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Central Notes: Grandal, Delay, Borucki, Gipson-Long, Edman, Martínez 

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Alex Stumpf of MLB.com offered a series of Pirates injury updates today.

Yasmani Grandal is still a few weeks away from coming off the injured list as he recovers from plantar fasciitis. However, he seems to be making good progress, and Stumpf reports that he will begin baserunning in the coming days. He has already been participating in simulated games. The two-time All-Star spent his last four seasons with the White Sox. His days as one of the best catchers in baseball are long behind him, but the Pirates are hoping he can be a capable veteran backup.

In less positive catching news, Jason Delay has been shut down from all baseball activities with little explanation. He has been on the IL since April 3 (retroactive to April 1) with right knee inflammation. The long-time minor leaguer had a mini breakout with the Pirates last year. Although his offensive numbers weren’t so impressive, he played 68 games behind the dish and put up strong defensive metrics, looking like a solid backup option.

On the pitching side, Ryan Borucki is recovering quickly from left triceps inflammation that landed him on the IL retroactive to April 6. Borucki, 30, entered the year hoping to follow up on a strong 2023 season in Pittsburgh. While the southpaw struggled through a pair of injury-riddled seasons with the Blue and Mariners in 2021 and ’22, he was a master of control for the Pirates in 2023. In 40 1/3 innings, Borucki walked just four batters. The only other pitcher with so few bases on balls (min. 30 IP) was Jacob deGrom. Stumpf notes that Borucki will begin playing catch soon, and he shouldn’t be on the IL for much longer than the minimum 15 days.

In other news from around the NL and AL Central:

  • The Tigers released a medical update today (shared by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press) that revealed right-handed pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long is dealing with right forearm tightness. He was already on the IL recovering from a groin strain. The 26-year-old is undergoing medical evaluation to determine the severity of the injury. Gipson-Long made four starts for the Tigers last year but retains his rookie eligibility for 2024. He is the team’s No. 10 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and No. 19 according to Baseball America.
  • Cardinals center fielder Tommy Edman has been approved to begin his hitting progression, reports Daniel Guerrero of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His first step is hitting off a tee. While Edman will still need plenty of preparation to transition from a tee to MLB-caliber pitching, this marks an important step in his recovery. The Gold Glove-winner has been sidelined all year with a wrist injury.
  • Guardians infield prospect Angel Martínez has been on the 10-day IL since Opening Day with a right foot contusion he suffered this spring. Today, he was sent to Triple-A Columbus for a rehab assignment. Although Martínez is on Cleveland’s 40-man roster, he has yet to make his MLB debut. He will likely stay at Triple-A once his rehab stint is up, where he will look to improve upon a poor showing at the plate last season. Martínez, 22, is widely considered a top-10 prospect in the Guardians system. He is a candidate to earn a call-up to the MLB squad in the event of an injury to another infielder.

Tigers To Recall Wenceel Perez For MLB Debut

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3:30pm: The Tigers have placed Ibanez on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain, per Evan Woodbery of the MLive Media Group, with Perez recalled in the corresponding move.

2:56pm: The Tigers are calling up infielder/outfielder Wenceel Perez for his major league debut. Perez announced the news himself on his Instagram story. The team hasn’t confirmed the move themselves just yet, nor have the Tigers announced the corresponding 26-man roster move. Per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, Perez will be replacing Andy Ibanez, who has some sort of injury. It’s not yet clear what that injury is or how significant it is.

Perez, 24, ranks as the Tigers’ No. 20 prospect at both Baseball America and MLB.com. He can provide the Tigers with an option at as many as five spots on the diamond. The versatile switch-hitter has played exclusively in the outfield in his first eight Triple-A games of the season, but he’s split the bulk of his professional career between the two middle infield slots, playing 1871 innings at shortstop and 1818 innings at second base.

While he’s out to a bit of a slow start this season, hitting .212/.297/.485 with a homer and four steals in 37 plate appearances, Pere turned in a strong .264/.394/.496 showing in his first 160 Triple-A plate appearances last year (124 wRC+). He regularly posts strong walk rates and well below-average strikeout rates in the minors. Perez may not have elite power or speed, but he popped a career-high 14 homers in 2023 and has averaged 22 stolen bases per year dating back to 2021.

Scouting reports on Perez note that he easily has the range to play second base but is hampered there by inconsistent throws. The Tigers are hopeful that top prospect Colt Keith can handle that position long-term anyhow, and they’re stuck with Javier Baez’s contract at shortstop, so a move to the outfield makes sense as Perez deepens his defensive versatility to prep for the utility role that both BA and MLB.com suggest he can fill.

The Tigers selected Perez to the 40-man roster following the 2022 season. He’s in the second of three minor league option years and can be freely shuttled between Toledo and Detroit this year without needing to worry about waivers. He will likely replace Ibanez on the club’s bench next to Matt Vierling and Zach McKinstry.

Astros To Claim Miguel Diaz, Cooper Hummel Off Waivers

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2:05 pm: The Astros have now announced both claims. In corresponding moves, they transferred right-handers Luis Garcia Jr. and Penn Murfee to the 60-day injured list. Both pitchers underwent elbow surgery last summer and won’t be available for a few more months, at least.

12:27 pm: The Astros are set to make a pair of waiver claims. Neither has been formally announced by the club just yet, but Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Houston is claiming right-hander Miguel Diaz off waivers from the Tigers, who’d designated him for assignment last week. Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 in Houston further reports that the ’Stros are claiming catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel, who was designated for assignment by the Giants last week.

Diaz, 29, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons — four with the Padres and two with the Tigers. He tossed 14 innings out of the Detroit ’pen in 2023, allowing just one run on eight hits and five walks with 16 strikeouts. It was a brief but dominant showing that surely enhanced his standing within the organization and gave him a chance to break camp with the 2024 club. However, Diaz struggled this spring, surrendering five runs on ten hits and five walks in 8 1/3 innings.

Originally selected by the Padres (by way of a trade with the Twins) out of the Brewers organization in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft, Diaz’s big league career began in rocky fashion. That was understandable, given that San Diego carried a then-22-year-old Diaz on the roster all season after plucking him directly out of A-ball. He pitched just 66 2/3 innings in his first three seasons, logging a lowly 6.62 ERA. The Friars non-tendered him in 2019 to remove him from the 40-man roster but quickly re-signed him.

In 2021, Diaz returned to the majors with 42 effective innings out of the San Diego ’pen. Over the past three seasons, he carries a 2.87 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 41.9% ground-ball rate in 59 2/3 innings. Diaz is out of minor league options, so he’ll head directly to the Houston bullpen as he cannot be sent to the minors without first passing through waivers. If he can demonstrate some staying power in manager Joe Espada’s bullpen, he can be controlled through the 2027 season via arbitration.

Hummel, 29, has bounced from the Mariners, to the Mets, to the Giants and now the Astros since the end of the 2023 season. He appeared in 10 MLB games last year and came to the plate 26 times with Seattle. He also received a brief look with the D-backs in 2022, and he’s posted an overall .166/.264/.286 line in 227 career plate appearances.

Ugly as that small-sample slash line may be, Hummel turned in a .262/.409/.435 batting line in Triple-A last year and drew walks at a massive 18% clip. His ability to play both catcher and corner outfield gives him a relatively uncommon brand of versatility. Hummel has logged more than 1800 innings in left field, 1054 frames behind the plate, 508 innings at first base and another 296 innings in right field. Add in that he has a minor league option remaining, and he’s an interesting depth piece even if he hasn’t yet produced at the big league level.

Players Who Sign Extensions Prior To MLB Debut Are Not PPI Eligible

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A player who signs a contract extension prior to making his major league debut is not eligible for the prospect promotion incentive, reports JJ Cooper of Baseball America. He specifically mentions Jackson Chourio of the Brewers and Colt Keith of the Tigers, who both signed extensions with their respective clubs this offseason, as players who are not PPI eligible.

The latest collective bargaining agreement introduced the PPI to encourage clubs to carry top prospects on Opening Day rosters, rather than hold them down in the minors to gain an extra year of control, a move generally referred to as service time manipulation.

A major league season is 187 days long and a player needs 172 days in the big leagues to earn one year. By holding a player down in the minors for a few weeks, a club can prevent that player from getting to the one-year mark. Since a player needs a full six years of service to qualify for free agency, the club can gain an extra year of control over a young player by doing this. Some of the oft-cited examples of this practice are Kris Bryant of the Cubs and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays, both of whom were top prospects who were called up a few weeks into their respective rookie seasons, thus coming up just short of one year of service.

In an attempt to curb this behavior, the CBA introduced the PPI system, whereby teams could earn an extra draft pick by promoting certain players early in the season. To qualify, a player had to be on at least two out of the three top 100 lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline, as well as being rookie eligible and have fewer than 60 days of service time. If such a player was called up early enough in the season to accrue 172 days of service the traditional way*, they would be PPI eligible and could net their club an extra pick just after the first round. To earn a pick, a PPI eligible player has to either win a Rookie of the Year award or finish in the top three of voting for Most Valuable Player or Cy Young prior to qualifying for arbitration.

(*There was another new measure in the CBA to disincentive service time manipulation, whereby a player could earn a full year of service even if called up too late. If they were otherwise PPI eligible and finished in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, they could be bumped up to a full year, but they would not earn their clubs an extra pick. This situation arose with Adley Rutschman of the Orioles in 2022, who finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting despite missing the first few weeks of the season. He earned a full year of service but the O’s would not have received a bonus pick for that if he had finished first.)

This new detail provides an extra wrinkle, as Chourio and Keith would have been in play for PPI picks. Both of them are top prospects who signed offseason extensions and then cracked Opening Day rosters. However, this new development means they won’t be in play for those bonus picks after all.

On the flip side, Cooper adds that Michael Busch of the Cubs and Joey Ortiz of the Brewers are PPI eligible. When Matt Eddy of Baseball America outlined the PPI rules back in February, he noted that players who debut in the majors and are then traded do not have PPI status with their new club. Busch debuted with the Dodgers last year and was traded to the Cubs this winter while Ortiz debuted with the Orioles before being flipped to the Brewers. Eddy provided a further update today, stating that they are PPI eligible since they were not moved via midseason trades.

Tigers Designate Miguel Diaz For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated right-hander Miguel Diaz for assignment, tweets Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. Diaz, who’s out of minor league options, was informed earlier in the week that he hadn’t made the Opening Day roster, so this move was expected. Detroit also placed righty Sawyer Gipson-Long on the 15-day IL due to a groin strain.

Diaz, 29, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons — four with the Padres and two with the Tigers. He tossed 14 innings out of the Detroit ’pen in 2023, allowing just one run on eight hits and five walks with 16 strikeouts. It was a brief but dominant showing that surely enhanced his standing within the organization and gave him a chance to break camp with the 2024 club. However, Diaz struggled this spring, surrendering five runs on ten hits and five walks in 8 1/3 innings.

In prior seasons, perhaps the Tigers would’ve kept him and optioned someone else, but expectations in Detroit are shifting as the club enters more of a win-now mentality, emboldened by the strength of its emerging young core. Detroit also has a crowded bullpen featuring a blend of seasoned veterans (Shelby Miller, Andrew Chafin), emerging steady contributors (Alex Lange, Jason Foley, Tyler Holton) and former top prospects who clearly pitched their way into roster spots with standout spring showings (Joey Wentz, Alex Faedo). The bullpen mix was crowded enough that the Tigers optioned righty Beau Brieske, despite the 25-year-old tossing 13 2/3 shutout frames in Grapefruit League play.

Diaz’s lack of minor league options simply left him out of chances to make the club. The Tigers will have a week to trade the right-hander or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

Tigers Release Donny Sands

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The Tigers have released catcher Donny Sands, tweets Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster earlier this winter and will now depart the organization entirely.

The 27-year-old Sands was one of three players Detroit acquired in the trade sending Gregory Soto and Kody Clemens to the Phillies. Utilityman Nick Maton and third baseman/outfielder Matt Vierling both came to the Tigers in that swap as well.

Sands hasn’t panned out as hoped since that swap. He spent the bulk of the 2023 season in Triple-A Toledo, where he slashed .225/.318/.353 in 371 plate appearances. Those struggles were pronounced enough that Detroit opted to go outside the organization rather than call up Sands when they cut backup catcher Eric Haase last summer; the Tigers instead signed Carson Kelly to a big league deal that included a club option which has since been exercised.

Kelly will be the backup to Jake Rogers, who’s hit .225/.291/.457 (102 wRC+) with plus defense over the past two seasons — a strong enough showing to cement his status as the starting backstop in Detroit. Kelly’s contract was always going to ensure him of a roster spot, but he hit .289/.372/.553 in 43 spring plate appearances, which only reinforced his positioning ahead of Sands on the depth chart.

Sands only logged 10 spring plate appearances and went 1-for-8 with a walk in that tiny sample. His release should get former second-round pick Dillon Dingler even more playing time in Toledo this year. Dingler struggled through 106 plate appearances in his first look at Triple-A last year, but he’s hit well in Double-A and had a decent spring at the plate.

From a defensive standpoint, Sands has drawn decent framing numbers in the upper minors and turned in a 24% caught-stealing rate this past season. His 2023 struggles notwithstanding, Sands is a lifetime .261/.352/.403 hitter in parts of three Triple-A campaigns. He has also has a minor league option year remaining. He could latch on as a depth piece with another club that’s thinner behind the plate than the Tigers at the moment.

AL Central Notes: Royals, Cease, Tigers

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The Royals’ Opening Day roster has begun to come into focus, as the Royals recently optioned first baseman Nick Pratto, outfielder Drew Waters, and catcher Austin Nola to the minor leagues. Those positional cuts from camp helped to clarify the club’s bench mix, as manager Matt Quatraro told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) yesterday that infielder Nick Loftin and outfielder Dairon Blanco have both made the club’s Opening Day roster. Blanco will slot into a reserve outfielder role behind MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel, Hunter Renfroe, and Nelson Velazquez. Meanwhile, Loftin will step into a bench role previously ticketed for veteran Adam Frazier, who is set to become the club’s Opening Day second baseman with Michael Massey expected to begin the season on the injured list due to lower back tightness.

It’s an unfortunate development for Massey, who celebrated his 26th birthday earlier this week. The infielder was the club’s everyday option at the keystone last year and performed well on defense but struggled with the bat throughout the season. The youngster showed signs of life in the second half, however, slashing a respectable .250/.285/.458 with 11 home runs in 229 trips to the plate over his final 60 games in 2023. That display left him in line to receive the lion’s share of playing time at second once again this year even after the Royals added Frazier and Garrett Hampson in free agency. Now that Massey is set to begin the season on the shelf, however, Frazier will have the opportunity to play his way into a larger role early in the season. The 32-year-old veteran has been a roughly league average bat consistently throughout his career, with a .269/.331/.393 slash across eight seasons in the big leagues, including a .240/.300/.396 showing with the Orioles last year.

As for the trio of recent cuts, none of them are especially surprising. Pratto appeared unlikely to have a role with the big league club to open the season thanks to first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino’s return from labrum surgery and Nelson Velazquez’s emergence as a credible slugger at DH. Waters, similarly, is the odd man out in the club’s crowded outfield mix. Both former top prospects will open the season at Triple-A, providing them an opportunity to receive regular reps they couldn’t get with the big league Royals. Nola starting the season in the minors is hardly a surprise, either, as he joined the club on a split contract that was seemingly designed to allow him to be a backup to Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin at the Triple-A level.

More from around the AL Central…

  • The White Sox recently dealt right-hander Dylan Cease after months of rumors and speculation, shipping him to the Padres in exchange for a prospect package headlined by Drew Thorpe. Club GM Chris Getz recently spoke to Scott Merkin of MLB.com about the trade and noted that San Diego was one of two clubs who made “significant offers,” with Merkin reporting that the Rangers were the second place finisher for Cease’s services. Getz also made clear that the sides did not engage in extension negotiations amid the winter’s trade rumors, adding that while the club would have “loved” to keep Cease in the fold long term, he felt such an arrangement “wasn’t realistic.” That’s somewhat understandable, as Chicago suffered a 101-loss season last year and appears to have a long way to go before contending again, even in a relatively weak AL Central division. Given that reality, it would’ve been surprising to see the club commit to the sort of significant outlay that would have been required to retain the runner-up for the 2022 AL Cy Young award.
  • Tigers youngster Sawyer Gipson-Long once appeared likely to compete with other youngsters such as Casey Mize, Reese Olson, and Matt Manning for a role in the club’s starting rotation alongside Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Kenta Maeda. Unfortunately for Gipson-Long, he’s been nursing a left groin strain throughout camp that, as noted by Evan Woodbery of the Detroit Free Press, will lead to him opening the season on the injured list. Gipson-Long, who the club acquired at the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for right-hander Michael Fulmer, made his big league debut late in the season last year and impressed during four starts in the majors. In 20 innings of work, the right-hander posted a 2.70 ERA with a 3.16 FIP while striking out an excellent 31.7% of batters faced. With Mize and Olson now set to start the season in the rotation, Gipson-Long figures to head to Triple-A Toledo once healthy, where he’ll provide Detroit with quality rotation depth alongside Matt Manning and wait for an opportunity in the big leagues.

Casey Mize, Reese Olson Win Rotation Spots With Tigers; Matt Manning Optioned To Triple-A

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The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve optioned right-hander Matt Manning to Triple-A Toledo. That puts an end to the three-horse race for the final two spots in manager AJ Hinch’s rotation. Right-handers Casey Mize and Reese Olson will open the season on the starting staff behind lefty Tarik Skubal and righties Kenta Maeda and Jack Flaherty. Detroit also reassigned non-roster right-hander Drew Anderson to minor league camp.

Detroit’s talented trio of right-handers didn’t make the decision easy — at least not in terms of spring results. Each of Mize, Olson and Manning pitched between 14 2/3 innings and 16 innings this spring, and none posted an ERA north of Olson’s 3.68. Olson posted the best blend of strikeout and walk rates in camp (22.6% and 6.5%, respectively). Mize notched the lowest ERA but the highest walk rate. Manning was perhaps done in by the six home runs he yielded in 16 innings.

While Manning won’t open the season in the rotation, it’s likely that he, Mize and Olson will all make their share of starts in Detroit this season. Mize is in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery and back surgery. He’ll be on an innings limit of some degree. Injuries in the rotation are also a virtual inevitability. Even with Manning opening the year in Toledo, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him start 15-plus games in the bigs.

Mize, 27 in May, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft. He showed plenty of promise in 2021, tossing 150 1/3 innings of 3.71 ERA ball with a below-average 19.3% strikeout rate but a strong 6.7% walk rate and similarly encouraging 48.1% ground-ball rate. That looked to set the stage for Mize to seize a long-term spot in the Detroit rotation, but he unfortunately suffered a UCL tear early in the 2022 season. He wound up undergoing Tommy John surgery and, while he was rehabbing that procedure, underwent surgery to address a nagging back issue that had been plaguing him for some time. He’s still under club control for three seasons.

Olson, 24, made his big league debut with Detroit last season and quickly impressed. In his first 103 2/3 MLB frames, he turned in a 3.99 ERA with average or better strikeout (24.4%), walk (7.8%) and ground-ball (42.8%) rates. Olson supported those rates with solid marks in swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates as well. The Tigers control him all the way through 2029.

The 26-year-old Manning was Detroit’s first-round pick back in 2016. He’s pitched in parts of three big league seasons, logging a 4.37 ERA with a 16.1% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 41.6% grounder rate. Manning hasn’t missed bats at the levels expected throughout his time as a top-ranked prospect, but he’s shown solid command and kept the ball in the yard nicely to this point in his career. He’s also had frequent bad luck with injuries, including a 2023 season in which he incredibly broke his foot on two separate occasions upon being struck by a comeback line-drive. He’s under club control through 2027 and will remain a notable piece of the Tigers’ rotation puzzle in the foreseeable future, even if he starts this season out in Toledo.

Keston Hiura Won’t Make Tigers, Has Upward Mobility Clause

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4:30pm: Petzold tweets that the upward mobility clause dates are March 26, June 1 and August 1.

4:10pm: The Tigers announced today that they have reassigned right-hander Trey Wingenter, left-hander Andrew Vasquez, catcher Anthony Bemboom, infielder Keston Hiura and outfielders Bligh Madris and Ryan Vilade to minor league camp, indicating that no one in that group will make the club’s Opening Day roster.

Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press takes a look at the moves and notes that the organization plans to have Hiura serve as the primary first baseman for Triple-A Toledo. However, the wrinkle in that plan is that his minor league deal has an upward mobility clause, also known as an assignment clause. There are multiple dates where the Tigers must ask the other 29 clubs if any is willing to give Hiura a roster spot. If any of them say yes, the Tigers either have to call him up themselves or trade him to the team that wants him.

That means that the Tigers can only keep him in Triple-A if the other teams all pass on the chance to take him. Petzold doesn’t provide specifics about the dates when the clause will be triggered, but he does note that one of them is next week.

The 27-year-old has had a feast-or-famine career thus far, as he has shown huge home run power but also a worrying penchant for strikeouts. He has 1,057 plate appearances at the major league level, all with the Brewers from 2019 to 2022. He struck out in 380 of them, a 36% rate which is well above par. The league-wide average was 22.7% in the majors last year, for reference. But Hiura did hit 50 home runs in that time.

Last year, Hiura was stuck in Triple-A. He hit 25 homers in 367 plate appearances at that level while keeping his strikeout rate to a more passable 24.5% clip. But he never got called back up to the big leagues and hit minor league free agency at season’s end, signing a minor league deal with the Tigers.

Here in the spring, he batted .323 for the Tigers with two homers in 34 plate appearances. He only struck out at a 23.5% rate but it’s a small sample size and spring stats are always to be taken with a grain of salt as opposing pitchers may not be major league caliber or may be experimenting as they get ready for the season.

Hiura doesn’t have a strong path to playing time in Detroit. He came up as a second baseman but was a poor defender there and spent more time at first base and left field last year. The Tigers have Spencer Torkelson entrenched at first for the foreseeable future. The designated hitter slot will likely be used to rotate their outfielders through, with Kerry Carpenter perhaps seeing the most time as a DH while Mark Canha, Parker Meadows and Riley Greene are on the grass. The bench will be taken up by backup catcher Carson Kelly and utility infielder/outfielders Andy Ibañez, Zach McKinstry and Matt Vierling.

The Tigers would surely like to keep Hiura around as depth but the other 29 clubs will have multiple opportunities to take a chance on him. The Rays just lost one player from their first base/designated hitter mix as it was reported today that Jonathan Aranda requires surgery for a broken finger. The Yankees may be without DJ LeMahieu to start the season after he fouled a ball of his foot. Hiura wouldn’t be able to step in as the everyday third baseman but could provide another bench bat while Oswaldo Cabrera covers the hot corner. The Angels have Nolan Schanuel as their first baseman despite the fact that he was just drafted last summer, and he’s also currently dealing with some back tightness.

There’s also the possibility for platooning, as Hiura has significant reverse splits in his career. He’s hit just .201/.283/.323 against southpaws for a 64 wRC+ but .253/.332/.508 against righties for a 122 wRC+, despite being a right-handed hitter. For any club that feels they are weak against righties, Hiura will be there for the taking. His deal comes with a $2MM base salary if he’s in the majors.

Offseason In Review: Detroit Tigers

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The Tigers had a fairly encouraging season last year and spent the offseason bolstering the depth with various mid-tier acquisitions.

Major League Signings

2024 spending: $37.25MM
Total spending: $47.25MM

Option Decisions

Trades And Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Notable Losses

The Tigers had a somewhat encouraging season in 2023, with various players either returning to health or taking a step forward in terms of performance. They were never really in contention, but did manage to go 39-34 after the All-Star break and sneak into second place in the American League Central.

That vaguely echoed the club’s 2021 campaign, where they went 37-34 after the break and felt like they had a chance of coming out of their rebuild. They spent big on Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodríguez that winter but the 2022 campaign turned into a disaster. General manager Al Avila was fired in August and the Tigers eventually finished 66-96.

Avila was eventually replaced as the club’s top decision maker when Scott Harris was hired as president of baseball operations. Harris seemed leery of making the same mistake as Avila and didn’t want to overplay the club’s hand this winter.

“Sometimes, teams overestimate their proximity to being a team that’s right on the verge of the playoffs,” Harris said in November. “And they spend a lot of money and it doesn’t push them forward. It pushes them back.” He added that the Tigers are going in the right direction but “can’t do anything in free agency or in trades that sets us back. If we find an opportunity that’s going to push us forward and we’re confident of that, we’re going to do it.”

That threw some cold water on the Tigers being big players in free agency, though they could have done so if they wanted. Miguel Cabrera’s contract finally reached its end, which freed up a lot of capital in the club’s budget. The Tigers went into this offseason with nothing committed beyond 2024 except for the Báez deal. That deal pays him salaries of $25MM or $24MM for the remaining four years, which isn’t nothing.

But the club has run payrolls as high as $200MM in the past, as their last competitive window was shutting down, as shown at Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That spending was under owner Mike Ilitch, who passed away in 2017. His son Chris has been calling the shots since then and hasn’t had the budget as high, but the club has also been rebuilding in that time and hasn’t had the need to spend wildly. With some encouraging developments on the roster and Cabrera’s deal gone, it was at least possible to dream on the club coming out firing.

That made it at least somewhat plausible when the club was connected to Yoshinobu Yamamoto early in the winter. But the comments from Harris pointed to a more measured offseason, which is what eventually transpired.

Yamamoto went to the Dodgers but the Tigers did make a couple of additions to their rotation. Kenta Maeda was added via a modest two-year, $24MM pact. It might not be the most exciting signing, with a cynic able to point to the facts that Maeda is about to turn 36, missed all of 2022 due to internal brace surgery and then posted a middling 4.23 ERA in 2023.

But there’s also a more optimistic lens through which to view the deal. Maeda went on the injured list due to a triceps strain in late April last year, right after getting shelled by the Yankees, allowing 10 earned runs in three innings. That poor performance could perhaps have been a byproduct of his injury, as he finished quite strong after he recovered. He was activated off the IL in June and put up a 3.36 ERA the rest of the way, pairing an excellent 29% strikeout rate with a strong 7% walk rate.

The Tigers also added Jack Flaherty on a one-year “prove it” deal. Flaherty was one of the best pitchers in league in 2019 but struggled with his health over the three following campaigns. He was finally healthy again in 2023 but finished the year with a 4.99 ERA.

If Flaherty can take a step forward in terms of results now that he’s further removed from his health troubles, the Tigers will be the beneficiary. They can either trade him at the deadline or give him a qualifying offer at season’s end, depending on how things play out.

The Maeda and Flaherty deals perhaps aren’t as exciting as a major splash would have been, but they raise the floor of the rotation. Perhaps more importantly, they do little to hurt the club in the future. Flaherty’s deal is just for one year while Maeda’s is only two, and slightly frontloaded. He’ll made $14MM this year and just $10MM in 2025, meaning he’ll do little to hamper any spending the club may try next winter.

The approach was similar with other parts of the roster. The club has some intriguing outfielders in Riley Greene, Parker Meadows, Kerry Carpenter and Akil Baddoo. But they are all fairly inexperienced and all happen to hit from the left side. The Tigers decided to complement that group by acquiring Mark Canha from the Brewers.

Canha had actually finished the final guaranteed year of his contract, but there was an $11.5MM club option with a $2MM buyout. The Tigers sent a modest return, minor league reliever Blake Holub, in order to get Canha at that reasonable price point. He’ll provide their young outfielders with a veteran presence and give the club a solid right-handed-hitting veteran, while not committing them to anything beyond this year.

That approach carried to the infield as well, with the Tigers having some uncertainty at both second base and third base. They had internal options for those spots with guys like Zach McKinstry, Andy Ibañez and Matt Vierling on the roster, though the guys in that group are arguably best suited to multi-positional part-time roles. They also had prospects like Colt Keith, Jace Jung and Justyn-Henry Malloy, though none had reached the majors by the end of 2023 and Malloy was likely slated for a move to the outfield due to his subpar infield defense.

The club added to this group by making a late signing of third baseman, Gio Urshela, who lingered on the open market well into February. The Tigers were able to get him to put pen to paper for just $1.5MM. He’s coming off an injury-marred season with the Angels but he’ll be a bargain if he can get back to health and the kind of form he showed with the Yankees and Twins.

As for second base, the club signalled its intentions there by signing Keith to a six-year extension with three club options as well. It was a remarkable show of faith in a player who has yet to make his major league debut, but he has continued to hit at every level he’s played. He hit .306/.380/.552 between Double-A and Triple-A last year while just 21 years old for much of the year, as he turned 22 in mid-August.

Ultimately, the club’s young players will determine the future of the franchise. Keith, Jung, Malloy, Meadows, Greene, Carpenter and Spencer Torkelson are all controlled through at least 2028. On the pitching side, Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize can still be retained through 2026 while Reese Olson, Matt Manning and Sawyer Gipson-Long are controllable beyond that. Pitching prospects like Wilmer Flores, Ty Madden and Jackson Jobe are creating some buzz despite not yet having reached the majors.

For this year, that young core will have some help from the veterans that the club brought in. Maeda and Flaherty join the rotation, Canha and Urshela on the position player side. The bullpen got a couple of veteran additions as well, with lefty Andrew Chafin and righty Shelby Miller signed to one-year deals.

If a few things break right, it’s possible to imagine the club competing this year. As mentioned, they were above .500 after the break last year and the division is arguably the weakest in the sport. The Royals were aggressive this winter but face a steep climb after losing 106 games last year. The Guardians did almost nothing this offseason. The White Sox are tearing things down. The Twins are the reigning champions in the division and are still strong overall but made some cost-cutting moves and are arguably in a weaker position than they were last year.

The Tigers will see how things go and will continue to have a fairly wide open future. The Keith extension added some more money to the long-term ledger, but they still have less than $40MM committed to each season beyond this one. As things develop, there should be plenty of opportunity to hit the gas whenever the front office decides the time is right.

One thing that would appear to be a constant in that future is the presence of manager A.J. Hinch. He and the club agreed to a long-term extension in December. The details of that new arrangement aren’t clear, but he was previously under contract through 2025, so he is now locked in beyond that. He was hired by the previous Avila regime, so this new deal acted as a sort of symbolic stamp of approval from the Harris front office, showcasing that the two sides could indeed work together while helping to avoid any conversations about future lame-duck situations.

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