league work, which is greater in quality and quantity. He has a combined .244/.352/.469 batting line over the past four minor league seasons. That production leads to a 114 wRC+, indicating he’s been about 14% above league average. His 30.7% strikeout rate in that time is quite high but he also drew walks at a strong 11.7% clip and stole 140 bases.

The Detroit outfield has taken a number of hits in recent weeks, particularly in center field. Each of Parker Meadows, Wenceel Pérez and Matt Vierling started the season on the injured list due to various ailments suffered during the spring.

That left Riley Greene as the last man standing from what their projected outfield would have been a few months ago. Kerry Carpenter was once projected as the regular designated hitter but could perhaps move to the grass. That would open the DH spot for Spencer Torkelson, who was pushed off first base when the club signed Gleyber Torres to play second and moved Colt Keith to first. To bolster the group around Greene and Carpenter, the Tigers signed Manuel Margot, who had been released by the Brewers. They also recalled utility player Ryan Kreidler.

Hicklen will give the club a bit of optionable outfield depth, alongside Justyn-Henry Malloy. Given his speed, perhaps Hicklen could carve out a role as a fourth outfielder who gets thrown in for pinch-running and defensive replacement opportunities. Until then, he will presumably get regular reps in the minors.

As for Madden, he was diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain in his throwing shoulder three weeks ago. His current timeline is unclear but this transfer means he can’t be reinstated until late May at the earliest.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, USA TODAY Sports

Tigers Send Jason Foley, Andrew Chafin To Minors

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The Tigers are making some surprising roster cuts ahead of the start of the season. Per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, the club is sending both right-hander Jason Foley and left-hander Andrew Chafin to Triple-A Toledo. Foley is on the 40-man roster and will be optioned. Chafin is a veteran on a minor league deal with certain guaranteed opt-out dates but Petzold relays that the southpaw is expected to report to Toledo.

Foley, 29, was last optioned to the minors in April of 2022. He was recalled in May of that year and has been up with the club since then, seemingly establishing himself as a bonafide major leaguer. He’s never had huge strikeout numbers but has succeeded with good control and a grounder-heavy approach.

Overall, he has 199 2/3 innings in the bigs with a 3.16 earned run average, 18.1% strikeout rate, 6.2% walk rate and 54.1% ground ball rate. He has emerged as a key leverage arm for the club in recent years. In 2023, he secured 28 holds and seven saves. Last year, he largely took over the closer’s role, racking up 28 saves and eight holds. He qualified for arbitration and is making $3.15MM this year.

In this year’s camp, his 6.14 ERA certainly looks ugly, but it’s a tiny sample of 7 1/3 innings and the numbers under the hood aren’t nearly as bad. He struck out 10 opponents without issuing a walk, with one hit-by-pitch the only free pass of the spring. The five earned runs he allowed came over his first four appearances. The past four were scoreless. A .429 batting average on balls in play and 62.5% strand rate point to much of the damage against him being bad luck.

All in all, it’s a pretty surprising move. It seems as though Brenan Hanifee will get the final bullpen spot over Foley, per Petzold. Hanifee has a strong 2.36 ERA in his career but in just 34 1/3 innings. Similar to Foley, he’s a ground ball guy, with an 18.2% strikeout rate and 54.1% grounder rate thus far.

Ultimately, Opening Day is just one day on the calendar. Bullpen churn is pretty common in today’s game, so Foley could be back up in short order. Still, it’s notable when last year’s closer is sent to the minors without much obvious reason. If Foley spends significant time in the minors this year, it could impact his trajectory. He comes into 2025 with his service clock at three years and 33 days, putting him on track for free agency after 2027. If he spends enough time on optional assignment this season to come up short of the four-year mark, that trip to the open market would be pushed back by a year.

The news on Chafin is also surprising. He’s a pretty reliable veteran with over a decade in the big leagues. He has a 3.42 career ERA and posted a 3.51 ERA last year. Even settling for a minor league deal was a surprise, but at least that deal came with a strong $2.5MM base salary for cracking the majors.

Like Foley, Chafin’s spring numbers look bad at a glance but not so much under a magnifying glass. He posted an ERA of 12.00 by allowing eight earned runs in six innings. He also gave out six walks. However, six of those eight earned runs and five of the six walks were surrendered in his first two innings pitched. He only allowed two runs and one walk in his final four innings, with the final two innings being scoreless and walk-less with five strikeouts.

Given his reputation, it would be fair to write-off his poor spring stats as small-sample weirdness but the Tigers evidently don’t want to make room for him. He’ll report to Toledo and hope for a call-up but he’ll have chances to opt-out on May 1 and June 1.

In another notable move, Petzold reports that utility player Ryan Kreidler will make the Opening Day roster. Kreidler had previously been optioned to the minors but it was reported earlier this week that the club’s injuries might open a spot for him. The Tigers have been hit hard by the injury bug, particularly in center field, with Parker Meadows, Wenceel Pérez and Matt Vierling all slated to start the season on the injured list.

Kreidler has played more infield in his career but the club apparently considers him viable enough in center to bring him up for extra coverage there. It’s unclear who will get the bulk of the playing time in center, but it may be some combination of Kreidler, Riley Greene and Manuel Margot.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Tigers, Ben Gamel Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have agreed to terms on a minor league contract with free agent outfielder Ben Gamel, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Gamel, a Wasserman client, was released by the Astros earlier in the week. His new deal with the Tigers will have the same $1.2MM base as the non-guaranteed big league deal from which he was released in Houston.

Gamel, 32, has appeared in each of the past nine big league seasons. He’s a career .252/.334/.382 hitter in 2320 trips to the plate in the majors. Gamel, who’s suited up for the Yankees, Mariners, Brewers, Guardians, Pirates, Padres, Mets and Astros over his near-decade in the big leagues, was a semi-regular from 2017-22 but has just 114 big league plate appearances over the past two seasons. He’s an OBP-oriented corner bat who’s best suited for left field.

Detroit has seen its outfield mix hobbled considerably by injuries to begin the season. Parker Meadows is dealing with a nerve issue and is still shut down for another four weeks at the very least. He’ll need to build back up to game readiness after his shutdown period. He’s already on the 60-day injured list and won’t return until June at the earliest.

Right fielder/third baseman Matt Vierling is opening the season on the injured list due to a strained rotator cuff. Utilityman Wenceel Perez who’d been ticketed for regular work in the outfield after Meadows and Vierling were injured, will instead miss at least the first month of the season due to a back injury.

Following that slate of injuries, the Tigers signed veteran Manuel Margot to a big league deal. He was granted his release by the Brewers over the weekend after spending camp with them as a non-roster invitee. Margot, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter are now poised to log the bulk of the time in the outfield. Utility options like Zach McKinstry, Ryan Kreidler and Andy Ibanez could all see time in the outfield as well, and Detroit has even gotten Spencer Torkelson some reps in right field. Gamel will join prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy as one of the top depth options in the minors, though Malloy is already on the 40-man roster and could have a leg up as a result.

Wenceel Pérez To Miss At Least A Month Due To Back Inflammation

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Tigers outfielder Wenceel Pérez has been dealing with back tightness throughout the spring. For a while, it seemed as though he would get over it and crack the Opening Day roster. But today, president of baseball operations Scott Harris told reporters that the outfielder will get an injection in his lower back and will miss at least one month. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic was among those to pass along the news.

At the start of camp, Pérez seemed likely to start the season on optional assignment in Triple-A. However, a series of injuries to the Detroit outfield moved him up the depth chart. Matt Vierling has a rotator cuff strain in his right shoulder and will start the season on the injured list. Parker Meadows has been dealing with a more confounding injury to his musculocutaneous nerve in his upper right arm. The Tigers recently announced that he would be shut down for about four weeks.

Those injuries prompted the Tigers to sign Manuel Margot after he was released by the Brewers, having previously signed a minor league deal with the latter club. The Tigers made that signing official today and placed Meadows on the 60-day IL. That means he won’t be able to rejoin the big league club until late May.

In addition to prompting the Margot deal, it seemed as though the injuries would give Pérez a chance to break camp with the club. But the back tightness that has been ailing him throughout the spring couldn’t be shaken off. He’ll spend some time on the shelf after getting his injection and won’t be available for a few weeks.

The club will now have to figure out how to proceed without Vierling, Pérez or Meadows for now. Riley Greene is sure to be part of the solution, though it doesn’t sound as though making him the regular center fielder is a consideration. Per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, Greene will play center from time to time but is still likely to spend most of his playing time in the corners. That also seems to be the case for Margot, per Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group.

Therefore, it seems like the primary corner guys might be Greene and Kerry Carpenter, who both hit left-handed. The right-handed Margot could perhaps help shield those two from tough lefties. As for center field, while Greene and Margot might factor in a bit, it seems Ryan Kreidler could be a key part of the solution.

Kreidler was optioned to Toledo two days ago but he has rejoined the big league club as the Tigers play the Giants in San Francisco tonight and tomorrow. “Ryan is an elite defender,” Harris said, per Petzold. “He makes our defense better when he’s on the field. Pitching and defense is going to be really important for us moving forward.”

The 27-year-old Kreidler has a line of just .147/.212/.193 in his 167 major league plate appearances but he has a much better line of .236/.342/.416 across the minors over the past four years. He’s done that while playing the outfield as well as the three infield positions to the left of first base.

It’s also possible that further solutions will come from outside the organization. As mentioned, the Tigers just scooped up Margot after he was released by the Brewers. Several others have been cut recently and more guys will shake loose in the coming days as all clubs set their rosters prior to Opening Day.

Tigers Sign Manuel Margot

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March 24: The Tigers have now officially announced Margot’s signing. They also announced that he’ll make $1.3MM in the majors and $200K in the minors. There are also bonuses available, with Margot to get $300K for reaching 200, 300, 400 and 500 major league plate appearances this year.

To open a roster spot, the club placed Meadows on the 60-day injured list. He’s been battling an issue with his musculocutaneous nerve in his upper right arm. It was recently reported that he will be shut down for about four weeks. At that point, he will effectively need to restart his spring ramp-up. Based on today’s IL move, he can’t rejoin the big league club until late May.

March 23: The Tigers are signing outfielder Manuel Margot, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen, meanwhile, reports that it’s a major league deal for Margot. Financial terms have not yet been disclosed.

Margot, 30, was released by the Brewers yesterday after signing a minor league deal with the club last month. Margot posted a decent .250/.314/.375 slash line in camp with Milwaukee but was squeezed off of a roster already populated with four outfielders, with a fifth on the injured list ready to join the club when healthy. That left Margot to pursue greener pastures, which he’s now found in Detroit. The Tigers’ outfield mix has been ravaged by injuries this spring, with center fielder Parker Meadows and right fielder Matt Vierling both set to open the season on the injured list. For a team that was already in search of an additional right-handed bat, that made adding Margot something of a no-brainer for the Tigers.

Obvious a fit for the club’s needs as Margot might be, however, that doesn’t necessarily make him a slam-dunk solution. After all, the 30-year-old is coming off a career worst campaign in Minnesota where he slashed .238/.289/.337 in 343 trips to the plate across 129 games. Margot split time between all three outfield spots last year, but looked overmatched according to defensive metrics with a -4 Outs Above Average overall and negative numbers at all three outfield spots. That may suggest he’s ill equipped to contribute at least in center field on a regular basis at this point in his career, although Margot’s outstanding defensive numbers with the Rays and Padres over the years could easily justify giving him an opportunity to prove himself capable of handling center once again.

Wherever he ends up in an outfield mix that figures to include Zach McKinstry, Kerry Carpenter, and Wenceel Perez in addition to incumbent left fielder Riley Greene, Margot will need to post stronger numbers with the bat this year. While beating last year’s 79 wRC+ shouldn’t be an especially tall order, the most important piece of the puzzle for Margot this year figures to be getting back to hitting well against lefties. Margot is a career .279/.338/.415 hitter against southpaws, but last season he posted just a .269/.322/.391 line against lefties. Getting that number back to above average would be a huge boon for a heavily left-handed Tigers lineup that posted a wRC+ of just 88 against southpaws last year.

The addition of Margot to the fold appears to leave just one open spot on the club’s position player staff headed into Opening Day. Slugger Spencer Torkelson, outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy, and non-roster utility man Jahmai Jones appear to be the final three candidates for that spot as things stand, with Torkelson standing out as the likely favorite given that both Carpenter and Torkelson himself are tentatively expected to get looks in the outfield as the Tigers attempt to piece together production without Meadows and Vierling in the fold. Torkelson lost his job as the club’s incumbent first baseman to Colt Keith when the Gleyber Torres signing pushed Keith to first base, but Torkelson’s right-handed bat offers more big league success and a higher ceiling than those of either Malloy or Jones.

Parker Meadows To Miss At Least Four More Weeks

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Parker Meadows’ season-opening stint on the injured list looks like it will stretch into May, as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen) that the outfielder will need four weeks of rest after undergoing a nerve conduction test.  Meadows has been sidelined by an issue with the musculocutaneous nerve in his upper right arm, which has prevented him from throwing.

The problem has been bothering Meadows for the better part of the month, and the uncertain nature of nerve-related injuries had left the door open for a somewhat sudden recovery, since the nerve could technically “wake up” (to use Hinch’s parlance) at any point.  However, the aftermath of this test has led to a firmer idea of how much time Meadows will miss in the near term, but the outfielder and the team will then wait and see about how well his right arm has responded.

Because the problem is limited to his right arm, Meadows can take part other limited baseball activities apart from throwing, Hinch said.  This leads to some hope that Meadows could be able to return to action relatively quickly once he is finally cleared, but even in the best-case scenario of a clean bill of health in four weeks’ time, Meadows figures to need some ramp-up time in extended Spring Training and on a minor league rehab assignment.  It seems like the Tigers will be placing Meadows on the 10-day IL, as a 60-day placement would mean that Meadows wouldn’t be able to play on the active roster until the end of May.

It’s a very unfortunate and frustrating situation for Meadows, an outstanding defensive player who seemed to turn the corner at the plate late last season.  His 2024 season got off to a rough start between a cold stretch at the plate, a demotion to Triple-A Toledo, and then a month-long IL stint due to a hamstring injury as soon as Meadows was called back up to the big leagues.  Once he got back from the IL, Meadows finally hit his stride, batting .296/.340/.500 over his final 201 plate appearances to help lead Detroit to a wild card berth.

Just as he had solidified his spot as an everyday center fielder, however, Meadows will now join Matt Vierling on the IL, leaving the Tigers thin in the outfield.  The plan is to give Wenceel Perez the bulk of playing time in center field in Meadows’ absence, with utilityman Andy Ibanez, Zach McKinstry, and possibly minor league signing Jahmai Jones all helping fill the gaps around the diamond and on the bench.  Detroit has also considered some less-conventional options like giving Javier Baez and Spencer Torkelson a few reps in the outfield, just to provide as much flexibility as possible.

Kenta Maeda To Open Season In Tigers’ Bullpen

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TODAY: Right-hander Keider Montero and infielder Ryan Kreidler were both optioned to Triple-A, Cody Stavenhagen writes, likely confirming that Mize and Jobe will get the final two rotation spots.

MARCH 21: The Tigers informed Kenta Maeda that he’ll open the season in the bullpen, manager A.J. Hinch announced on Friday (relayed by Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic). That takes the veteran righty out of the competition for the final two rotation spots behind Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty and Reese Olson.

Maeda is entering the second season of a two-year, $24MM free agent deal. His first year in Detroit was the worst of his career. He allowed more than six earned runs per nine innings with personal-worst strikeout and home run rates. That cost him his rotation spot midseason. Maeda worked in low-leverage relief from July onwards. He made one start in the season’s final weekend after Detroit clinched a playoff spot. They left him off their postseason rosters.

The 36-year-old entered camp trying to pitch his way back into the rotation. Maeda has worked 12 2/3 frames over four appearances this spring. Despite a brilliant 19:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, he gave up eight runs. Maeda surrendered 13 hits, four of which cleared the fences.

Hinch hasn’t finalized rotation plans, but Casey Mize and Jackson Jobe look like the favorites for the last two jobs. Mize has had a fantastic spring, allowing only two runs while striking out 18 over 16 innings. Jobe has had a tougher time, as he’s given up four homers in 12 1/3 innings.

Maeda becomes the seventh locked-in member of Detroit’s season-opening bullpen. Jason Foley, Beau Brieske, Tyler Holton and free agent pickups Tommy Kahnle and John Brebbia will be in the late-inning mix. Will Vest should have a roster spot secure despite his own home run troubles this spring. Maeda could also factor into leverage spots, as Hinch said he’s not locked into mop-up work.

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