Detroit Tigers Offseason Outlook: Tarik Skubal, AJ Hinch & What’s Next

Detroit Tigers Offseason Outlook: Tarik Skubal, AJ Hinch & What’s Next

Nice and simple to start, Cody. How do you evaluate 2025 for the Tigers? I I I wish that were nice and simple. Um Scott Harris and AJ Hinge talked today for the postmortem press conference. I think Harris kind of agreed it felt like multiple seasons in one. There were some big emotional swings. There was a lot to like. There was a lot to not like at all. Um I I don’t know how to feel about it. You know, in the big picture, hey, you made the playoffs. You made the ALDS. you still have a good farm system. At the same time, at at at points this year, it felt like you were destined for something a little bigger and you just didn’t get there. So, there’s something some things to feel good about and there’s a little hints of regret as well. All right, tough tough hitting question right off the gate. Do they have the finances to keep Scoo or do they got to trade him with one year left? Yeah, personally, I think that’s looking at the question the wrong way. I think they have the finances. There’s no reason to believe they don’t. I’m not sure the Tigers are going to run a luxury tax team anytime soon, but they’re still middle of the pack in payroll. Trick school is a Scott Boris client. They could offer him $1 billion and Scott Boris might say, “Hey, you know what? Ter’s going to set a record for starting pitching. We’re going to go ahead and take this to free agency, see if anyone wants to beat you.” I think the Tigers have to be aware of that fact. They are aware of that fact. Um, and so thus, I do think they have to look long and hard at trading trading him. Scott Harris today talking about it. Basically said, “I’m not gonna comment.” Which I think tells you that everything is on the table. Uh including the possibility of a trade. All right, Cody. Part of his press conference, he talked about the trade deadline. The team absolutely cratered, struggled, and we’re here today talking about it because the Tigers didn’t ultimately move on in the playoffs. Do you agree with what he said at the trade deadline about how they went after guys and it would have taken prospects and that guy that they went after not naming names didn’t do good so we can kind of insinuate and know who he’s talking about. Do you believe him agree with him or was he kind of skirting around the fact that there was other areas that they could have made moves to help bolster this team? Yeah. Yeah. I think some of both. I think Scott’s big picture view of the deadline is not at all wrong. Every year there are a lot of moves that get made that look great at the time that then those players don’t produce. Especially if we’re talking about relief pitchers in a two-month sample, it can be really hard to get that right. At the same time, executives are paid to get those difficult decisions right. seem like maybe there’s some hinting about the idea of Au Haney Suarez who obviously didn’t have a good first half homered against the Tigers in the Diaz but was hitting below a 100red in the playoffs. Um I get that I don’t think the Tigers should have traded Max Clark or Kevin McGonagle or even Troy Melton. Um at the same time, you know, Ryan Hley didn’t pitch well in the second half. David Bedar did. Uh the two starters they acquired, Charlie Morton and Chris Paddock were terrible. Mel Kelly was was pretty good at after the deadline. So, like his point is right and we will never know fully what deals were on the table. I think Scott’s big point today was that the deals the other deals they could have made and did not. They’re still glad they didn’t make those moves. Um, we don’t know exactly what those deals are. Part you’re dealing with the market, but as an executive, you’re also tasked with trying to create a market. I think it’s hard to look at the deadline and how this season ended and not wish you would have done a little bit more. Uh, but that doesn’t mean that like Scott still has a point in the way he’s framing it. Sometimes it is easy to overrate and overvalue deadline acquisitions. One point I’ve been trying to force for a while. The reason there was so much focus on the deadline is because some other decisions went wrong for the Tigers this year, moves they made back in the offseason, Alex Cobb, John Brebia. Um, they pair that with some injuries and their pitching was thin and then there was a pressure to add at the deadline. um it when you lose, when you fall short in the ALDS, when your bullpin was pretty thin, I don’t think you can say, “Hey, we got everything right.” But if he believes that, you know, he he’s glad they didn’t make these other hypothetical trades, then I do believe him on that. Yeah. On that note, do you believe they’re kicking themsel over not kind of outbidding the Red Sox to get Alex Bregman because that would have obviously solved a lot of issues. Yeah, I I think that’s a fair question. And when we talk about payroll, that is worth bringing up. There was so much made like the Tigers did make a competitive offer to Alex Bregman. They were willing to go six years, which in the winter none of us, myself included, thought they were. And then it kind of begs the question, well, if you were willing to go six years, why didn’t this deal get done? You know, why not kick up the AAV a little bit more if you’re if you’re already in that territory? Um, we’ll see if Alex Bregman opts out. I think it’ll be fascinating if he does because he again checks pretty much every box the Tigers need, but he’s another year older. Another year of his prime or or close to his prime is gone. So, are you going to be willing to go five or six years again? It’s even riskier than it was last time around. If they didn’t want to do it, I would kind of understand. Uh which gets back to like the way to avoid all this would have been to get the deal done last winter. Cody, I want to go back to the postseason. Let’s rewind. So, the season ends weirdly, but they make it into the playoffs partially because the Astros crumbled down the stretch. The Guardians were flying high. Tigers weren’t weren’t and the Tigers beat them. Cool. Okay. Made it to the DS. Now, they take the Mariners to a fifth game and they fall. So, let’s go to that point. What did you learn about the Tigers in that series and how can they fix it going into the next season? Are there more holes in the lineup than we think? Is there too much platuning and scheming going on or do you go, okay, I mean, they took a team that might make it to the World Series to a fifth game here and a 15th inning. Yeah, I mean I they played better. They regained parts of their identity in October. They also had a lot of flaws show up. To your point, the lineup, I think, has some holes in it. I think that is the the biggest and most difficult question for the Tigers this winter because you have this core of homegrown position players. You’re going to bring back everyone except Gabber Torres. Well, Glaver Torres, although he struggled down the stretch, turns out he was playing through a hernia, was your best consistent quality at bat, was one of your best bat to ball on base guys. You have some good hitters, Riley Green, Spencer Tolson, Carrie Carpenter, others, but you have a lot of swing and miss, some chase tendencies. Ask Scott Harris about that today. Talked about, hey, we’re going to do some bat path work, work on approach. Like, that’s all good. I think that can only help you so much. Now, they have drafted and developed differently under Harris. Some of the guys rising through the system like Kevin McGonagle have better bat-to ball contact oriented profiles. that bodess well for their future, but I’m not sure there’s one big fix coming in 2026. And unless you’re willing to move on from young players who you still feel pretty good about. It’s hard to know exactly how you were going to reshape this lineup. I think the Tigers are weighing these same questions and and that’s why there are some hard decisions ahead, but that’s what stood out. That’s why they lost the DS. They pitched pretty well. Uh they struck out too much. They did didn’t have good quality at bats with runners on base. Uh those of us who had watched the Tigers all year saw that for all of September, really for the bulk of the second half. Um and it it was heightened I think when you’re facing elite pitching like that was a line players started using well we’re facing the best pitching in the world and you were and it’s not easy to hit Luis Castillo or whoever else it might be. But that’s the challenge and that’s the challenge of winning in the playoffs and the Tigers in their lineup didn’t quite have enough. That’s part of why they platoon so much. I think if you handed AJ Hinch the lineup he had in Houston and said which one would you like? He would take you downon Alvarez and Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker and and all of those guys who you don’t necessarily have to platoon as much. Um that’s why there’s not one easy solution. Uh but overall they need a little bit more in the lineup. KP, we both love Omaha Stakes. My latest order six private reserve filt minans. It sounds bougie because it is. They were fantastic. And also one and a half pounds of jumbo cooked shrimp with a big initial discount and then an additional 35 bucks off with the code foul. You have been a longtime Omaha steaks guy, too. Yeah. Back in college, I would always order steaks. I’d put them in my freezer. And that’s the reason I bulked up is because I always had fresh steaks in my freezer ready to go. Delicious protein. Get after it. Okay. It is the best in the biz. If you’re ordering stakes online, you can save big with Omaha Stakes. Visit omahastak.com for 50% off sitewide and an extra 20% off select favorites during their early Black Friday sale. And for an extra $35 off, use promo code foul at checkout. Terms apply. Seite for details. That’s 50% off at omahastak.com. Promo code FU at checkout. You just said you can’t really get rid of some of the guys that you have because they’re so young. Can’t we say some of this learning process is because they’re so young? Or do you feel like the way that they’re used, nobody in this lineup that’s platoon is gonna be able to make that like major leap and jump that they need to make, which they which players normally make at this point in their career. I know they’re all different ages, but I’m saying that at this point in their career, you get to that two, three years in the big leagues, that’s when you start to really hit your prime. So, aren’t they aren’t they just primed for a progression and not a regression? I think that’s the hope. I think the argument against that, look no further than Riley Green, who’s a great young hitter, a really talented player. He had 36 home runs this year. He he achieved like his ultimate power ceiling. And Riley Green’s first three years, his walk rates went up, his strikeout rates went down. That changed in a big way this year. And he struck out more than 200 times. Was that because he was chasing too much power? I don’t know. Uh the chase rate was also through the roof. So it’s wasn’t just the swing and missing in the zone. He was chasing selecting bad pitches. So that’s kind of always like the the fallacy or at least the risk in player development and betting on young hitters is it’s not always linear. It’s not always this perfect progression. And then sometimes the profiles of players who swing and miss, although they can make in incremental gains if this is still someone who’s prone to chasing or prone to whiffing, can you really expect that to have a drastic change? Um, I’m not sure. I don’t think the Tigers should abandon Riley Green by any means or or really any of their young hitters, but I think that’s just what makes it hard if that if that makes any sense. Yeah, absolutely, Cody. A lot to discuss, a lot to digest here over the off seasonason, but now the Tigers have time. And I will say that was a was a fun roller coaster ride where Crats, let’s bring Kratz on actually for the closing line. What did you say about the Tigers last night on our postgame show when we were talking about the Blue Jays and the Mariners? Maybe the Tigers. It was about scored in that. They would have never scored like we would still be playing. we’d be in like inning 36 just because they weren’t willing to they weren’t willing. They got they get six guys on the lead off innings. They weren’t willing to move them over. They weren’t willing to do things in the game that said, you know what, I just don’t got it. And and I go back to like my at bats. There were sometimes where there’s a dude on the mound, there’s a runner on third and one out. And I’m like, good chance I probably am not getting a hit against this guy. And I’m the most falsely confident person in myself in the world. I’m like, maybe I need to put a bunt down. Like there just seemed like there was things that were indicative to the fact that the Tigers were not going to score a run in that game. No matter who the Mariners threw out there, they might have brought Randy Johnson and Ichiro back to pitch. You’re kind of right, Kraty. Like it did feel like that at times. So again, does these guys getting a year older change that or does there have to be a bigger uh shift in either approach or personnel? I think it changes it. I think it changes it because you get you get smarter. KP would agree with me. You might not get physically better. Dylan Dingler is not going to be able to throw the ball harder or hit it farther as he gets older, but you get smarter and you’re like, I am sick and tired of swinging at the slider down and away. And then I’m sick and tired of watching the eight other guys swing at the slider down and away. Besides Carrie Carpenter, he can hit a slider, but everyone else is like, “This has got to be the fast ball.” No, not the fast ball. Hey, last one for you. Uh, Cody, I know they just officially made AJ Hinch’s contract extension a thing. So, uh, I think we originally found out about it maybe a month ago. I’m assuming they love him and want him there for a long period of time. Yeah, this is actually the second contract extension he’s got in a couple years, which is which is interesting. They have not released the exact terms of the deal. Um, it was believed his first Tigers contract went through 2025. Uh, but he was extended in 2023 for unknown length of years and he just got another extension. Maybe fair to assume that’s going to have a handsome raise for AJ. Don’t know how long under he’s under contract now, but uh sounds like it’s going to be a long time. AJ’s a great manager. Um tremendous tactician. Maybe wasn’t perfect when the lights were on and every decision is scrutinized a little more in the playoffs, but he’s well regarded for a reason. And I think it’s a good thing he’s going to be sticking around in Detroit for a while. Um the interesting aspect there is you it it does seem like Craig Council’s where managers are starting to get longer contracts, a little more power and control. Uh, but it’s still rare to see managers with these long-term deals, maybe under contract longer than their executives. And you do kind of wonder what what does that look like five, six years down the line? What does that look like if something goes wrong? Uh, but AJ Hench has been a big part of the Tigers, you know, emerging from a rebuild, becoming a postseason team, and it’s it’s a positive sign, I think, that they’ve taken proactive steps to lock him

Cody Stavenhagen, host of Tiger Territory and Tigers reporter for The Athletic, joins Foul Territory to break down Detroit’s biggest offseason storyline — the future of Tarik Skubal. Could the Tigers really trade their ace before his contract year? Cody explains why the front office has to consider every option, how Scott Boras factors into the decision, and what it means for Detroit’s long-term plan. Plus, a look at the team’s missed trade deadline opportunities, AJ Hinch’s new extension, and where the Tigers go from here after a roller-coaster 2025 season.

Go to https://OmahaSteaks.com to get 50% off sitewide, plus an extra 20% off select favorites and more limited-time deals during their Early Black Friday Sale. Use Promo Code FOUL at checkout for an extra $35 off.

Foul Territory Presented by FOX One: Start your 7-day free trial today at https://tinyurl.com/FOXOneFreeTrial

Subscribe to the podcast!
https://apple.co/3KWKFNo

Follow all our social media channels for more content!
Tweets by FoulTerritoryTV
https://www.instagram.com/foulterritoryshow/

@foulterritory

https://www.facebook.com/FoulTerritoryShow
https://www.twitch.tv/foulterritoryshow