2024 - 2025 Detroit Tigers Offseason

[romad1]

6 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I think we have to ride the kids again to see what we have in a full season of Meadows, Jung, Sweeney, Dingler and Malloy.  Can’t bury any of them—get them 400-500 AB’s.  Could lead to an improved team, or some regression.  Lots of variability.  

External reinforcements should be at 1B, maybe OF.

Lots of kids coming fast.  Not all will make it, but we have enough depth and options.

Supplement the pitching staff.  A #2 and a solid bullpen dude.

I'd be wary of adding a lot of position player veterans unless those veterans were good cultural fits.  You can't help but notice that Javy Baez leaving the dugout signaled immediately the surge.  Is Alex Bregman that fit?  I dunno.   Spencer Torkelson would be a cultural fit if he could hit his weight.  Will that happen? I dunno.

The formula of the '84 Tigers to create a core of young players who all come up together and add via trade (Chet Lemon) and FA (Darrell Evans) those extra pieces seems more robust for our market than the 2006-2013 model of building via the checkbook and trading for pieces from the bottom of the woodpile because only a Dave Dombrowski can do that if he's backed by a hefty Mike Illitch checkbook and Scott Boros is on speed dial.

[Tiger337]

42 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I'd be wary of adding a lot of position player veterans unless those veterans were good cultural fits.  You can't help but notice that Javy Baez leaving the dugout signaled immediately the surge.  Is Alex Bregman that fit?  I dunno.   Spencer Torkelson would be a cultural fit if he could hit his weight.  Will that happen? I dunno.

The formula of the '84 Tigers to create a core of young players who all come up together and add via trade (Chet Lemon) and FA (Darrell Evans) those extra pieces seems more robust for our market than the 2006-2013 model of building via the checkbook and trading for pieces from the bottom of the woodpile because only a Dave Dombrowski can do that if he's backed by a hefty Mike Illitch checkbook and Scott Boros is on speed dial.

My impression based on everything I have read about Bregman suggests he would be a great Hinch fit.  The concern about him is a potential prohibitive contract length.  

[Tigermojo]

Only 147 days until opening day.

[ICroupier]

On 10/30/2024 at 9:09 AM, romad1 said:

a lot of playoff "lessons learned" about the Tiger kids who absolutely benefitted from the experience..  I'm not convinced that the Tiger LHH infielders were exposed at all.  In a short series a lot of things manifest that are based on scouting, matchups or just having a couple bad swings.   I'm optimistic about Trey Sweeny, Jace Jung and Colt Keith based on what i saw in the final two months of the season.   

I agree that preserving chemistry is important - and I'm not talking about wholesale changes up and down the lineup - but we should all be able to agree that there was a lot of luck involved in making it so far with a below average offense.

We finished 21st in runs per game this year. Over the last 3 years, no team that has made the CS round has finished lower than 14th - and the majority of the teams over that period finished in the top 7.

The idea that we "can't bury any of the kids" as Tenacious D proposes is the exact opposite mindset a team should take when looking to take things to the next level.

Can't bury Dingler? Seriously? He doesn't even factor into my medium- to long-term thinking, let alone my short term. And while Jung holds more promise and I'm certainly not writing him off, he hasn't displayed anything to make us think he's ready for 500 ABs.

I believe we need at least 2 significant offensive upgrades for this team to take the next step. I don't care whether that comes via FA, trade, or homegrown development. But it needs to happen. And based on what I saw from Sweeney, Tork, Jung, Dingler, JHM, etc., I don't think any can be counted on a significant step forward next year.