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Tigers Notes: Carpenter, Baez, Maeda

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Heading into 2025, Kerry Carpenter is one of the Tigers’ most accomplished young hitters. A career .276/.338/.512 hitter across 236 games in the majors, Carpenter missed time last year due to a lumbar spine stress fracture but raked when healthy, crushing the ball to the tune of a .284/.345/.587 slash line with 18 homers in just 87 games. For all of Carpenter’s success as a hitter, however, he’s been limited almost entirely to work against opposite-handed pitching. The lefty slugger has just 134 total plate appearances against southpaws during his time in the majors, only 32 of which came in 2024. As noted by Chris McCosky of The Detroit News, that’s an area Carpenter is hoping to get more opportunities in this season.

It’s a proposition that manager A.J. Hinch appears at least somewhat open to, with Hinch noting that Carpenter is “going to get opportunities and probably more opportunities moving forward.” Hinch also cautioned that those opportunities won’t just be gifted to Carpenter once the regular season begins, however.

“But more doesn’t mean every one. And more doesn’t come for free,” Hinch said, as relayed by McCosky. “There is a cost that comes with every decision and we will be weighing that. Last year’s evaluation doesn’t have to be this year’s evaluation. We have an open mind as to how to use our roster. But I stand behind that my job is to use the roster the best way we can.”

Concerns about Carpenter’s ability to produce against southpaws are understandable despite his minimal opportunities against them. He’s a career .202/.286/.303 hitter against lefties in the majors, with a 23.9% strikeout rate, a walk rate of 6.7%, and just four extra-base hits. Those strikeout and walk figures are actually pretty close to Carpenter’s career numbers of 25.6% and 6.9% respectively, but the complete disappearance of Carpenter’s trademark power will need to be overcome in order for the 27-year-old to be a valuable offensive presence against left-handed pitching.

In addition to more opportunities against southpaws, Carpenter is hoping to more frequently work his way into the lineup as an outfielder in 2025 rather than being limited to DH-only duties. Matt Vierling and Wenceel Perez will give Carpenter some competition for that job with Riley Greene and Parker Meadows entrenched in left and center field respectively, but if Carpenter can prove himself a viable option in the field and begin providing at least passable power output against southpaws, the platoon slugger could begin to put together a more well-rounded profile in 2025.

While Carpenter is attempting to carve out a larger role for himself in the outfield, the Tigers are trying to assess the future of veteran Javier Baez on the infield. Baez, 32, missed the club’s surprise playoff push last year after undergoing hip surgery in August. The six-year pact Detroit gave Baez coming off his impressive run with the Cubs from the breakout 2018 season that saw him finish second in NL MVP voting to a 2021 season where he was traded to the Mets and caught fire down the stretch has not gone according to plan.

Since arriving in Detroit, Baez has hit just .221/.262/.347 in three seasons. He remained a plus defender at shortstop for the club in 2022 and ’23, but even his glove took a step back last season and a strong late-season performance from Trey Sweeney as the club’s shortstop has left Baez without a clear role on the team going forward. As noted by McCosky, Baez has resumed swinging at 100% strength but has not yet begun to face live pitching. Even so, he’s on track to begin the season on time, and Hinch made clear that the club is glad to have him healthy and in the fold for 2025 even if his role can’t be determined until after he’s put rehab fully behind him.

One place where Baez appears to be a clear fit for the club’s needs is against left-handed pitching. The Tigers’ offense is heavily left-handed even after adding Gleyber Torres to the lineup at second base, and a right-handed hitter who can help to spell southpaws around the infield like Sweeney and Colt Keith should have plenty of value for Detroit. Baez has been a perfectly acceptable hitter against lefties even during his time in Detroit, slashing .268/.314/.433 (108 wRC+) with a strikeout rate of just 20.1% and 24 extra base hits in 284 trips to the plate against lefties between 2022 and 2023. If he can get back to that level of production against southpaws, Baez could be a key asset for the Tigers this year even if he doesn’t bounce far enough back to reclaim an everyday role.

Baez isn’t the only veteran attempting a comeback after struggling badly in 2024. Veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda is expected to get “every opportunity” to rejoin the club’s rotation after pitching to a 6.09 ERA last year and getting kicked to the bullpen after 17 starts, and news of an injury that will keep veteran righty Alex Cobb off the roster to start the season leaves two open spots in the club’s rotation behind Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Reese Olson. Maeda figures to be in competition with Casey Mize, Keider Montero, and Jackson Jobe among others as he tries to earn one of those two spots.

In hopes of proving himself capable the soon to be 37-year-old hurler changed up his offseason routine this winter. According to MLive’s Evan Woodbery, Maeda began his offseason work with eight bullpen sessions during his time in Japan this offseason despite the fact that he’s typically waited until he returns stateside for Spring Training to resume throwing. The early start to his throwing program, Maeda noted, is in order to make sure he’s putting his best foot forward as he tries to recapture his rotation job this spring. In addition to starting his preseason regime earlier than usual, Maeda notes that he believes he’s fixed some mechanical issues he dealt with last year after working with the Tigers’ pitching development staff this offseason.

A return to form for Maeda would be a major help for a Tigers club with plenty of upside but little certainty in the rotation. Dominant as Skubal was in his Cy Young award-winning season last year, he’s dealt with plenty of injury issues throughout his career. The same can be said for Flaherty, Mize, Jobe, Matt Manning, and a host of other potentially key pitchers for the Tigers this year. Maeda’s own injury history is far from clean, but having an effective veteran starter at the back of the rotation should nonetheless be a major help for the club as they look for better results out of a rotation that saw only Skubal make more than 22 starts and only Mize and Olson join him in making at least 20 last year.

Scott Harris Discusses Tigers’ Pursuit Of Alex Bregman

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The Tigers were linked to Alex Bregman for much of the offseason, and reports indicated that they were one of the finalists for the infielder’s services before Bregman signed a three-year, $120MM deal with the Red Sox earlier this week.  It would appear that Detroit might have been the top bidder in terms of pure dollars — Bregman was offered a six-year, $171.5MM contract that included an opt-out clause after the 2026 season, but he instead took the shorter-term deal from Boston that includes opt-outs after both the 2025 and 2026 campaigns.

Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris told reporters (including Chris McCosky of the Detroit News) that he wasn’t disappointed by Bregman’s decision to head to Boston.  “We made a compelling offer to Alex Bregman but he chose to sign somewhere else.  That’s fine.  We knew that was a possibility throughout the process, and we planned for that outcome,” Harris said.

The fact that the Tigers made such a push for Bregman was itself notable, as it represented the first time since Harris was hired in September 2022 that Detroit truly appeared willing to stretch the budget on a long-term free agent commitment.  Jack Flaherty (whose deal contains a player option for 2026) and Kenta Maeda are the only free agents to receive even a two-year contract during Harris’ relatively brief tenure.  Harris praised team owner Chris Illitch for giving “us the flexibility to chase some key free agents,” so the strategy is apparently less about money than it is about Harris’ oft-stated desire to build primarily around the Tigers’ young core.

“We don’t want to be that organization that is desperate to sign a specific free agent or hinging on our current plan or our future plans on a certain free agent,” Harris said.  “We have to be dependent on the young talent we’re acquiring and developing….I will say we feel like what we did this offseason, we made the moves we needed to make. We supplemented this young, emerging group with guys who can make the team better without blocking our young players.”

“It didn’t make sense for us, before or after Alex, to pivot to someone who would just take our money.  In recent winters, we’ve seen teams continuing to pivot until someone takes their money.  It may win a press release, but it may not actually push your organization forward.  We were very conscious of that throughout the winter and we were very targeted about the players we wanted to add to this group.”

Beyond the reunion with Flaherty, the Tigers also signed Alex Cobb to further bolster the rotation, and added veteran relievers Tommy Kahnle and John Brebbia on one-year deals.  On the position-player side, Gleyber Torres was signed to a one-year, $14MM contract to step in as the new everyday second baseman, pushing Colt Keith into a first base role.

The right-handed hitting Torres also gives Detroit a bit more balance within a lineup that still pretty heavy with left-handed bats.  Acquiring a marquee righty-swinger like Bregman would have further helped with that balance and naturally boosted the offense as a whole, and Harris hasn’t closed the door on still addressing this need.

“There hasn’t been a ton of options for us to add a second right-handed bat,” the PBO said.  “We don’t think there is going to be one coming through free agency.  We’re going to explore trade options but we feel really good about the group we have, and we think it is a group that’s going to continue to get better.”

With this internal focus in mind, Harris cited Jace Jung, Matt Vierling, and Andy Ibanez as the chief in-house candidates for third base work.  “It’s going to be a competition in Spring Training” to decide exactly how the playing time might be divvied up, and Harris noted that “we have a really talented manager [A.J. Hinch] who is going to find the right matchup for those guys.”

Tigers, David Hensley Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Tigers are signing utility player David Hensley to a minor league deal, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. It seems likely that the 28-year-old will be in camp as a non-roster invitee.

Hensley was a 26th-round pick by the Astros in 2018. He got to the majors with Houston four years later. Hensley appeared in 46 games between 2022-23, hitting .177/.273/.274 over 128 plate appearances. The Astros kept him in Triple-A for the first half of last season. They designated him for assignment in the middle of July.

Miami grabbed Hensley off waivers. He took 58 trips to the dish with the Marlins, hitting .212/.293/.288. The Fish waived him at the beginning of the offseason. Hensley went unclaimed and elected minor league free agency. He’s a .188/.280/.279 hitter over 169 major league plate appearances.

The righty-swinging Hensley has a better minor league track record. He has taken over 1100 Triple-A plate appearances and has a .257/.384/.413 showing at the top minor league level. That’s built largely on a near-17% walk rate, as Hensley has shown a very patient plate approach. He has plenty of experience at all four infield positions and has some time in the corner outfield.

Tigers Made Six-Year Offer To Bregman

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Alex Bregman is headed to Boston on a three-year deal that comes with a massive $40MM average annual value (albeit with deferrals). The two-time All-Star was also known to have multiple six-year offers on the table, one of which was from the Astros.

The Tigers also proposed a six-year offer, as first reported by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. Petzold initially reported that Detroit’s offer was for narrowly above $170MM and included an opt-out clause after the second season. It had some amount of deferred money. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale specified it as a $171.5MM offer.

Detroit’s offer came with an approximate $28.58MM average annual value, before accounting for deferrals. Bregman obviously fared much better on an annual basis on the agreement with Boston. It seems as if Detroit offered the highest overall guarantee. The Astros had a six-year, $156MM offer on the table for most of the winter. While they reportedly bumped that towards the end of the process, they didn’t seem optimistic about getting a deal done.

Indeed, it doesn’t seem that Houston was even in the running by the end. Nightengale reports that the Cubs, Tigers and Red Sox were the finalists. As with Boston, Chicago only seemed interested on a short-term deal. However, they weren’t willing to match the Sox’s offer on an annual basis. Nightengale reports that the Cubs proposed a four-year, $120MM deal. According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, that would have included opt-outs after the second and third seasons.

The Tigers and Cubs would each have kept Bregman at his traditional third base position. They’re likely to turn the hot corner to young players with top prospect pedigree but little to no MLB experience (Jace Jung and Matt Shaw, respectively). Bregman is ticketed for second base work in Boston, where Rafael Devers will stick at the hot corner.

Tigers Sign John Brebbia

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The Tigers announced the signing of free agent reliever John Brebbia to a one-year deal with a $2.75MM guarantee. The Icon Sports Management client receives a $2.25MM base salary for the upcoming season and is guaranteed a $500K buyout on a $4MM club option for 2026. Detroit placed Alex Lange on the 60-day injured list to create a 40-man roster spot.

Brebbia’s deal includes $2MM in performance bonuses in both seasons — $250K each for 50, 55, 60 and 65 appearances and $250K apiece at 40, 45, 50, and 55 games finished. The ’26 option price can escalate based on his numbers this year. It’d climb by $500K at 65 appearances, $1MM apiece at 45 and 50 games finished, and by $2MM for 55 games finished. The maximum escalator value is capped at $4MM, so the appearance threshold would essentially be nullified if Brebbia finishes 55 games and pushes the option value to $8MM based on that criteria alone.

It’s a late addition to A.J. Hinch’s middle relief group. Brebbia split the 2024 campaign between the White Sox and Braves. He spent the bulk of the season in Chicago, where he initially looked to be a potential trade chip. He carried a strong 30% strikeout rate and a tidy 5.6% walk percentage over 38 innings into the All-Star Break. A low left-on-base rate contributed to a middling 4.50 earned run average, but he’d held opposing hitters to a .235/.288/.389 showing across 160 plate appearances.

Brebbia had a few ill-timed blowups in the weeks between the All-Star Break and the trade deadline. That tanked Chicago’s chances of dealing him. He continued to struggle into August. The Sox released him towards the end of that month. There was minimal value for them in carrying an impending free agent middle reliever for the final few weeks of the season. Brebbia caught on with Atlanta and tossed 6 2/3 frames of two-run ball over five appearances to finish the year.

The 34-year-old finished the season with an unsightly 5.86 ERA across 55 1/3 innings. His more interesting strikeout and walk numbers led Detroit to give him an Opening Day bullpen job. Brebbia had allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine innings in 2022 and ’23 as a member of the Giants. He fanned 29.2% of batters faced two seasons ago and has a quality 25.9% strikeout rate over his seven-year MLB career.

Brebbia and Tommy Kahnle are new additions to a Detroit bullpen that’ll be anchored by holdovers Jason Foley, Beau Brieske, Tyler Holton and Will Vest. They’re likely to have Kenta Maeda in a long relief role even with Alex Cobb set to open the season on the injured list.

Lange was Detroit’s season-opening closer in 2024. He had a tough time finding the strike zone and was optioned to Triple-A in the middle of May. Lange suffered a lat tear while pitching in the minors and required season-ending surgery in June. Detroit evidently didn’t feel he’d be ready within the first couple months of this season. The IL placement shelves him until late May at the earliest.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Tigers Trade Mason Englert To Rays

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The Rays announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired righty Mason Englert from the Tigers in exchange for minor league lefty Drew Sommers. Tampa Bay opened a 40-man roster spot by transferring southpaw Nate Lavender to the 60-day IL. Englert was designated for assignment in Detroit last week.

Englert, 25, was with the Tigers for the past two years. A Rule 5 pick from the Rangers, he stuck on the roster through the 2023 season. Once the Tigers had full control over his rights for 2024, he was shuttled between Triple-A and the majors. Over those two campaigns, he tossed 77 2/3 innings for Detroit, allowing 5.45 earned runs per nine. His 16.5% strikeout rate was subpar but he limited walks to a 6.4% clip.

Those numbers aren’t mind-blowing, but Englert was better in the minors last year. He tossed 49 2/3 innings on the farm over 32 appearances with a 3.08 ERA, 33% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate. Prior to his Rule 5 selection, he tossed 199 1/3 minor league innings over 2021 and 2022 with a 3.93 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate.

Englert is still fairly young and has a couple of options years remaining. The major league results haven’t been there yet but the minor league numbers seem to be intriguing enough that the Rays have brought him aboard. As a club that rotates pitchers through the roster fairly frequently, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Englert moves between Triple-A and the majors throughout the coming season.

Lavender, 25, was just taken in the most recent Rule 5 draft. He had Tommy John surgery in May and likely won’t be able to return until the second half. Today’s transfer officially rules him out of the first two months of the campaign.

Though the Tigers had to bump Englert off the roster, they are at least getting something in return. Sommers, 24, was an 11th-round selection of the Rays in 2022. In 2023, he tossed 43 Single-A innings with a 2.72 ERA, 34.7% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate and 53.3% ground ball rate. Last year, he got bumped up to High-A and tossed 54 innings with an ERA of 4.00, 27.9% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and massive 67.8% ground ball rate. He’s not considered a top prospect but will give the Tigers an intriguing lefty relief option to plug into their system.

Alex Cobb Unlikely To Be Ready For Opening Day

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Until the Tigers’ recent re-signing of Jack Flaherty, their one-year, $15MM deal with Alex Cobb had been their lone rotation add of the winter and was tied for their largest-scale pickup overall. The signing of Cobb came at a relative premium even though he was limited to just three regular season starts in 2024, with much of that layoff due to recovery from surgery to repair the labrum in his left hip. Now, it seems his other hip is hobbling him; the Tigers announced yesterday that Cobb received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his right hip to alleviate inflammation that has “gradually” arisen during his throwing program. Per manager A.J. Hinch, Cobb will be set back by about a month and isn’t likely to be ready to slot into the Opening Day rotation (link via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com).

It’s an immediate blow to the Tigers’ staff, though Detroit is better positioned than most clubs to handle an absence (be it short- or long-term). Reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is locked into the top spot on the staff. Flaherty is back to take the No. 2 spot. Righties Reese Olson and Casey Mize give Hinch a pair of reliable arms in the third and fourth spots on the staff.

Top prospect Jackson Jobe was already going to be in the mix for a possible rotation spot this spring, and he’ll now have an even clearer path. He’ll have competition both in the form of veteran arms and fellow up-and-comers. Righty Kenta Maeda is currently slated for a swingman role, but it’s feasible that a pitcher with his track record could pitch his way back into the mix with a big spring showing. Elsewhere on the 40-man roster are righties Keider Montero, Matt Manning and Ty Madden, as well as lefty Brant Hurter. All have at least some degree of big league experience. Former big leaguer Dietrich Enns is also in camp on a minor league deal after a decent showing in the Korea Baseball Organization last year.

Cobb, 37, pitched just 16 1/3 innings during the regular season last year. He added 5 2/3 frames of postseason ball and another 23 in the minors, bringing him to a combined 45 frames on the year. Beyond the hip issue, Cobb battled shoulder fatigue and some blisters on his pitching hand.

Injuries are common for Cobb, but he’s generally been effective when healthy — especially in the latter stages of his career. Up through 2016, Cobb worked primarily off a four-seamer/curveball/changeup repertoire. Whether due to struggles in his return from 2015 Tommy John surgery or another reason, he’s revamped that arsenal over the years and also found some extra life on his pitches.

Cobb’s primary offering is now a sinker that’s averaged 94.6 mph over the past three seasons — a notable uptick from the 91 mph he averaged on his four-seamer from 2011-16. He’s gone from a straight changeup in the mid-80s to a splitter that averaged 89.6 mph in 2022-24. He’s still relying on a knuckle curve, but the pitch now sits 83-84 mph rather than 79-80 mph like it did in his early days.

While Cobb’s injury is an unwelcome development early in camp, at this point there’s no indication it’ll be a long-term issue. And, if he’s truly set back by about a month, he could still get going in mid-March, perhaps setting him up for a mid-April team debut. As such, the Tigers don’t necessarily seem like they’ll need to dip back into the free agent market for rotation arms, though further setbacks from Cobb or additional injuries on the staff could always change the outlook.

Cubs Among Teams With Interest In Justin Turner

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The Cubs are considering Justin Turner as an alternative to Alex Bregman, write Patrick Mooney and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Turner will be limited to one year as he enters his age-40 season. Bregman has reportedly continued to seek a deal of six-plus years, while the Cubs seem to prefer a much shorter term.

Turner remains a quality offensive player. He combined for a .259/.354/.383 slash across 539 plate appearances between the Blue Jays and Mariners last season. His production improved after a deadline trade to Seattle, no small feat for a hitter adapting to the game’s most pitcher-friendly home park. It was the 11th consecutive season in which Turner has been an above-average hitter. While he doesn’t have the same power that he did during his peak years with the Dodgers, he’s still a strong on-base presence with very good strike zone discipline.

Chicago isn’t the lone team with interest in both Bregman and Turner. Mooney and Rosenthal write that the Tigers and Red Sox have also shown some level of interest in Turner. That comprises three of what appears to be the top four suitors — alongside the incumbent Astros — on Bregman. Houston has not been linked to Turner and wouldn’t make sense as a landing spot with Yordan Alvarez ticketed for DH work.

The Cubs could be a tough roster fit in their own right. Seiya Suzuki will get the majority of at-bats at designated hitter. He’s capable of playing right field but squeezed out of a starting outfield of Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker. Turner would be a target as a role-playing corner infield bat. The Cubs have lefty-swinging Michael Busch lined up for the bulk of the first base work. They don’t have any kind of established third baseman after including Isaac Paredes in the Tucker trade. Unless they make a late-offseason strike for Bregman, they’d very likely turn the hot corner to top prospect Matt Shaw.

Turner is not an everyday third baseman at this point of his career. He started four games there last season after logging seven starts in 2023. He hasn’t played more than half a season at the position since 2021. Turner has played more frequently at first base, where he started 40 games last year. He could take some at-bats from Busch against lefty pitching, though Busch had a respectable showing (.258/.330/.382 in 100 plate appearances) in unfavorable platoon situations as a rookie.

The Tigers and Red Sox have each been seeking a right-handed bat. Boston has limited flexibility to accommodate another player at the bottom of the defensive spectrum. The Sox have Rafael Devers and Triston Casas as their corner infield tandem. Masataka Yoshida is lined up for the bulk of the DH work going into the third season of his five-year deal. Boston would probably use Bregman at second base if they landed him. The Sox gave Turner himself four starts at the keystone when he played in Boston in 2023. He wouldn’t play second regularly but could rotate through the position alongside Vaughn Grissom and David Hamilton if top prospect Kristian Campbell opens the season in Triple-A.

Detroit signed Gleyber Torres to play second base. That kicked Colt Keith over to first base, squeezing righty-hitting Spencer Torkelson out of the starting lineup. Turner’s right-handed bat could play well in a lefty-heavy corner infield/DH mix. Keith and Jace Jung, the projected starter at third base if they don’t sign Bregman, each hit from the left side. Kerry Carpenter, who’ll split his time between right field and DH, is a lefty hitter who mashes when he holds the platoon advantage.

Seattle showed interest in a Turner reunion early in the offseason. That’s less likely now that they’ve added righty-hitting Donovan Solano on a $3.5MM free agent deal to platoon with Luke Raley at first base. Mooney and Rosenthal report that the Reds have also spoken with Turner this offseason, though it’s not clear if that interest is ongoing. Cincinnati acquired Gavin Lux to deepen the infield and could give righty hitters Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Spencer Steer a decent amount of run at first base.

Poll: Who’s Winning The Offseason In The AL Central?

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The calendar has flipped to February and the start of spring is just a matter of days away. While some notable free agents (including seven of MLBTR’s Top 50) remain unsigned, most clubs have already done the heavy lifting in terms of preparing their roster for the 2025 season. In the coming days, we’ll be taking a look around the league at which clubs have had the strongest offseason to this point. The Mets, Cubs, and Dodgers have decisively won the polls covering the National League’s three divisions, but things were much closer in the AL West with the Athletics squeaking past the Rangers by about 300 votes for the division’s best offseason. Will things be just as close in the AL Central?

Coming off a season where they sent three teams to the ALDS and had a fourth club narrowly miss the postseason, the AL Central enters 2025 in its strongest position in years in spite of the White Sox breaking the single-season record for losses last year. That strength comes with heightened expectations, however, and clubs like the Tigers and Royals that have been mired in lengthy rebuilds in recent years are looked at as genuine contenders entering the season for the first time in a decade or more. Meanwhile, the Guardians and Twins hope to keep their perpetual playoff contention going and the White Sox will look to show signs of life despite being mired in what could be a lengthy rebuild of their own following their disastrous 2024 season.

Which team has done the most to set themselves up for success this winter? Teams are listed in order of their 2024 record.

Cleveland Guardians

It’s been a busy offseason in Cleveland with plenty of turnover on the roster. The club’s biggest free agent move was reuniting with longtime ace Shane Bieber on a two-year deal with an opt out after 2025, but they also reunited with longtime first baseman Carlos Santana for his third stint with the club and inked veteran reliever Paul Sewald to a one-year deal as well. Those three free agent moves have been supplemented by a number of notable trades. They shipped out the contracts of Andres Gimenez and Myles Straw to Toronto in separate deals and flipped first baseman Spencer Horwitz (acquired in the Gimenez deal) to the Pirates for Luis Ortiz to bolster the club’s rotation.

In addition to those roster upgrades, however, they’ve also made a handful of sell-side trades including a deal that sent first baseman Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks. The club also parted ways with right-hander Nick Sandlin as part of the Gimenez trade and shipped righty Eli Morgan to the Cubs in a separate deal. Overall, the Guardians managed to substantially upgrade their rotation after the unit struggled with depth in 2024 and cleared plenty of salary off their long-term books, but did so at the expense of an offense that loses two everyday players in Gimenez and Naylor as well as some of the club’s bullpen depth in Sandlin and Morgan.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals have followed up their breakout 2024 season by continuing to spend in free agency, and kicked off the winter’s free agent market by agreeing to a new three-year deal with veteran right-hander Michael Wacha. Wacha’s return to the rotation gave the club the starting depth they needed to trade right-hander Brady Singer to the Reds in order to acquire infielder Jonathan India and provide Bobby Witt Jr. with additional protection in the lineup.

Those early offseason moves were the most significant of the winter for Kansas City, though they’ve stayed busy by adding closer Carlos Estevez to their bullpen on a two-year deal and re-upping with swingman Michael Lorenzen to provide competition for youngsters Alec Marsh and Kris Bubic at the back of the rotation. It’s a strong group of offseason moves on paper, though it’s somewhat troubling that the Royals haven’t properly addressed an outfield group that was bottom-three in baseball by wRC+ last year.

Detroit Tigers

For much of the offseason, it appeared that the Tigers were largely standing pat as the club entered the holiday season with veteran starter Alex Cobb’s one-year deal as their only notable addition. Since then, however, they’ve added two more notable free agents who didn’t see their markets develop as much as expected. They’ve bolstered the lineup with Gleyber Torres on a one-year deal that kicked Colt Keith over to first base and Spencer Torkelson into a bench role, but most notable of all is the club’s reunion with Jack Flaherty on a two-year deal that includes an opt out after 2025.

After shipping Flaherty to Los Angeles last summer before catching fire down the stretch, plenty of fans have wondered what the Tigers’ run through the postseason last year might have looked like with Flaherty alongside Tarik Skubal at the front of the rotation. That question could now be answered in 2025, and with no significant subtractions from the club’s roster this winter it’s difficult to argue the Tigers haven’t improved headed into the coming season.

Minnesota Twins

It’s been a very quiet offseason in Minnesota. From the outset of the offseason, there’s been reports of the Twins’ payroll being more or less maxed out and the club needing to move salary in order to make notable additions. Those trades haven’t materialized to this point, despite rumors swirling around top players like Pablo Lopez as well as more ancillary pieces like Christian Vazquez and Chris Paddack.

That hasn’t completely stopped the Twins from making moves, however. In the past week, they’ve signed Harrison Bader to back up oft-injured star Byron Buxton in center field while adding southpaw Danny Coulombe to the bullpen as a replacement for Caleb Thielbar. They also managed to swing a trade for former top catching prospect Diego Cartaya with the Dodgers when he was squeezed off of the 40-man in Los Angeles, though Cartaya has yet to so much as make his debut in the big leagues to this point. Whether they can add a bat to the lineup who can help replace the production of Max Kepler and Carlos Santana, however, figures to depend on the club’s success at swinging a sell-side trade to clear salary.

Chicago White Sox

As a firmly rebuilding club, the goals of the White Sox offseason look quite different to the other clubs in the AL Central. With that being said, however, they’ve generally done quite well in achieving those goals. Their most notable move, of course, was shipping southpaw Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox in a Winter Meetings blockbuster reminiscent of the Chris Sale trade following the 2016 season. In exchange for Crochet’s services, Chicago landed a pair of top-100 prospects in catcher Kyle Teel and outfielder Braden Montgomery as well as infielder Chase Meidroth and right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez.

That excellent return for two years of Crochet aside, the club’s offseason has mostly been defined by adding shorter-term ancillary pieces who could potentially be flipped at the trade deadline in July. Matt Thaiss, Cam Booser, Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater, Bryse Wilson, Josh Rojas, and Martin Perez all fit this category to one degree or another, with the latter five names all being signed to inexpensive one-year deals that should make them easily affordable for even budget-conscious contending clubs this summer should any of them play well enough to justify a trade.

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Despite having the lowest cumulative payroll of any division in the majors, the AL Central has had a fairly busy offseason with every team having made at least a couple of noteworthy additions. The Guardians have continued their eternal balancing act of the present and future by improving the roster’s biggest weakness in 2024 while shedding significant salary, while the Royals and Tigers both made notable (if somewhat modest) additions to the rosters that catapulted them to surprise contention last year. The Twins have made a handful of minor moves as they hope their deep roster can rebound from the steps backward some key players took in 2025, while the White Sox jump-started their rebuild with a major trade and added a number of low-cost veterans with an eye towards more trades this summer.

Of the five NL Central clubs, which one has had the strongest offseason so far? Have your say in the poll below:

Tigers Designate Mason Englert For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated right-hander Mason Englert for assignment, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. He’s the corresponding move for Detroit’s re-signing of Jack Flaherty on a two-year deal, which the team agreed to earlier in the week and formally announced this morning.

Englert, 25, came to the Tigers as a Rule 5 pick out of the Rangers’ system back in 2022. He stuck on the big league roster all season in 2023 in a seldom-used long relief role. He appeared in only 31 of Detroit’s games that season and was roughed up for a 5.46 ERA. His results didn’t improve in 21 2/3 big league innings last year. The righty yielded a 5.40 ERA with very similar strikeout, walk, ground-ball and home run rates.

Though Englert has been hit hard in his 77 2/3 big league frames, he was excellent in the minors last year. The Tigers moved him to more of a short relief role, and in 41 2/3 Triple-A innings, Englert turned in a very strong 3.08 ERA with a massive 35.3% strikeout rate, an 8.2% walk rate and a 49.5% ground-ball rate. At a time when power arms are particularly en vogue, Englert’s 92.7 mph average on his four-seamer isn’t going to garner massive fanfare, but the results in the minors stand out nevertheless.

Add in that Englert still has two minor league option years remaining, and it seems like there’s a good chance another club’s interest could be piqued on a minor trade — or at the very least on a waiver claim. Englert’s blend of strikeouts, command and grounders in Triple-A last year is a general recipe for success. That he’s the roster casualty for Flaherty’s return speaks to the level in which the Tigers’ overall 40-man roster has deepened. It’s true that he lacks big league success, but his recent Triple-A work is far more interesting than that of most players who find themselves on the wrong end of a DFA. Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris seems to agree; asked during today’s media availability about the decision to designate Englert, he replied:

“I would love to keep him. I don’t know that we’re going to be able to. … I think Mason has really grown up as a pitcher since we drafted him in the Rule 5. He’s able to move his (pitch) shapes all around the zone. He’s very confident on the mound, and he is comfortable in any situation, so if we can find a way to keep him, I would love to keep him. I just don’t know that we’re going to be able to, because I imagine there’ll be interest around the league on him.”

The Tigers will have five days to work out a trade of Englert. After that, he’ll need to be placed on waivers (a 48-hour process) in order for his DFA to be resolved within the allotted window of one week.

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