2024 - 2025 Detroit Tigers Offseason

[alex]

1 hour ago, RandyMarsh said:

... A couple years down the road we may have egg on our face but I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. 

 

28 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Just like we did with Miggy and like we did with Zimmermann and like we're doing with Javy.

At least we (barely) escaped doing it with Prince.

I 'think' in the case of Bregman there are other intangibles. SHarris has repeatedly said he wants to develop the farm system, young talent and of course keep a real pipeline to the MLB club. I think this is the most important thing for the health of the organization.

I have also head Harris say several times he likes the influence of veterans (the right veterans) on how they can help with young players.

With Bregman, from what we all hear repeatedly, is that he is a leader, good clubhouse influence, etc. With this said, we know Harris brings in vets for 10 mil, 12 mil, etc. with 'one year' contracts (call it rebound looks for some instances) each year (see Canha, Torres, Boyd, Cobb, etc.). IF Bregman is aboard, he may not be a 30 mil guy in year 4 or 5 - but he may also allow Harris to not 'have to bring in that veteran influence' per say for that say 14-15 mil which it will be at that point.

If they can get him on a more front loaded (FL) deal, even if it is for 5 years, (say years 1-3 are FL) it could be a win-win for both sides.

I agree to stay away from long term deals. I felt no way would Flaherty get 4-5 years from us - but what they did works, and now he is here. 'IF' the Tigers think Bregman is a 'guy/dude' they want for a variety of reasons- then a 5-6 year deal in this particular case may work. I feel (maybe they do as well) he could be an 'organization' type guy.

With all that said being plan 'A' - I hope of course they have a Plan 'B & C' as well. They need a RH INF who can help. This also puts Vierling back to the OF most of the time - where he may be best suited.

Edited Tuesday at 11:21 PM by alex

[Hongbit]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

I suspect they either pulled the 6/156 off the table, or it wasn't on the table in the first place. Maybe we can get something in place that hooks us for no more than two years, if that.

I can't help but believe he'd much rather go to Boston and play second, though.

I suspect there are teams that still like and value Bregman but have no interest in giving in to Boras games.  Would rather be out and move on than let him win.  

Edited Tuesday at 11:28 PM by Hongbit

[Motor City Sonics]

35 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

I suspect there are teams that still like and value Bregman but have no interest in giving in to Boras games.  Would rather be out and move on than let him win.  

Yep.  Agreed.    Sorry, Alex, you became a Free Agent about 2 years too late.    I feel so terrible that you'll have to struggle for only $23 or $24 million a year.  How will you ever get by? 

[Tenacious D]

I would be shocked to see Alex sign a short-term deal with us (or rely on an early opt-out).  Boras and Co seem very analytical and would factor in his performance last season and career stats at Comerica and realize it would be risky for Bregman to improve his stock in Detroit for a better contract.  Fenway or Wrigley would be more desirable to achieve that..

 

[Arlington]

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Partial escape?  Didn't we pick up some of Prince's salary to move him?

Like $10 million a year, and at least one year of that was paid after he retired for health reasons.  I still am bitter at the man who showed up his two Tiger seasons fat and then when he's traded to Texas he comes to spring training all in shape.  Like he couldn't do that for Mr. Ilitch's money. 

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Arlington said:

Like $10 million a year, and at least one year of that was paid after he retired for health reasons.  I still am bitter at the man who showed up his two Tiger seasons fat and then when he's traded to Texas he comes to spring training all in shape.  Like he couldn't do that for Mr. Ilitch's money. 

It didn't help him though.  He was basically a repeat of his father.  He was better than his father, but the career path was the same.  

[RandyMarsh]

It's wild going back and looking at his player page, a few things jump out but seeing how durable he was before breaking down really stands out. His first 8 years in the league he missed 13 games total and had a 5 year stretch where he only missed 1 total game.  

Another thing was that I didn't remember him being good at all for Texas but his 2015 season was really good offensively atleast, not like at his peak but still finished with a 126 OPS+ in over 600ABs and actually garnered MVP votes. Don't remember that all. 

[Arlington]

If he was a little slimmer he might have been able to get back to 3b on that embarrassing play in the 2012 WS.  The Fielders' were estranged if I recall. Son wouldn't speak to the dad. 

Statistical oddity alert - Both Fielders hit 319 career home runs

[Arlington]

2 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

It's wild going back and looking at his player page, a few things jump out but seeing how durable he was before breaking down really stands out. His first 8 years in the league he missed 13 games total and had a 5 year stretch where he only missed 1 total game.  

Another thing was that I didn't remember him being good at all for Texas but his 2015 season was really good offensively atleast, not like at his peak but still finished with a 126 OPS+ in over 600ABs and actually garnered MVP votes. Don't remember that all. 

2015 must have been the year he decided it was worthwhile to get in shape.

 

[RandyMarsh]

3 minutes ago, Arlington said:

If he was a little slimmer he might have been able to get back to 3b on that embarrassing play in the 2012 WS.  The Fielders' were estranged if I recall. Son wouldn't speak to the dad. 

Statistical oddity alert - Both Fielders hit 319 career home runs

YEah that's one of my favorite random stats. Another is Musial having the exact same number of hits at home and on the road.

Also the longest hit streak among all Yankee and Red Sox players is of course Joe Dimaggio at 56, the 2nd longest is also Dimaggio but not Joe but his brother Dom who had a 34 game hit streak. Oddly enough Dom's hit streak ended when he went 0-5 against the Yankees with his last at bat being a fly ball to Joe. 

[IdahoBert]

3 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I would be shocked to see Alex sign a short-term deal with us (or rely on an early opt-out).  Boras and Co seem very analytical and would factor in his performance last season and career stats at Comerica and realize it would be risky for Bregman to improve his stock in Detroit for a better contract.  Fenway or Wrigley would be more desirable to achieve that..

 

This makes a lot of sense. 

[Shelton]

Sign Bregman

[chasfh]

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-all-underrated-team-2025-season

Torres at 2B, Holton at RP.

[RedRamage]

16 hours ago, alex said:

If they can get him on a more front loaded (FL) deal, even if it is for 5 years, (say years 1-3 are FL) it could be a win-win for both sides.

I'm a little surprised there are more efforts at front loaded deals. I supposed owners may not be hugely in favor of them, but I'd think front offices and players would generally be in favor of them.

From a front office perspective if you pay more initially you're paying during the years the player will likely be producing more. When the player ages and likely production declines the salary declines with it and it doesn't seem as much like you're "stuck" paying an aging veteran. 

From a player perspective if I'm going to make (for the sake of argument) $200M over 5 years and the club is going to pay me $55M, $47M, $40M, $32M, and $26M... I'm going to agree to that immediately! If I get more money earlier I can invest it and be making good bank on it.

[Tigermojo]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-all-underrated-team-2025-season

Torres at 2B, Holton at RP.

Holton was such a huge part of the second half surge.

[Tigermojo]

Bring Chafin back again?

[Tenacious D]

7 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Bring Chafin back again?

Why would anyone like chafing?  

[Tigermojo]

17 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

Why would anyone like chafing?  

Chafing dishes?

[monkeytargets39]

So at this point are we figuring that the pitching staff will probably be:

 

Skubal, Flaherty, Olson, Cobb, Mize in the rotation.

 

Vest, Brieske, Foley, Kahnle, Holton, Hurter, Maeda and one of Guenther/Hanifee/Englert as the bullpen.

 

Jobe, Manning, Montero, Madden and Flores or Lockhart as the Toledo rotation

 

SGL and Lange start on the DL.

 

 

If that’s the case I wouldn’t mind finding one more bullpen arm.  Maybe like a Phil Maton/David Robertson/Andrew Chafin (again)

[davidsb623]

No to Bregman!

[SoCalTiger]

Getting Bregman at the beginning of the off season seemed very doubtful. getting Bregman on short term under 100 million contract still feels impossible to me. Then again I never dreamed we could get Captain Jack back for 45 million max.

I'm with Mets owner Cohen . It's tiring. 

[Tiger337]

3 minutes ago, SoCalTiger said:

Getting Bregman at the beginning of the off season seemed very doubtful. getting Bregman on short term under 100 million contract still feels impossible to me. Then again I never dreamed we could get Captain Jack back for 45 million max.

 

I am expecting him to get a 6-year deal someplace which I don't think is out of line with contracts other players are getting.  I suspect he has gotten that kind of offer from multiple teams, but wants more.  I have very little hope the Tigers can get him on a short-term deal.  

[1776]

14 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It didn't help him though.  He was basically a repeat of his father.  He was better than his father, but the career path was the same.  

Here is a strange one. Cecil Fielder finished his career with 319 home runs. His son, Prince Fielder, finished his career with 319 home runs.
But wait, there's more, both had 97 two out home runs, both had 49 fourth inning home runs, both had 29 fifth inning home runs and both had 18 ninth inning home runs. Also, both father and son had exactly forty percent of their hits go for extra bases. Pretty cool.

Edited Wednesday at 05:59 PM by 1776

[KL2]

2 hours ago, RedRamage said:

I'm a little surprised there are more efforts at front loaded deals. I supposed owners may not be hugely in favor of them, but I'd think front offices and players would generally be in favor of them.

From a front office perspective if you pay more initially you're paying during the years the player will likely be producing more. When the player ages and likely production declines the salary declines with it and it doesn't seem as much like you're "stuck" paying an aging veteran. 

From a player perspective if I'm going to make (for the sake of argument) $200M over 5 years and the club is going to pay me $55M, $47M, $40M, $32M, and $26M... I'm going to agree to that immediately! If I get more money earlier I can invest it and be making good bank on it.

They like em back load for the opposite. 

if payrolls increae every year naturally. $40 million in 8 years is less of a handicap than $40 million today. And those big deals are usually bad at the end, so i'd rather have the money today to build around than when they're old and I suck

[Sports_Freak]