Scott Harris, Tarik Skubal and what’s next for Detroit Tigers after MLB postseason exit

Scott Harris, Tarik Skubal and what’s next for Detroit Tigers after MLB postseason exit

[Music] Hello and welcome to Days of Roar, a Detroit Tigers podcast brought to you by the Detroit Free Press. I’m your host, Tigers beat writer Evan Pzled. And this week, once again, I’m joined by Chris Brown from Tigers Minor League Report. It was the eighth week in a row last week. Now, it’s the ninth week in a row this week, and I’m guessing it’ll be the 10th week in a row next week. Chris, thank you for joining me. Thank you very much for having me. It’s a This is a full quarter of school, I guess. We’ve got a long show. We’ve got a lot to get into. Let’s jump right into it. It was a 1-2 record for the Tigers this past week, all against the Seattle Mariners in the American League Division Series, part of the MLB postseason. The Tigers lost game three and won game four. Both games at Comra Park. Then they lost the winner take all game five at T-Mobile Park. Both game three and game four ended up being blowouts. The Tigers lost 8 to4 in game three. And then the Tigers won nine to3 in game four. The winner take all game five was a classic, but the Tigers lost and were eliminated from the 2025 postseason. So, the season is over and we are going to spend a lot of time talking about game five. But before we do that, I want to at least touch on games three and four. In game three, the Tigers lost 8 to four to the Mariners at Kameri Park. Jack Flity allowed four runs, three earned runs on four hits and three walks with six strikeouts across three and one-thirds innings. Not good enough for your number two starter. The Tigers were down 8 to1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. Then they scored three runs. It was a blowout and the Tigers went with Jack Flity over Casey Mai as their game three starter because they determined Flity was the better pitcher. In this case, he was the bad version of Jack Flity. So that was really disappointing. The walks were such a problem for Flity, not only during the regular season, but man, in the postseason, too. In the playoffs, it was eight walks in 12 strikeouts over 10 innings. That’s just not good enough, especially from your number two starter. And then in game four, the Tigers won 9 to3 against the Mariners at Kame Park. It was a must-win situation and the Tigers won. Casey Mai, I thought was pretty good. One run on two hits in two walks with six strikeouts across three innings. Pulled after three innings. The Tigers ended up relying on Kyle Finnegan for two innings and Troy Melton for three innings. Finnegan allowed one run. Melton did not allow any runs. When Finnegan allowed his run, the Mariners took a three nothing lead in the fifth inning. And that put the Mariners just 15 ounce away from advancing to the ALCS. But sure enough, the Gritty Tigers, they come out of nowhere. They score three runs in the fifth inning and four runs in the sixth inning. That gives them a 7 to3 lead after six innings. Tigers had some really big hits off Mar’s bullpen. We saw three hits in a row in the fifth inning to tie the game. double from Dylan Dingler, double from Jamai Jones, single from Javier Bayz, and then Riley Green put the Tigers ahead four to three with a solo home run in the sixth inning. And it only kept going from there. So, we saw like game three of the AL wild card, game four of the ALDS. Those were the only games where the Tigers had like an inning or or two innings where they looked like a competent offense. But even after that, right, like the Tigers, they they come out of game four with a win. I had a ton of confidence in them going into game five, the ALDS for one reason. Tigers had Terk Scubble. Yeah. And and he was about as good as you could ask for. I think uh that’s the the kind of the one takeaway from all this. And you mentioned Flity wasn’t at his best and and uh Finnegan had some issues in the series. I think he gave up a bunch of hits, but their pitching was really strong for most of the series. It was really good. And you’ve seen what the Mariners are doing to Toronto right now. They they’ve really just kind of bombed on them. And so you have to be kind of impressed by the way the Tigers pitched. But yeah, it was you felt like maybe the offense had woken up and for the first half of game four, boy, that was about as sad and morose as you’ll see a stadium and then they just exploded and that was the kind of moment you’ve been waiting for and you thought, hey, maybe they can carry that with them to Seattle. But Seattle’s got pretty good pitching, too. And uh and that’s how you end up with a 15 in game. Yeah. And even going into game five, like you had Terk Scubble, the Mariners, they had won all three of the games Terrick Scubble had started previously, twice in the regular season, once in the postseason. I figured that there was no way the Mariners would beat the Scubble Tigers four times and four chances in the same year. And I was wrong about that. And now here we are and the Tigers are eliminated. And you look at the ALCS and it’s the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays and the NLCS. It’s the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers. Who advances to the World Series? It’s not going to be the Tigers. My my prediction going into the ALCS would have been the Toronto Blue Jays, just considering the way they swung in the bat against the New York Yankees to advance out of the ALDS and get into the ALCS. But what we’ve seen now, the Seattle Mariners have a two to nothing lead in the best of seven ALCS. And I’m pretty confident the Mariners can win two of the final five games in that series, which would then send them to the World Series. So, I’m thinking Mariners out of the ALCS. And then I think the Dodgers are going to beat the Brewers in the NLCS because the Dodgers are the Dodgers. So right now I’m predicting Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. What are your thoughts on on who may be advancing? And how much of a bummer that the Tigers were oh so close to getting to that next step and just weren’t able to get it done. Yeah, I mean I I just I was with you. I thought Toronto was going to kind of steamroll through this and uh and it’s hard to pick against the Dodgers unfortunately. It would be really cool for the Brewers to get the World Series. It’d be fun to have a Brewers Mariners World Series just because neither of them have won. The Mariners have never even been there. So that that’s got to be awesome for them if they can make it. But yeah, incredibly frustrating. And part of it is whenever these sort of things happen, I I always feel bad about these kind of iconic plays. They get forgotten because you don’t win the game. Like last year it was Zack McKenzry hitting an opposite field home run in and I think game four against Cleveland and then they they ended up not winning. And Carrie Carpenters’s home run off the guy specifically brought in to get him out and Carpenter just demolishes it. It was such a a huge moment in the game. and you’re like, “Oh my god, that’s that’s it.” And they couldn’t make that stick. And so it’s going to kind of get lost to history, I think, because they didn’t win the game. Uh but yeah, just so many chances, so many chances to get a bloop or, you know, just do the right thing and get one run across the plate and they just couldn’t do it. And then, you know, I’m sure the Mariners felt the same way. They had plenty of chance. They kept bouncing into double plays and they couldn’t take advantage of some gifts that they got from the Tigers and from the umpires. And by that I mean that the review room and and so it was just one of those back and forth games and it’s incredibly frustrating because of all the missed opportunities and it’s tough because and Hinch talked about it enough. He said it’s really hard to get here and it’s so tough to know we’re here talking to the press today instead of talking about what happened in game one against the Blue Jays. All right, let’s get into the big two. Question one of the big two, we’ll go right to game five. What are your takeaways from game five of the ALDS? A 3 to2 loss to the Mariners in 15 innings. Again, 15 innings is how long that game lasted. From a time standpoint, 4 hours and 58 minutes. The Mariners used seven pitchers. The Tigers used eight pitchers. And between both sides, total pitches, 472. Terubel started for the Tigers. One run on two hits and zero walks with 13 strikeouts across six innings, throwing 99 pitches. Obviously, this is the big talking point coming out of this is because of the way everything unfolded. And you’re right. I’m happy you gave credit to Carrie Carpenter for the home run that he hit off with the left. He gave Spire. I mean, that was a massive home run in that moment. I think you got to give credit to the T-Mobile Park fans. You know, the crowd that was there for what they did. I mean, they essentially allowed Josh Naylor to steal a base. He stole a free base. He goes from second base to third base just because that crowd noise was so loud and Terrick Scubel could not hear Gabber Torres yelling for the ball as he went to cover second base. Josh Naylor gets a huge lead. He ends up on third and there’s a sacrifice fly and he scores and that’s the run off TKO. So you got to give credit to the crowd. You got to give credit to Carrie Carpenter. But I think the big decision was TKO and it was 99 pitches, six innings. He was flatout dominant. Apparently there was a mutual decision between AJ Hinch and Terubble that the sixth inning would be Scooble’s final inning. Hinch said they talked after the fifth inning and the final batter in the sixth was Cal Raleigh. Ter Scooble throws three fast balls in a row. 99.7 mph, 99.1 mph, and 100.9 mph. The last one at 100.9 mph was a middle fast ball. Raleigh swung and missed it. He just couldn’t touch it. You see Terk Scubble, he flexes, he roars, he backpedals off the mound in classic Terrick Scubble fashion. And then he didn’t return for the seventh inning. Was that a mistake? At the time, the Tigers had a 2 to1 lead over the Mariners. In the seventh after school exits, the Mariners tied the game two to two against relievers Kyle Finnegan and Tyler Holton. Kyle Finnean had a one-out walk, then a two-out single, and then Tyler Holton gave up the RBI single to pinch hitter Leo Rivas. Could all of that have been avoided if Scubble had just stayed in the game? But Terra Scubel threw 99 pitches. Could he not have gone 115 pitches, completed the seventh inning and gotten the Tigers to the eighth inning where it would have been even Will Vest for two innings maybe or Will Vest and Kyle Finnean or Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest as opposed to giving the Tigers bullpen three innings to cover? Maybe it would have only had to have been two innings to cover. I don’t know. Like it just felt like that was such a huge momentum shift when Terle comes out of the game and the Mariners capitalize. Was that a mistake or do you think it played out the way that it was supposed to play out based on this apparent mutual decision between AJ Hinch and Terubel that they had a conversation after the fifth inning that the sixth would be the last and then obviously TK doesn’t come out for the seventh. Yeah, I mean in retrospect it’s easy to say it was a mistake. Uh and I was kind of shocked he didn’t come back out to be honest with you. Uh you know he he hasn’t done that all year. They’ve you know been keeping him between like 90 and 100 pitches all season and in my mind I was like well if not now then when? But maybe it was he’s just conditioned to go that many pitches and and you know they had that mutual agreement and he he and he did seem like he was emptying the tank there at the end. But it was like I think he had retired 14 straight batters or something like that. And so it was like ah you know he sent him out there at least for for another batter or two. But it was you know there were some interesting hitters coming up including Palano who had his number in game one. And you know I think a lot of relievers would prefer to start with a clean inning. So maybe there’s that and you you just rely on the rest of your staff. But and I will say the one thing is even Terubel as superhuman as he is and you know best pitcher on the planet, he still has a huge third time through the order penalty as which you know which means the third time he faces batters. His RA jumps to over four. It’s under two the first and second times and it jumps to over four. So you’re kind of playing with fire a little bit. If Terrick Scooville, you would you’d like to think he could go back out there and get a couple more outs, but and it it obviously did not work out. And the big thing, and that’s kind of the the ultimate takeaway from the whole game is is frustration with, we talked about it, the frustration with with Josh Naylor poking the a double to left field, just stick it out the bat, and then stealing third base. You know, one of the slower runners in baseball, obviously a very gifted base steer cuz he stole 30 bases this year. He steals third, scores on a sack fly. That’s the one run they got on school. And I give the Mariners credit. They really made school work. And uh, you know, they didn’t really have any answers for him. He kept striking them out like 26 whiffs I think he had. But they were not putting the ball in play early in counts and that’s what led to six innings instead of seven. So it’s there’s frustration with that, frustration with Naylor, frustration with the the the approach and this something I I wanted to touch on where the Mariners threw you said they you know both teams combined to throw like 480 pitches in that game or whatever. The Mariners threw 110 sliders. It was 50% sliders and that was the highest percentage of sliders ever in a postseason game by the pitch in the pitch tracking era. So, so back to 2008. And it’s frustrating that they the Tigers either I I assume somebody picked up on that like, hey, he’s throwing a lot of sliders. They’re all throwing a lot of sliders, but it’s frustrating that they couldn’t do anything about it. And if you look uh games two and three were like the fourth and fifth highest slider percentage in history. So the three games the Mariners won, they just threw a ton of sliders and the Tigers had absolutely no answer for. And that’s frustrating from a a planning standpoint, from just an execution standpoint. Like, was this a weakness they had all year long and nobody figured it out or are the Mariners Sliders just that good? So, it’s it’s just a frustrating experience to to see a game in 3-2 in 15 innings. Yeah. And you talk about frustration, right? How about frustration with the offense, too, even beyond the Terubble decision? Let’s go into extra innings when I mean, there were how many opportunities for the Tigers scored. Had tip to Carrie Carpenter. Four for five, two walks, one strikeout. He was the leadoff hitter for the Tigers. Then the numbers 2, three, four, and five hitters. That’s Glaver Torres, Riley Green, Spencer Torqulson, and Colt Keith. Those players were combined 0 for 23 with two walks and 10 strikeouts. That is the heart of your lineup. Eighth inning, Riley Green pops out with two runners on base. 10th inning, Spencer Tolson flies out with two runners on base. Colt Key strikes out with two runners on base. 12th inning, Clayber Torres flies out with the bases load. I mean, I mean, those were all scoring opportunities for the best players on your roster. I’m not expecting Zack McKinstry, Dylan Dingler, Parker Meadows, or Javier Bayz to come through in the big moments. I’m expecting Carrie Carpenter, Glabber Torres, Riley Green, Spencer Tolson, and Colt Keith to come through. And only Carpenter did something in game five of the ALDS. Nobody else from the heart of the lineup did anything to help him. So obviously, you know, didn’t let Scooble surpass 100 pitches, didn’t have a deep enough bullpen, had too many strikeouts from the offense. Like those were all issues that plagued the Tigers in the second half of the regular season, especially the bullpen depth and the strikeout issues. So, I’m not surprised that those things are ultimately what ended their postseason run. You talk about the breaking balls. I mean, the Tigers, their approach has been hunting fast balls, right? Hunting fast balls in certain spots of the zone where they can do damage. And the Mariners just beat them. They just flipped in spin over and over and over and over again. And if you’ve got Spencer Tolson going to the plate saying like, “Yeah, I’m always on the fast ball and I’m never getting off the fast ball and I’m always on it.” What if you don’t see a fast ball? And I’m like, “You have to get a hit.” You know, you have to get a hit. You know, if they’re spinning over and over again, if they’re landing spin in the zone or even dropping it below the zone, but if you’re in a big moment and you need to get a hit, you’re going to have to swing the bat. You can’t just wait for the fast ball. That’s never going to come. So, I I do think it was an impressive strategy by the Mariners. clearly exposed some things that the Tigers offense struggles with and we saw exactly what happened. So, yeah, a lot of frustration with the school decision. Obviously, the bullpen, it just wasn’t deep enough and that that showed not only in that game, but that had showed down the stretch and it bullpen was was wear and thin. I mean, how many times did they go to Troy Melton, right? You go to Troy Melton as a starter, as a reliever, then again as a reliever. Like, how many times were they leaning on this rookie 24 year old right-hander who was in double A to start the year? I mean, I think that tells you everything you need to know about where the Tigers bullpen was at. And then Kyle Finnegan, the guy that they trusted the most, their one positive addition at the trade deadline. You know, even he wasn’t able to to come up with some big pitches when he needed to. So, yeah, a lot of reasons to be disappointed and then you lose for the second season in a row in game five of the ALDS. And and there’s no guarantee the Tigers get back there in 2026. I want to make that super clear, especially if you don’t have Ter Scuba on your roster. Like, it’s hard to get to the postseason. hard to get to game five of the ALDS. You go look at both the Tigers and the Astros finished with with an 87 and 75 record in the 2025 season. And if the Tigers had lost one more game to the Astros in the head-to-head matchup, then it would have been the Astros, not the Tigers getting into the postseason. Like, what happens if the Tigers missed the playoffs next year? There’s no guarantee. And that’s all I’m saying. And I remember what Lions coach, and this is a football reference, but Lions coach Dan Campbell after the Lions lost the NFC Championship game against the 49ers in January of 2024, he said, quote, “This may have been our only shot.” End quote. And I think it’s it’s just it’s not easy to get as far as the Tigers made it in 2025. So, we can’t just count on them getting back to the ALDS again in 2026. And I certainly hope the Tigers front office isn’t just banking on a return to the ALDS just because they’ve been there each of the past two seasons. It’s just not that easy. It is hard to do and a lot of things have to go right for you to get to that situation. I mean, look at the Tigers. Game three of an AL wild card against the Guardians. That’s a tossup. That game could have gone either way. That game could have gone either way. Tigers could have been knocked out in the wild card, but there are no guarantees of getting back to the ALDS again. So, I hope they’re not banking on it once again because it’s just not that easy. Yeah, it’s hard to make the playoffs. Uh, and that’s one of like I think you look back and say, “Okay, it was it was a good season because they made the playoffs for the second straight year, but it wasn’t a great season.” But, uh, I, you know, I think you have to go a little farther for it to be great. And it’s, it ultimately a disappointing season. Fans had higher expectations, uh, because the Tigers were playing to higher expectations for the first five months of the year. And it all kind of came crashing down. It was a trip back to reality. And yeah, I I you would hope that they know that they need to do more to make this to bolster this team to to prevent some of the things that happened this year. At the same time, it is still a relatively young team. At least the offensive core is relatively young. And I’ve seen a lot of people talk about kind of wanting to blow it up or trade some of these guys and and maybe you trade one or two of them. But this is most of these guys are 27 and younger like they’re going to continue to get better. Some will have good years, some will have down years. That’s what happens with young players. But there’s a chance that that they all kind of catch lightning in a bottle in the same year and you have a really good offense. It’s just, you know, you need a little bit more veteran leadership. I think Glabber Torres was great playing hurt evidently. We find out later and one more bat like that would have done wonders. I think question two of the big two and this is a really big question. Should the Tigers trade trick Google in the 202526 off seasonason? Now to set the table, Terub becomes a free agent after the 2026 season. He is projected to earn between 15 and 20 million in his third and final year of salary arbitration. So I would expect his 2026 salary to be somewhere around 17 to 18 million. Then he will hit free agency after the 2026 season. But the Tigers need to make a decision here. Do you trade Trick Scubble now or do you hold on to him and maybe let him walk without getting anything for him? And that’s the decision they have to make. What’s the right choice? Jeez. You know, I I I think you hold on to Scooble. I mean, everybody there’s a price for everyone, right? If you get a a Godfather deal, then I I suppose you could take it. But we talked about it how how close they’ve gotten these last two years. I think they kind of owe it to the team and these players and to Scubble and to the town to to go for it at least once more with Scooble. You know, you’ve got the best pitcher on the planet. That’s pretty hard to come by. Uh the Tigers have had that a couple times in the last 25 years, but uh before that it wasn’t very common. So yeah, I mean and what you’ll get in return I don’t think is going to be all that great as as much as people think that Scooble, you know, Scooble is a tremendous player, but you mentioned he’s going to be making a fair amount of money. So that’s going to take some teams out of it right away. And you need to have the right prospect capital, if you will. Well, and I I think you don’t do it unless you are getting somebody who’s already in the majors, basically a young major league starting pitcher who’s had some success in the big leagues and has upside to be maybe not a number one, you know, school, but number two, number three starter, someone like Nolan Mlan from the Mets or Cam Schliter from the Yankees who has come up and and they’ve been successful, but you need somebody like that and prospects, I think, to make it worth it. And I don’t I don’t picture those teams doing that. And I don’t picture the Tigers trading scoo really as much as it’s gonna be it’s going to come up a lot in the offseason. It’ll be constant topics. They’ll be talking about it on MLB Network every week. But you just like like I said, you can look at some similar trades in the past. Corbin Burns had won a Sai Young with the Brewers and was traded to the Orioles and they got DL Hall and Joey Ortiz. DL Hall was a highly touted pitching prospect. He was top 100 prospects and he’s now kind of a middle reliever who I don’t even think is on their playoff roster. And Joey Ortiz is is a very good defensive third baseman, but he was one of the worst hitters in baseball this year. Uh it’s so it’s not and the Brewers are doing just fine, right? That’s one of the amazing things about the Brewers is they lost a saw young level pitcher and was like, “Ah, whatever.” But uh yeah, so so you’re not necessarily going to get these star talents in return. And one of the other ones I found was going back to like 2012 when the Mets were able to trade an aging RA Dicki to Toronto. And what they got was it was a part of a package deal. They got Travis Darno, the catcher, and they got Noah Synergard, but they were both at lower levels. And so you can kind of get higher upside if you get guys at lower levels. And I don’t picture the Tigers taking that kind of step back. You know, you’re not going to go trade for three guys in a ball for trick school. And then beyond that, all the other kind of similar deals were either like Zack Rinky was traded with two years left, which is not the same. And then Cliff Lee and CC Zabathia were both traded at the deadline. So, I guess that that’s the one sort of nightmare scenario would be maybe the Tigers get off to a terrible start and they’re just not going to make the playoffs and you’re like, well, do we trade schools to deadline and then you’re getting less and it just everything goes wrong. But I think you got to run it back with school and and just hope that you know you we’ve seen he was outstanding in the playoffs, just spectacular. And that’s the guy you can win a World Series with if you give them a little bit more support. And I think they need to spend this offseason trying to find that support. So, I think there are actually nightmare scenarios beyond the one that you just mentioned, and I’ll get to those, but the Tigers need Terble to make a World Series run in 2026. So, are you willing to sacrifice your best chance to win the World Series in 2026 for the chance at a better future in 2027 and beyond? Like, that’s the trade, isn’t it? Don’t trade TKO. Best chance to win the World Series in 2026. Less talent in your organization in 2027 and beyond. trade TKO. Worst chance to win the World Series in 2026. More talent in your organization in 2027 and beyond. Now, you mentioned the Milwaukee Brewers. You’re spot on. They traded their ace Corbin Burns to the Orioles. That was February of 2024. At the time, Corbin Burns had one year remaining before free agency. So, it’s the same timeline as Scooble, even though Scooel is a significantly better pitcher than Corbin Burns. I mean, Teroul is about to win the SA Young in backto-back years. He’s been the most dominant pitcher in baseball for the last three years. And you’re right, DL Hall and Joey Ortiz, but also a competitive balance round a draft pick, which turned out to be the number 34 overall pick used to select Tennessee first baseman Blake Burke. A Ter Scubble trade would net the Tigers more than that. But here’s what I think the Tigers are probably looking at. The Brewers traded Corbin Burns. The Brewers added controllable talent to the organization. The Brewers won the NL Central without Corbin Burns. Brewers general manager Matt Arnold won executive of the year as voted on by his peers that year. So, if I told you right now, let’s play the hypothetical game, you and me. If I told you the Tigers could trade TKO, add multiple prospects to the organization, win the AL Central in 2026 without Scooble, would you trade Terk Scoo? Yeah, I think so. I mean, if you anytime you can get uh a guaranteed division, I mean, such a thing doesn’t exist, but hypothetically, then yeah, I think you could do that because you’re not going to resign him as much as Oh, well, you want you touch on that? Oh, no. Just like you’re not going to resign him. Spot on. I mean, he’s going to free agency. So, let’s say you’re Scott Harris and if I told you all of those things would happen. Trade Teroo, add multiple prospects, win the AL Central in 2026 without Terk Scooel. And on top of that, Scott Harris, you will win executive of the year as voted on by your peers. Would you, Scott Harris, trade Terubel? Well, I think it’s easy to see why the Tigers could be incentivized to trade TKO. And then you look at some of the nightmare scenarios. What if he gets injured in 2026? Then you can’t trade him at all and you can’t put him on the mound. What if your team isn’t as good as you expected in 2026? Well, then you trade them at the deadline. You don’t get as much for him. Also, like what if your team is good but not good enough to win the World Series? Like what if it’s a repeat scenario where you make it to the ALDS, you get to game five and you lose or you you get to the ALCS and you lose and you’re not able to win the World Series and then Traco Scuba walks and you have nothing to show for it. You don’t have a championship to to show for it. You don’t have any prospects to show for it. you got nothing to show for the value of Terrick. I mean, this is what the game of baseball is a game of value. So, to let Terrick Scuba walk and have nothing to show for his value, that would be really disappointing. So, I I’m just I’m not saying they’re going to trade him for sure or they’re not going to trade him. I think they very well could hold on to him and try to make another run, but like you got to go for it. If you’re going to keep him, you got to go for it. Like, you really got to go for it. And that that’s why I look at this rotation, right? Like the rotation with Terk Scubble. You got Terk Scubble, Reese Olsson, Jack Flity, Casey M, Troy Melton. Without Terk Scubble, you’re looking at Reese Olsson, Jack Flity, Casey M, Troy Melton, Jose Ariti. You’re not getting Jackson Joe back. He’s coming back from Tommy John surgery and it’s going to be a while for him. So maybe you go and you target a Dylan CE in free agency either to replace Terkubel if you’re going to trade him or to compliment Terk Scubble if you’re going to keep him because if you are going to keep Terk Scubble, you need Dylan CE, Alex Bregman, and two or three elite relievers. like you need to be World Series or bust at that point and then if it doesn’t work out then you can blow it up and start all over again after 2026. You’ll have two years left to Spencer Torqulson, two years left to Riley Green, three years left to Colt Keefe, a lot of years with Scott Harris’s prospects, Kevin McGonagal, Max Clark, Bryce Rener, among others. But you can’t keep Ter Scubble and not be all in on winning the World Series. And for me being allin, it means keeping Terubel, signing Alex Bregman, signing Dylan CE, and adding some legit elite high leverage relievers to get the job done in the biggest moments of the game. That that’s just kind of where I’m at on all this. Call me crazy if you want, but I just think there are a lot of different ways to look at this, whether it’s the Corbin Burns scenario or what they may do in free agency or how the rotation may look with or without Terubel. And if you’re going to keep Ter Scoo, you better be all in to win the World Series. And I don’t think that the organization was there this And I feel like that was a missed opportunity. Yeah, I think you’re right. And I think a lot of people said this is, you know, you made it last year, now you got to go for it. That’s what people said about the deadline, right? They should have gone for it more because you’ve got school now and you’re not going to have them. And that that we just haven’t seen those kind of bold, you know, moves from from Scott Harris as a president yet. We may never. He does seem to like to work on the margins, but yeah, it would seem like now or never. And to your point, you know, if they did trade school, that does take$20 million off the books to spend on another starter if they want to supplement that way. But I agree with you. I think they need we could touch on this all offseason basically, but they they need another veteran bat, at least one, and they need a second starter who they can trust to go more than four innings in a postseason game, right? Like, you know, pitching chaos seems to work, but it would be nice to not have to do it in four out of five caves. Dylan C and Alex Bregman, sign me up. All right, we are going to take a break. When we come back, we are going to take you into the end of season news conference from President of Baseball operations, Scott Harris. [Music] [Applause] [Music] We’re back. President of baseball operations Scott Harris and manager AJ Hinch held a press conference Monday to recap the 2025 season. AJ Hinch quoted the great Marshon Lynch saying, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.” So, we are going to focus primarily on Scott Harris here. First and foremost, I thought Scott Harris did an excellent job in this post-mortem press conference. I thought he did a good job of balancing the good and the bad. What happened in August, September, and October, it’s inexcusable. He was the first to admit that. But the reality is the Tigers were the best team in baseball in the first half of the season. He also admitted that. So, we can’t act like the first half of the season didn’t exist because of what happened in the second half of the season. And and honestly, I think the Tigers are in a rough spot moving forward and there aren’t a lot of concrete answers. I think that’s why they’re in kind of an identity crisis right now. Like, are you the first half Tigers or the second half Tigers? And if you’re somewhere in between, then are you closer to the first half Tigers or closer to the second half Tigers? Those are some really difficult questions that I don’t think the Tigers have the answers to. And I’m not sure they will until the 2026 season, which makes this very fascinating. But the point is, I thought Scott Harris did a good job considering the negativity that surrounds the Tigers right now because of the way things ended, blowing the AL Central in historic fashion, barely winning the AL Wildard series, and then losing in the ALDS for the second year in a row. Scott Harris and AJ Hinch, they met with reporters for an hour. Scott Harris answered all the questions. He did his job, and I thought he did it well, and I have a lot of respect for that. Yeah, I mean I I think he he made a very smart decision to come out immediately and and touch on all the stuff that fans were complaining about and upset about and and acknowledged that he was he saw it too. He saw the kind of disintegration of their good approach at the plate and the swing and miss and he talked about how they need more guys who could put the ball in play, more guys who can go the opposite way. Kind of all these things that that you know, old school hitting stuff that that a lot of people on Twitter like to talk about, but it’s you know, it’s true. they they had a lot of opportunities to score more runs if they had just done some basic fundamental stuff and they couldn’t get it done. And he acknowledged that and I think that was huge. You know, the worst thing you can do as any kind of executive is to tell the the people that what they’re seeing isn’t actually happening. And he acknowledged that and he said there’s a lot of work to be done. But I do think to your point, he did leave some room to say, hey, you know, this still was a good season. you know, he wasn’t overly, you know, sunny about it, but he was proud of of the guys and he talked about players working through a lot of things and persevering. And I don’t know, it you get the sense that he and AJ Hinch actually do have a a solid working relationship, which is good to see, right? Like you hear some rumors and things like that that maybe they don’t necessarily always get along and that’s going to be the way it is with anybody uh in high ranking positions, but they seem to be kind of sympatico in that way. And I thought it was a good, like you said, a good postmortem press conference. Uh, and they acknowledged there’s a lot of work to be done. So, we’re going to get into what Scott Harris said, and our magical producer, Robin Chan, is going to play the audio before we react to each topic. Let’s start with the opening statement. And buckle up. This lasted like 10 minutes. Before I get into questions, I just want to talk generally about a few thoughts that are rattling in my head and that have been for the last few days. Um, I think first and foremost, like I I wish we weren’t here right now. I wish we were in Toronto uh preparing for for game two of the ALCS. We were really close to to being in Toronto right now. Uh, but we’re not. We didn’t achieve our ultimate goal of of winning the World Series. And and now we’re here at a press conference. And I think anytime you get to the playoffs and you fail to to win a World Series, it leaves a really bitter taste in your mouth. Um, I very much feel that. I’ve felt it all weekend. I know AJ feels it. I know a bunch of our players and coaches feel that. Um, and I expect us to feel that for a while. Um, I also expect that bitter taste in our mouths to drive us this offseason, to drive our players individually to make gains, um, and to drive us as a group to make sure that we can build off of some of the good things that happened this year. Um, I think the other thing that really sticks in my head is this this season was full of emotional swings. Uh, really big emotional swings. There were times when this team looked like it was rolling, when we were executing at a really high level in all phases of the game, when we were putting a ton of pressure on opposing starters in the first inning, driving up pitch counts, uh, holding the zone, coming through in big spots, um, and playing a brand of baseball that could beat opposing teams in a number of ways. There were also times this year where we were fighting through through adversity. We were not holding the zone. We were not executing in big spots. We were not playing clean and consistent baseball in all phases of the game and we were struggling to recapture the momentum that really drove this team for the first five months. Um those emotional swings combined with the passion with which our fans follow and support this team created some really high highs and some really low lows. I felt those highs and I felt those lows and I was right there with our fans um in all of those moments. In some ways, it felt like this season was multiple seasons in one. Um, multiple very different seasons in one. And we got to we got to take a hard look at all of it. We got to take all the good and we got to take all the bad. And we got to learn from all of it. Um, however, I think in in our in my job, it is really important for me to step back and look at the entire season. It’s really important for me to look at it from a 30,000 foot view. And I think when you do that, it is hard to characterize this season as anything other than another big step forward for an organization that’s come a really long way in a short period of time. Among things that we did this year, we won more games than we did last year. We had six all-stars, the most in in all of baseball. We got to the postseason two consecutive years for the fifth time in over 100 years in this organization. We won another postseason series and we earned our eighth postseason win in two years. Um I think that’s the third most in all of baseball. We had many players on on our big league team that took a big step forward. We entered the season with the number one overall farm system and many of our most important prospects had dominant seasons on their way to some of them reaching the postse or reaching the the the big leagues in 2026. Um, and I think the most important thing when I reflect on the entire season is we went a calendar year from late August to late August with the most major league wins of any organization in baseball. And we finished the 2025 season with the best overall organizational record of any organization in the sport. Those are really big deals. Those are really hard to do. Our players and our coaches in that clubhouse deserve a ton of credit for all that stuff. I’m really proud of them for all that stuff. That’s really hard to do and it’s in especially impressive for a young group that’s still entering their prime right now. So, we got a lot to be proud of from from this season. Now, I understand here like the arc of our season is not doing us any favors here. Anytime you have five dominant months and then you perform as poorly as we did in September, it raises questions. I’m sure you guys are going to ask me a lot of those questions. You deserve like I deserve to to get those questions and we deserve the negative narratives that are uh swirling around this team. However, I think it is important to have some perspective here. Like we if we had sequenced our season differently but got to the same place. Like by way of example, if we had stumbled out of the gate and had a really tough April and then posted five dominant months from May through September, I think the mood around this team is very different. I think the narratives around this team are very different. Even if we had gotten to the same place, how we got to this place, I think is important. And I think that’s driving a lot of the conversation around this team right now. And we deserve that because anytime you sequence this season the way we did, we deserve to have these questions. And me personally, I can’t be naive to what I saw in September. I can’t be naive to some of the struggles that we faced in the biggest moments. I can’t be naive to the fact that we got to get a whole lot better at a lot of things in this organization. We did all these things that I listed, all these achievements, which are really impressive and I’m really proud of, but we got to get a whole lot better in a lot of different areas. And some of those areas I wanted to share at the outset here. Like the first thing is our approach at the plate. In the big leagues, it seemed like our approach started to deteriorate down the stretch. We posted a really highpowered offense that performed in many of the most important categories for 5 months and then we really stumbled down the stretch. We got to figure out why. We got to understand why our approach seemed to deteriorate down the stretch. And we got to understand the adjustments that we need to make to put together an entire season of, you know, a high performing offense instead of just five months and then struggling down the stretch. I think the second area that we need to look into is contact. We need to make more contact as an organization. We need to move the baseball more in the big leagues than we are. This has been a theme from the last two years. I think there are a lot of players on our team right now that have some swing and miss in their games. Um, but I think there are some things that we can do to improve upon it. I’m sure we’ll talk about it today. Um, but the time for that is now. Like we need to start making those gains right now. Um, we need to make sure that we have a team next year that can consistently across six months make enough contact to be a productive offense. I think if you go back and you look at our season, the months in which we made more contact, we were one of the best offenses in baseball. If you take a look at June, which was the lowest strikeout rate month that we had this season, we also had the best offense in baseball. When this group does move the ball, we can do a lot of damage. We can score a lot of runs. We got to find a way to be able to do that more consistently. And there’s some ways that we have already talked about that we’re working on immediately. Um, I think the third thing that we need to get a lot better at is, uh, we need to improve our health and consistency on the mound. I think if you go back and look at this season, we had a ton of injuries out of the gate. We had a ton of injuries and we had a steady stream of injuries throughout the entire season. It affected us on both sides of the ball, but I think it affected us more on the pitching side. I think some of the injuries that we had in the big leagues and the minor leagues started to thin out our depth and we weren’t able to produce that second wave of pitching this year in August and September that we needed to supplement this team. We did it last year. We added some really important arms that helped us, you know, go 301 and 11 down the stretch. We weren’t able to do that and I think the injuries and the setbacks that we faced in both the big leagues and the minor leagues were a significant contributing factor um to to the struggles that we faced down the stretch. So, we got to find a way as an organization to make some adjustments to keep our players healthier and performing better deeper into the season because the expectations have changed around here. We’re trying to play a seven-month season instead of a six-month season and we need to make those changes to to help make sure that we have reinforcements in August and September that can help us. And I think the last one is um something I’ve talked about a lot, but we got to continue to get better. We have to continue to get better at breaking young players into the big leagues. Um, I’ve talked about it since the day I got here and I’ve been very outspoken about trying to make sure that the environment that Cole Keith and Parker Meadows jump into is better than the environment that Riley Green and and Spencer Tolson jumped into. And then the environment that Dylan Dingler jumped into is better than the environment that Cole Keith and Parker Meadows jumped into. We got to keep making progress there because it’s too important to our future. We’ve talked a lot about our last three drafts. We’ve talked a lot about some of the players coming through the minor leagues. Those guys are really close. A lot of them are going to help help us next year. And we got to make sure that the environment that they’re jumping into is going to get the absolute most out of them. And that work starts right now. We got to prepare the environment for these guys to be able to jump on this team as soon as next year and make this team better, not struggle in the first two, three, four months to adjust to big league pitching and to help this team get better. It’s too important to our future and it’s something that we need to take very seriously as soon as today. So, some areas. Um, happy to take any any of your questions. AJ’s here to uh to take the questions from the manager received. So, that was the opening statement from Scott Harris. What are some of your initial thoughts? I mean, when I look at it, I say, “Okay, one more games in 2025 than 2024, well, it was a one one- win difference. If we hadn’t stumbled out of the gate and had a tough April and then posted the five dominant months, like if the season was reversed and it wasn’t this bad finish, it was a bad start and then a really strong finish, would the narrative have been different?” And I’m not so sure when you look at the fact that this team lost in the ALDS in back-to-back seasons and that’s ultimately what defines your season. Like had the Tigers gone and made it to the ALCS, had they made it to the World Series, like nobody would have been talking about their historic AL Central collapse. So I think it maybe hinges more on the fact that they lost ALDS backtoback years as opposed to the tough finish. Yes, the tough finish plays into the narrative, but at the same time like the end result of your season is is how your season ends. and the Tiger season. It ended in the ALDS for the second year in a row. I also thought like the point of going from August 2024 to August 2025 and having the best record in baseball, an accomplishment, no doubt. I mean, that was one of the reasons why I went around the room at the All-Star game and I talked to a bunch of different players from other teams and I said, “Hey, what’s impressing you about what the Tigers are doing?” And they went pretty in-depth as to what the Tigers had done over the past 162 games from August 2024 to August 2025. And a lot of players around the league, a lot of stars around the league were very impressed. But again, there are no banners that get hung for being the best from August 2024 to August 2025. And in the farm system ranking number one, like does anybody actually care about that anymore? And I’m not trying to diss you, Chris, because you are Tigers minor league report. But at the same time, like that was that that that that mattered when this big league team sucked. But there are no banners for having the number one farm system. So yes, it does matter. Yes, it matters, people. But at the same time, it’s not the ultimate prize. You don’t hang a banner for being the number one farm system. I loved what he said about the approach at the plate, about the fact that the approach is deteriorated down the stretch. They need to understand that and also address that. Making more contact, that’s an area that needs to improve. We’ll get into, you know, both of those topics a little bit more, but I like that he addressed that right out front. And then, yeah, the injuries of course had an impact. Ree Olsson was limited to 13 starts. Jackson Job was limited to 10 starts. Of course, that’s going to impact you as a team, but all teams have injuries and the best teams know how to pivot. And that’s kind of my takeaway from the injury front, especially to the pitchers. I don’t know. What are some of your thoughts, Chris, on on kind of what Scott had to say to open things up? Yeah, I mean, I I think he was searching for things to be positive about for sure. And uh I mean, he found some part of that is is the audience isn’t just the fans. There’s also the players hear this stuff, too. And you don’t want to just come out and say, “Yeah, we you know, we’re terrible.” But he came out, he said they needed to be better. He talked about specifically where they need to bidder. I agree with you. I love following the minors. I do what I write about it, do podcasts about it. I don’t think he does himself any favors talking about the minor league system. I think the average fan doesn’t care that much about farm rankings or the fact that they had the best winning percentages in organization. I think that does matter in some regards, but I don’t think he necessarily needs to talk about that unless he’s talking to us at Tigers Report. But, uh, yeah, it’s, you know, like you said, he touched on the good, he touched on the bad. I think to your point, yeah, it doesn’t really help to kind of pick out little segments and say, “Ah, we were the best team from this point to this point, you know, you you were ultimately the team you were.” I do agree that I think had they gotten off to a slow start or if they just, you know, had that bad run around the All-Star break, which they did, and then came back and were still the team they were before, I I don’t know if there would be this kind of dread. Uh, but they, as he said, they earned that. They This was one of the most epic collapses anybody’s ever seen. And, uh, the fan dread was earned. And so they have to figure out how to get back in the good races and maybe uh you know do some some big things this offseason. Here’s everything Scott Harris said about the July 31st trade deadline in which the Tigers acquired Chris Paddock, Charlie Morton, Kyle Finnegan, Raphael Montero, and Paul Sewald. All pitchers with only one of those pitchers, Kyle Finnegan becoming a positive, trusted contributor. Scott, you you you mentioned the lack of the zone and hitting and also the pitching depth. Do you look back at the deadline and say, you know, I could have done more to make sure this wouldn’t happen without Nobody was ever suggesting trading Clark or or McDonald, without trading the top prospects to get help in those areas that you mentioned that declined. Yeah. Um, do I do I regret not adding more performance to this team at the deadline? I don’t think I’ve ever gone through a deadline completely satisfied with the results. Um it’s a really difficult challenge and you know I think this this deadline um is another deadline when I wasn’t completely satisfied with the results. Um however, do I regret not pulling the trigger on the deals that we had access to at the deadline? I don’t. And I’ll tell you why. Um, I think I’m even more confident now than I was then that the deals that we had access to that we passed on would have frustrated our fans more than not doing the deals. It’s really tough in my job right now because I can’t share the exact deal deals for obvious reasons, but I can share um some details that hopefully are are pretty illuminating. I would tell you that the the players that were most closely connected to us via the media would have cost either a player on our postseason roster plus additional pieces or one of our top prospects plus additional pieces. In some cases with those deals that were most closely connected to us, those players that were most closely connected to us, those players, some of them didn’t perform at all down the stretch, would have been a free agent in two months and would have cost a player on our postseason roster that actually performed better than the player we acquired and was controllable in the future. So, think about that for a second. We could have acquired a player who was going to be a pending free agent on the day of the deadline. We probably would have gotten an A on the trade grades on the day of the deadline and probably would have gotten plenty of praise in the coverage only to see that player not perform well down the stretch and the player we traded perform better than that player this year and be controllable in the future. I don’t regret those deals at all. I actually am proud of our our group for evaluating the players we had well and thinking, hey, these players are going to help us this year and in the future and get some really big outs for us in in the postseason. Um, so those are those are my my feelings on like whether there’s any sense of regret on the deals. Um, I think you know the subtext of the point I’m trying to make here is in my job I got to operate in actual markets. I can’t get caught up in hopes and wishes or theoretical markets. If there are players that, you know, anyone in this room thinks that we had access to for a reasonable return and we should have pulled the trigger on, like, you should criticize me. I deserve that criticism and I should learn from that criticism. But criticizing us for not acquiring a top of the rotation starter or a controllable middle of the order bat when none were moved at the deadline, I don’t think is fair or constructive. Uh, Scott, just to build on that question with the trade deadline, um, were there pieces that maybe weren’t floated by the media that you feel like you guys could have went out and acquired or were you unable to, you know, make those kind of deals? We chased a lot of players that weren’t connected to us in the media. Um, we got close to on some players, we didn’t get close on on other deals. Um, I think what’s important is if you look at the how it all played out, like we went into the market thinking like, hey, we think the relief market’s pretty deep here at the deadline and we think the starter market is really shallow. Like we think it’s really thin and I think that largely uh played out. I think those evaluations aged pretty well. Um, I also think we dipped into the relief market at the deadline and we acquired the second best performing backend reliever acquired by any any contender in Finnegan. We also added another useful arm in in Raphael Montero and we added Troy Melton to the back end of our rotation. I think those three additions stabilized the back of our our our um bullpen and got some really big outs for us. I think in the starter market, um, going into the deadline, we didn’t think that the starters that were we had access to would have started playoff games for us. We didn’t think they were better than our front four of at the time was Ree, TK, Jack, and Casey, in no particular order. Um, so going into it, both as a reflection of our evaluation of the starters available and um, the starting pitching that we had, we didn’t think that the players that we could have acquired in the rotation would have made a big impact for us in the postseason. So, we didn’t think it was in the best interest of the organization to pay steep prospect costs or take a player off our postseason roster to get a starter that we didn’t think was going to factor in much in into the to the postseason. Now, when Reese went down, it did change our starting pitching need, but it didn’t change the market. And I think if you follow the starters that moved, I think there was only one starter that posted a sub4 erra after the deadline that got moved at the deadline. So, I do actually think our evaluations of those starters were right. Do I wish that we had added more productive innings to our rotation in the deals we did? Absolutely. I definitely do. I thought Paddock and Morton performed, gave us a boost right away. Paddock had a really good start against the Dbacks. Mortyn pitched really well in a tough environment in Philly, but they were struggled to be able to re reproduce that performance down the stretch and we needed more performance in our rotation and we weren’t able to do that and that’s on me. I should have done better in in the rotation, but I do think it is a reflection on the actual markets that existed. Um, and I’m proud of the efforts that our staff did. Hey Scott, uh, you were talking about the deadline and you said no every deadline you’re probably a little dissatisfied. You talked about the high asking price, but considering how September looked and what AJ was just talking about, one pitch, one inning, one runaway, how do you not feel like it was a missed opportunity? I know you talk about the high asking prices, but this team hasn’t won a World Series in 41 years. You were nine games up. Like, how do you how was the answer Paddock and Morton? And maybe you say we got to give up a little more to get somebody that can actually help us win now instead of the future. Yeah, I mean, um, to be fair, I, um, when we acquired Paddock and Morton, um, the the goal wasn’t for them to play big roles for us in the postseason. So, um, we got to the postseason, we lined up our pitching. We thought we were going to be dangerous once we lined up our pitching, and we were. We pitched really well in the postseason. I think we had a sub3 RA over the course of the whole postseason. We faced a really highpowered offense in Seattle and we pitched them really tough and I think the aggregate numbers suggests, hey, we pitched really well in the postseason. So, um I’m I’m pretty sure the pitching wasn’t necessarily like the the primary issue as to why we’re not in Toronto right now. Um, I think the offensive performance we had down the stretch is is a um a fair question on could we have done more? I think the the question that I often have found myself reflecting on is like should we have added a bat at the deadline? I think that’s a very common question that we hear from um you know different people. I I run into people on on the street and I think, you know, as I reflect on that decision, um I think it’s important for us to like remind ourselves of where we were at when we were making those decisions. And I think there’s a couple things that are really important here. Like in July, we just had four position players in the in the All-Star game. Um, on August 31st, we our offense scored the eighth most runs of any team in baseball across 5 months. So, we had the eighth best offense in in baseball across five months. Um, and in order to add a bat, we would have had to displace a high performing player who had helped us achieve like a top eight offense at that point. And maybe we should have like maybe that is a a fair question. I think the more pressing and fundamental question is how does a top eight offense for five months become a bottom eight offense in September. That’s the question that really keeps me up at night. I think it is a it’s a function of our approach changes. It’s a function of the contact. It’s a fun function of the environments. That’s something that we’re going to spend a lot of time digging on because you know that’s the question that really stood in in in the way of us winning the World Series in my opinion. Like I think if we had continued to produce at a really high level while continuing to pitch at a really high level and play the clean consistent baseball that drove us to 25 games over 500 at the end of August. Like I think that’s a team that like we could really reasonably expect to be playing in Toronto right now with a great chance to win the World Series. So that’s the thing I’m going to really obsess over this this offseason. Um I understand the question. I think it’s a totally fair question. Um, but I think the more fundamental question is what changed with our offense going from the first five months to the last month and is that a blip in the radar or is that predictive of the future? We got to get to the bottom of that question. Just a quick followup. Understanding like obviously you were really happy where you were, but isn’t that the job to maybe build a little support understanding that things could dip offensively like they did? Yeah. I mean, I think the So, that’s the job. The job and but the question I think and correct me if I’m wrong is like if I could go back and do it over again, like would I focus on adding a bat? Like I think if I could go back and do it all over again, I would focus on getting ahead of some of the changes that we may or may not have been able to see in August that created the September of underperformance and challenges. Like, I think that’s the the the pressing question. Maybe the answer is both. Maybe we should have added a bat and we should have gotten ahead of some of the changes that that our young hitters faced in difficult environments against better pitching in September and October. Um, those are the questions that are rattling around in my head and those are the questions that I’m going to obsess over and try to get answers to so that we can fix it for next year. There’s a lot to unpack there. Obviously, we know what the Tigers did at the trade deadline and they went out and they got Charlie Morton, Chris Paddock, Kyle Finnean, Raphael Montero, Paul Seawald, Kyle Finnegan shined. Everyone else failed to meet expectations going into the July 31st trade deadline. The Tigers did not want to part ways with any of their top 100 prospects as listed by MLB Pipeline, Kevin McGonagal, Max Clark, Bryce Rainer, Jose Bceno, Thyron Loronzo. However, when you look at the deals that were made, a top 100 prospect wasn’t required for the New York Yankees to go get David Bednar, a free agent after 2026, or for the Texas Rangers to acquire starter Mel Kelly, a free agent after 2025, or the Seattle Mariners to acquire third baseman Aueno Suarez, a free agent after 2025. A top 100 prospect was not required for any of those three players. Therefore, the Tigers would not have had to give up Kevin McGonagal, Max Clark, Bryce Rener, Jos Brceno, Thyron Loronzo to get one of those guys based on the market. So, it’s likely the Tigers could have acquired one of those players without giving up one of their top 100 prospects. As for how those three players performed, David Bedar, 2.19 RA, nine walks, 35 strikeouts across 24 and two/3 innings in 22 games. He secured 10 saves in 13 chances. That was David Bednar for the Yankees. For the Rangers, Mel Kelly had a 4.23 erra, 10 walks, 46 strikeouts across 55 and 1/3 innings in 10 starts. And for the Mariners, Aueno Suarez hit 189 with 13 home runs, 17 walks, 79 strikeouts in 53 games, registering a 682 OPS. The Tigers put all their eggs in one basket. It was pitching quantity. Remember, they took a conservative approach at the trade deadline. They prioritized quantity over quality. They went out and they got a bunch of pitchers. Only Kyle Finnegan and Raphael Monto were chosen by the Tigers for their 13-man pitching staff in the ALDS during the postseason. And then manager AJ Hinch refuses to put Montero in game five of the ALDS, which lasted 15 innings and required the Tigers to use eight pitchers. I think that tells you everything you know about Raphael Montero. Kyle Finnegan was the only trusted arm added at the trade deadline. Then, of course, the Tigers did not add any bats. After the trade deadline, the Tigers ranked 21st in ERA from their starters, 12th in ERA from their relievers and 17th in WRC plus from their offense. They had a 23 and 29 record in their final 52 games after the trade deadline. Chris, what did you think about what Scott had to say? What do you think about the fact that they didn’t go out there and get David Bednar, Mel Kelly, or Ray Heno Suarez at the trade deadline? Do you think it was a missed opportunity or do you think the Tigers maybe made the right decision by not going after Mel Kelly or Aohenos Suarez or other potential players out there? I mean, obviously David Bednar was an outlier. He was dominant, but aside from David Bednar, who else on the trade market that was moved really produced? I think that’s a fair way to look at it as well. So, I think there’s two sides each coin. Now, at the same time, maybe Aueno Suarez did not produce for the Mariners, but what’s to say to the Tigers coaching staff when they may able to get more out of him? That’s another way to look at it. So, how do you feel about what Scott had to say about the trade deadline and was it a missed opportunity? Yeah, I think you have to look at it as a missed opportunity just because they didn’t get a bunch of players that helped them go farther. At the same time, I I do think that a lot more is made out of the trade deadline than sometimes is warranted. I think uh you know, some guys some teams made big splashes and and it helped. You know, Josh Naylor was certainly helpful to the Mariners and uh some teams did you know did big splashes and it didn’t do any good at all. they still ended up the same place the Tigers or or didn’t even make the playoffs. I think what fans want to see is they want to see you try and you want to, you know, go for it, right, with big moves. And a lot of the, you know, kind of people in my circle were picking out that talk about, you know, hey, you know, somebody we could have traded, it would have required someone we didn’t trade who ended up pitching better or performing better. And it was like, okay, so you’re talking about Troy Melton. And I, you know, some people thought it was, you know, Suarez. I was thinking maybe Helley as a guy who who because he he required two decent prospects, I think, from the Mets, as I recall. But um yeah, it’s looking back on trade deadlines is always like you could you could pick anything. It’s kind of like looking back at the draft like oh you know the Tigers should have taken bets here instead of Brandon Ly. Well, of course, yeah, you see that now. They didn’t see it at the time. But uh so at the same time, and I got to give credit to my buddy uh Brandon Day from Bless You Boys. He said Harris is kind of talking out on both sides of his mouth here, though. If if you’re boasting about having one of the best farm systems in baseball, then you should be able to make these moves or solid moves without having to part with your top five, you know, 100 prospects or your top starting pitching prospect in Troy Melton. Unless other teams don’t value the Tigers farm system as highly as the Tigers value their farm system. Yeah. And and part part of that could be it’s a topheavy farm system, too. So, you know, it’s a ranked highly because they have these four or five guys who are all top 50 prospects, but then after that it thins out or flattens really quickly. there. You know, rankings are rankings and and I think if you look at a another team’s actual kind of preference board, as it were, I bet you Troy Melton’s a lot higher on on a lot of those boards than he was on any prospect ranking site. That’s just, you know, teams do a better job of scouting. But, uh, yeah, you know, I I think there’s no way you didn’t make it. You didn’t win the World Series. You didn’t get out get to the ALCS. So, there’s no way you can really talk about what you did at the trade deadline without it sounding like excuses. It’s they didn’t get the job done. and you know, so you’re you’re kind of having to to proaricate a little bit, but uh you know, I I don’t take a whole lot away from it. Here’s what Scott Harris and AJ Hinch said about the offense, specifically pertaining to how the Tigers plan to unlock more contact and less whiffs from their hitters. Scott, kind of off that, you talked about the need to reshape the lineup a little bit with more contact, less swing and miss. when you have a young core um and and some of those prospects that likely won’t be ready by 2026, where does that start? Yeah, so I think it starts um it starts in a few ways. You know, one thing that I noticed with our with our team is we started to get a little bit more pitchable late in the season. Um some of our contact issues and approach issues started to get exposed in September. Um, some of the things that I saw were we started to get a little bit pull happy towards the end of the year. Uh, I think that created some holes for us that got exploited in the in the playoffs. Um, I think sometimes we started to audible off the game plan a little bit quicker in at bats. Um, we started to audible towards an approach that tried to cover every pitch type in every location. That’s really hard to do at this level. Um, and I think that some of the interaction between approach and contact really started to hurt us. So, the pitches we were swinging were exacerbating our contact issues. I think a lot of that is going to improve through the experience that these guys had. Like, like it or not, it was hard to watch in September. I fully admit it. I felt that, too. These guys are going to be better off for it. They went through some deep struggles in September and they came out the other side getting really hot in the playoffs, going into Cleveland, winning a really important series and then taking Seattle to the brink in 15 innings. That experience and reflecting on the things that o pay the power bill, reflecting on the things that went well and helped them get out of those struggles will help them. This this team is going to show up in Lakeland and they’re going to be more battle tested. That’s two straight years in the postseason and they’ve seen high-end pitching. They’ve seen what works against high-end pitching and what doesn’t. So, some of that’s going to be through approach development this offseason that we’re we’re already working on. Some of that is going to be through um some path work, bat path work with our hitting coaches. I think some of the the paths on our on our team started to change late in the year. I think that started to create some of the issues that we had um through the year. I think there’s still some work that we can do this off season um in facilities here when they come here and then also in Lakeland to to fix some path issues. And then the last part is um through the additions that we we are going to add internally. Some of the players are not going to be ready for 26, but a lot of them are going to be ready for 26. And so when we add some of those players um with the skills, traits, and attributes that we have been prioritizing through the draft and development, I think those are the three main areas that we’re going to be able to improve both our approach and contact issues that I outlined. AJ, I’m I’m curious everything that he’s saying, how how is that from your point of view? Like do you have to meet with your hitting group? Do you have to refashion your hitting group or what what does that those changes look like from Yeah. So, I I’m glad you asked because I I I I have a lot of thoughts on the offensive side of the game in this era has never been harder. You know, what what is required out of a major league hitter is um it’s only getting harder and harder. Velocity up movement, um pitch shapes, you know, the pitching laboratories are are much further along than than the reaction side of the sport as as an offensive player. And so, um, it’s constantly the challenge is getting tougher and tougher and it’s and I watch all these games and I watch a high contact team like the Cubs get six base runners against the Brewers as they were going through their own version of pitching chaos and pitching somebody different every other inning. Or I see, you know, last night in the game, um, you know, the Blue Jays high-powered offense scored bazillion runs in the ALDS, you know, not be able to push a run across after the first swing of the of the night. um against a pitcher on short rest who’s on the back end of a rotation, albeit a really really talented rotation. So, it’s not an excuse as much as it’s perspective. And I think the, you know, I’ve spent the last couple of days, you know, in my office and players filtering through there and packing up lockers and and saying goodbye and and, you know, I I asked Karp, you know, what’s the difference between, you know, September for him and and a dominant October where he was in control of all of his bats and getting um hitting the ball of the ballpark, getting intentionally walked, you know, mixing in a few hits, drawing a few walks and it all centers around getting a good pitch to hit. I know that’s a a a comment that I’ve said over and over and over again and it’s way easier said than done, but um pitch recognition and and and choosing, you know, when to be aggressive, when to be patient against each pitcher is paramount. Over 162, it’s it’s agonizing, you know, because there’s going to be peaks and valleys in everybody’s year. And so, um, we’re going to continue to to push our players to, um, have an audible with the swing where it’s not always just trying to chase the pullside power, although pullside error is getting rewarded more and more and more in our game, both in winning, you know, and in earning potential. So, um, playing the game seems to get exposed as you get deeper into the season and you get into playoff baseball and you see things that you don’t see over the course of 162. Um, how much of that can we bring, you know, sort of into our every every day is going to be important. So, we’re going to look at our messaging, we’re going to look at our prep, we’re going to look at our game planning, how are we implementing it, um, who is implementing it, all the above. Because it’s um, you got to be good at everything. So, it’s not pointing the finger at offense. It’s not pointing the finger at defense. It’s not pointing the finger at at pitching. Um, to be an elite team, and we were one of the elite teams. To be an elite team, you have to do it all. And you need it all. So, you can’t I can’t only focus this winter on contact. That’s not going to get us where we want to get to because somewhere we have other areas to get better at, but we are not going to be naive and and think that we’re going to run it back and and do this again. Like one of the one of the reasons I had such a hard time at the podium after game five is like it’s hard to get to where we’re at. It’s hard to get to run the whole race and get through the season and and and and have 87 wins be disappointing. Like that’s hard, you know, to have a series win in in in the wild card. Like we’re not going to think it’s not good enough. We won a series and against a really good team and then we get to 15 innings, one more run or one more pitch or one more defensive play and it feels like we would be, you know, reviewing game one decisions and game one, you know, offense, defense, base running, things like that and and instead we’re sitting at this podium. So it’s, you know, I have great appreciation for everything that we did, but we are not going to be we want more and we and we know that that we can do more and and achieve um you know, higher bars. And I’m I’m glad that at to some extent that I’m sitting here um talking about all of that not being good enough. like what a great accomplishment for us to to reset the bar as to where we’re at and and know that that this city, this fan base, this organization, these players, these coaches um can do more and and we’re going to we’re going to work tirelessly to do it. We’re going to take a couple days off, you know, but we are going to get back up at it and try to run that same race and be however many wins more it takes um to win this division to advance past the ALDS and bring a World Series to Detroit. So, that was Scott Harris and AJ Hingch talking about the offense. It seemed like Scott Harris was pointing the finger at the offense and AJ Hinch said, “Hey, no finger pointing.” Um, obviously the pitching is to blame. you know, both the starting rotation and the bullpen. They were not without fault, those two areas of the Tigers team. Obviously, a lot of it did come down to the offense, especially runners in scoring position down the stretch. There were many opportunities. I think that’s where I struggled the most with what went wrong with this team was the Tigers had opportunities to score. It’s not like they didn’t have any opportunities. It’s not like we got to the end of the game and it was like, oh, they were like 0 for one with runners in scoring position and they never had any chance. Like, no. Like, they had opportunities over and over again. And so to me, that tells me that the approach is good enough to get guys on base. The quality of the at bat is good enough to get guys on base. And don’t get me wrong, the Tigers are one of the worst teams in baseball when it comes to strikeout rate. And they were only about average in the walk rate department. So when you’re one of the worst in baseball when it comes to strikeouts, and you’re only about average when it comes to walks, that’s not always a recipe for success when it comes to is it a good I bat or is it a bad I bat, right? when it comes to are you making good swing decisions or are you not making good swing decisions and then you go look at what they did and when they had their highest batting average when they had their highest slugging percentage it was in June when their strikeout rate was at 21% and then you look at what they did in September strikeout rate was at 26% and their batting average was the lowest that it was all year and their slugging percentage was the lowest that it was all year so fewer strikeouts better results more strikeouts worse results that’s kind of the narrative of the Tiger season specifically at the plate I do think it’s important for them to put the ball in play more often. You know, to make better swing decisions, to cut down on the swing and miss, move the ball forward. Those are all important things, but I think it’s a little bit unfair to act like they didn’t do that at all. I think it’s unfair to act like they didn’t move the ball forward, didn’t draw walks, didn’t swing at good pitches. Like, there were stretches of the season where the Tigers did a good job of those things and they were rewarded for it in the results. However, when it came down to crunch time and there were the big moments and we were in September and going into October, somehow they were able to put runners on base and then suddenly couldn’t drive them in. Like, is that a bad approach or is that just you’re not clutch in the hitting department? What are your thoughts on that? And then kind of walk me through what you heard from Scott Harris and from AJ Hench. Yeah, I mean, you know, earlier I think uh Scott Harris seemed just as perplexed as as anybody else about what happened to the offense. Like why did a top eight offense turn into a bottom eight offense? And he did talk a little bit about uh you know some swing path stuff that felt almost uh directed like directly at uh Riley Green to me and you know Riley Green was still had a very good year. You know he what happened with Riley Green is he traded four 4% of his walk rate last year for 4% more strikeouts this year got 12 more home runs out of it. Uh you’d like to see kind of a happy median somewhere there. Uh but yeah I I think you know it really is kind of mystifying why they couldn’t get those hits when they needed them the most. And it was kind of if you were watching the press conference or if you were there uh when they were talking about that the power went out or the lights went off which was kind of one of those like weird like apppropo moments like oh it’s a power outage just like the offense. But yeah I agree with you like the offense was giving itself chances for the most part but it is there are parts of that the way they’ve done it where you’re setting yourself up a little bit for failure if you’re going to be such a high strikeout team. And there were times when it wasn’t a strike out. It was it was as Jav Bayz came up and hit a weak grounder at a third instead of hitting, you know, any number of other balls in play that that could have resulted in a run. It was Glamber Torres. I thought for sure when he was up with the bases loaded, he was just going to do like a patented line drive to right center and and I think he flew out. It’s just, you know, baseball’s very hard and hitting is very hard and I think Kench made that pretty clear. Uh but it’s it’s comforting in some ways to know that they were just as confused about it as everybody else. But I also take a little bit of solace knowing that that they have some ideas of how they could make it better. But we’ll see if they could actually implement that and head into next year. Yeah, the implementation of it is kind of what gets me because you’re right. I mean, they did strike out a lot and that was a trend throughout the entire season. Obviously, some months more than other months, but at the same time, they were a high strikeout team, but they were a good offense for most of the season and then, like I said, down the stretch they really struggled. Is that just happen stance? Like maybe that’s just happen stance and you don’t want to overreact too much to one thing. You talk about changing bat paths and stuff like that. Like is that the best thing? Like maybe it’s good to change Riley Green’s bat path a little bit, but like to go and have like a hey, you know, Carrie Carpenter needs to swing the bat differently. Riley Green needs to swing it differently. Spencer Tolson needs to swing it differently. Parker, like could that almost do more harm than help? Is that overreacting to a month and a half sample size when you have to look back and say, “Okay, this team was good for like four and a half to five months.” I mean, and then you look at the personnel, right? Like Carrie Carpenter is going to be here. Cole Keith is going to be here. Riley Green is going to be here. Spencer Tolson is going to be here. Like Zack McKinstry, he should be here. Dylan Dingler will be here. Parker Meadows like he should be here. Who else is playing center field? Javier Bayz, he’s going to be here. So when you look at the lineup, Welo Perez going to be here. Like obviously the Tigers could make some moves and trades could happen, but unless they deviate from what they’ve done in the past, I don’t foresee any of those guys not being on the roster next year. And they talk a lot about being able to develop from within, continue to get guys better, help them improve. Those guys are all coming back. So, I mean, is it is it Kevin McGonagle to save the day and like put the ball in play more often? Like, is that is that what it’s going to come down to? Or are we going to try to overhaul swings? Like that that’s what I’m curious to see. Okay, like as this goes along, what actually happens to implement these changes? And in some ways, I worry that maybe the implementation of certain things could be an overreaction. You could also end up hurting this group more than you actually help this group. That’s certainly possible. You don’t want to, you know, if it broke, don’t fix it. But, you know, they they headed into the last offseason. You know, Colt Keith was moved to first base because Spencer Tolson was basically on the outs, right? Like, and they helped him overhaul a swing a little bit and it, you know, he’s still Spencer Tolson. is not, you know, a world beater, but he hit 30 plus home runs again. So, they they were able to fix some things there. If they can, you know, make the proper adjustments and help these guys just stay more consistent. I think uh you’re a golfer, right? The uh you know, baseball, it’s it’s swinging a bat is a rotational athleticism and that that there are a lot of things that can go wrong when you’re doing that. you know, just minor things can can dip your shoulder like an inch over the course of a season and your your bat bath gets too steep or little minor injuries or major injuries like a sports hernia or whatever like they can really affect the way you’re swinging and you know when they talked about the press conference I don’t think we had it in that clip but it was it was a lot about for AJ Hench he keeps talking about it’s it’s about pitch selection like he he basically said I don’t care that much if they swing at pitches in the zone and they miss them it’s hard but it’s when they’re swinging at the wrong pitches that that he needs to he wants to work on and part of that is not mechanical. It’s uh, you know, mental. It’s get a good pitch to hit. That has been his mantra year over year over year, especially to Riley Green. So, you got to get a good pitch to hit. That’s where it starts. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, and again, we’ve talked about that that home run that he hit off he hit the home run off Spire, too. That was would have been very memorable had uh had the Tigers been able to pull out series, but now it’s lost to the dust bin of history. Here’s what Scott Harris said about Terrick Scooel, who is set to become a free agent after the 2026 season and projects to become the first MLB pitcher to secure a $400 million contract once he gets into free agency. TK is obviously going into the final year of his controllability. How much of a decision point is that this off season or are you just I mean you kind of prepared to go into the season with him and see how it kind of how it rolls that way? Yeah, I um listen, I totally understand the question and I I understand that you have to ask me. I’ve I’ve kind of learned over time, especially with this question, that uh general comments tend to get chopped up and forced into narratives. I I can’t comment on our players being traded. I can’t comment on free agents, and I can’t comment on other teams players. So, I’m going to respond by just not not actually commenting on it. Um Trick is a Tiger. I hope he wins the the Sai Young for the second consecutive year. He’s an incredible pitcher and and we’re lucky to have him. Um that’s all I can say say on that. Will ownership give you what it takes to sign trick school long term? Um Chris has been supportive with everything we want to do. It’s it was one of the key questions that I had when I interviewed for this job and considered leaving the Giants to come to this job. I know that Chris is going to support us with everything we need both in terms of, you know, player payroll, but also non-player payroll. All of the infrastructure investments, all the investments in key staff members that can help us bring a World Series here. So, I have um no concerns about that. Question for Scott on on Teroo. I know you didn’t want to talk too much about his immediate future, but looking back at what he’s done, you guys got to the ALDS game five back-to-back seasons. Do you think you could have gotten there without him? And then looking ahead, whether it’s 2026 or 2027 and beyond, do you think you can get back to that point without Scooble? Um, I mean, listen, it’s that’s a really difficult question to to answer because it’s a total hypothetical. He’s the best pitcher in baseball. Like, he’s going to hopefully win a second Sai Young. Like, it would be arrogant and tonedeaf for me to claim that we could do all this stuff without him. Um, but on the other hand, it’s also offensive to the other players in the in the clubhouse to treat us as like a oneplayer team. So, the fact is we’ve had TK and he’s made incredible contributions for the duration of his tenure with the Tigers, but especially the last two years, he’s gotten a lot better and he’s pitched huge games for us and this guy’s done a really good job of keeping him healthy and performing at a really high level with how he has managed him early in the season. Um he’s been a huge part of what what we’ve we’ve done here and um it’s a blast to watch him pitch. I I don’t really think I can engage in hypotheticals of what would happen in past years if he wasn’t here and what would happen if he’s not here in the future. Like he’s here and we’re glad he’s here. That was Scott Harris talking about TKO. Of course, that’s the big question and it’s going to be the big question all off seasonason. What do you do? Do you trade Terooel or do you keep Terable? After game five of the ALGS, it was interesting. Terrick said that he wouldn’t talk to the front office about his future or the direction of the organization. Essentially said, “Hey, my job is to play.” Um, anything else outside of that, like that’s up to the front office. If anybody else wants to ask those questions, like direct them to the front office, like don’t direct them to me. I’m just going to pitch and that’s what I’m going to do. I thought that was an interesting way of going about it as opposed to saying, “Hey, I want to sit down and talk about my future.” Terubo was very much like, “Hey, I’m just going to pitch and then whatever happens happens.” Also, owner Christopher Illich, I asked him after game three of the AL wild card. I asked him if he was prioritizing a TKO extension, and he said, quote, “We’re in 2025 right now.” End quote. That was Christopher Illich’s quote when I asked if it was a priority to give Tracoal a contract extension to keep him beyond the 2026 season. Chris Illich deferred to the fact that it is 2025 right now. So that’s what the Tigers are at when you talk about Scott Harris, Christopher Illich, Trick Scooble, that’s what all three of those voices are having to say right now. Reading between the lines, Chris, what are some of your thoughts on the Scooble situation? What Scott Harris had to say, what Christopher Illich has said, what TKO has said, and and look, don’t get me wrong, Tigers, in 2024 and 2025, in ter starts, it is a 42 and 20 record. in non-terk scubable starts, it is a 131 and 131 record. So a 500 record in nonschool starts and in scubble starts when Terra Scubble takes the ball to start the game. The Tigers are 42 and 20. So it’s obviously a significant boost when Terrick Scubel is on the mound for this team. What are your thoughts about everything? Yeah, you know, it’s it is the it’s the tough question because you guys have to ask it because the fans want to know about it and and Scott Harris is not going to say anything. Chris Hill is not going to say anything. Derek School’s not going to say anything. Scott Morris isn’t going to say anything. Like, nobody involved is going to say anything because whatever they say could only hurt them really. They say, “Oh, we love school. We’d love to have them back.” Well, okay. It’s the price just went up. You know, realistically, it’s going to be super expensive no matter what. And you Scott Harris, the way he says it, he says, “You I can’t comment on that.” He makes it sound like he’s not allowed to, which isn’t technically true. He is allowed. No, he’s allowed to. He could comment all he wants. So, there are some rules about what you could say about free agents, but Scoob’s not a free agent. Uh, you could talk about trades, I think, if you want. You could talk about pre-ARB players, I think, if you wanted. The rule there is is that nothing you say about the player can then be used against you in the arbitration hearing. So, you say, “Oh, he’s the best pitcher of all time.” They’re not going to come back and say, “Oh, you said this. It’s going to cost you more.” But he can. He’s choosing not to. It’s like me say telling my son that we can’t go to the store to get candy, right? Like, we can. We’re not gonna. So, that’s what he means by that. But I I will say and and I have I don’t I’m not a reporter. I don’t usually have sources or whatever, but I do have somebody I I trust really closely who’s got a source from inside the locker room who says that Scooble does like the Tigers, would like to stay, but Scott Boris won’t let him sign for anything under highest paid player in baseball. That was the quote. And I don’t know if that means highest paid pitcher or if he wants like, you know, Juan Sodto money to avoid going to free agency. That would seem like a bit much. Either way, you’re talking 350, $400 million, as you said. you know, he could be the first $400 million pitcher. It there’s it’s it’s just how much do you value your guy, the guy who came here and did all this for you in Detroit. How much does that and there’s huge value to fans for sure, right? And and he’s our guy. We want him to stay here forever. It’s not a a smart signing it for, you know, for multiple reasons. We saw what happened with the end of Big El Guerrera’s career. Scoo’s going to get 8 10 years at like 350 to $400 million probably. It would be nice that he never played in another uniform, but I don’t think the Tigers are going to weigh into that pool. And that’s why we we were talking about earlier is like, well, do you trade him then? All that comes into play after that because it’s it’s just it’s such a large amount of money and it’s going to pay off in the short term probably. And then there’s a complicating factor with him with the multiple injuries on his arm, but it’s just not the sort of thing that I picture Scott Harris wanting to do. And I think that Chris Ilich is kind of a hands-off owner in that regard. He’s not Mike Illich. is not going to tell him to go sign him no matter what it costs. And so I don’t think Scott Harris wants to sign him for, you know, $400 million. And so I don’t think it’s going to happen. And we talked about that a few episodes ago when it came to, you know, who deserved blame for what happened to the Tigers down the stretch. And it was, yeah, if Chris Ilich was a more hands-on owner, they would have had Alex pregnant. Maybe they would be extending TK. But Christopher Illich, as far as we understand based on track record, history, you know, he has no problem funding everything the Tigers want to do. infrastructure. I mean, he’s great. He is all in on what the Tigers are trying to do in that department. When it comes to player contracts and deals, he is not involved from everything that we understand. So, if he wanted to get involved and he wanted to get Alex Breman would have been a Tiger. If he wanted Ter Scubble to be a Tiger for life, Terub would be a Tiger for life. That ultimately falls on the shoulders of Christopher Illich. Maybe not so much Scott Harris. You mentioned your guy, and I’m talking about Scott Harris. Scott Harris’s guy. Here’s what he said about number one prospect Kevin McGonagal, who he didn’t say this outright, but he pretty much danced around it, will be invited to MLB spring training and is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in the 2026 season. Here’s Scott Harris on Kevin McGonagal. To follow up on that, he mentioned McGonogal. I mean, you talked about the top prospects being closer. How realistic is it a guy that a guy like him is in Detroit this spring? And I guess to Will’s question too, does that affect free agent decisions this winter for you, the prospect of those guys being here soon? Yeah. Um, so I expect um the players that posted dominant years in DA to factor into our big league team next year. Um, they’ve earned it. They they posted incredible years as 20 year olds. Um, very young for level. I expect their their progress to continue and I expect them to be in Detroit at some point next year. Um, does that affect what we do this winter? Absolutely. How could it not? I mean, these guys are are really exciting young players that can help us on both sides of the ball and we got to make sure that we are um preserving opportunity for them. We also have to compete. The expectations have changed around here. have to thread that needle where whereby we are putting ourselves in a really good position to get off to a good start but also add to that team throughout the summer um internally with some of these players that that are coming. You know, Kevin is in um the fall league right now. He’s playing some shortstop. He’s playing some third base. He has played second short and now he’s going to having have experience at third base. Um, I’m not going to announce that he’s going to be in Major League Camp, so because I should probably tell them before I announce it. Um, but I think a lot of these guys are going to be in Major League Camp. You’re going to see them firsthand. And more importantly, they’re going to get a lot of experience being around the big league coaches and the big league players so that when they ultimately get to the big leagues, they’re more comfortable and we have an environment ready for them that allows them to jump onto this team and make this team better immediately. Um I will say the only other thing is um they’ve already affected what we’ve done up to this point because how could they not? Like we we have invested so much in a lot of these players and we want to create opportunity for them to come here and get better just like we’ve done with guys like Dylan Dingler. Like creating opportunity for them to like ultimately get on this team and demonstrate they can be one of the better catchers in all of baseball. like um we got to continue to to create runway for these players because our future it’s too important to our future. We are in a position right now where the present is really bright and the future is really bright and we got to preserve that no matter what we do this winter. That’s Scott Harris on Kevin McGonagal as well as some of the offseason plans with Kevin McGonogal obviously factoring into those offseason plans. Chris Brown, you are a Tigers minor league report. You’ve seen more Kevin McGonogal abs than I have. So break it down. I mean, Kevin McDonald going to be in MLB spring training, does he deserve an opportunity to be on the 2026 opening day roster? Do you think he is on the 2026 opening day roster? If not, how soon until he’s called up? And then how much of an impact do you think he can really make in year one? Because for as good as we’ve seen players perform in the minor leagues, there is still an adjustment period when they get to the big leagues. We saw it with Colt Keith. We’ve seen it with Spencer Tolson, with Riley Green. You go and you go look at what Kevin McGonagal has done at the double A level. Kevin McGonagal in 46 games in DoubleA, he’s hit 254. Riley Green in 84 games at the double A level, he hit 298. So Riley Green hitting near Riley Green hit near 300 at double A. Kevin McGonagal hitting right around 250 at double A. So Riley Green more hits than Kevin McGonagal at the double A level. Obviously McGonagal is more of the on base threat, draws more walks, limits the strikeouts. Riley Green more of a free swinger, but I think it’s made out to be like, you know, Kevin McGonagal is a better prospect than Riley Green was when Riley Green was coming through the system. I don’t know if that’s entirely true when you dig into the numbers. I think maybe we see more of the positive performance on social media than the negative performance. Like we don’t see the time, we don’t see when Kevin McGonagle grounds out, right? We don’t see when he pops out or flies out. We see the home runs, we see the singles, we see the clutch hits in the big moments. But at the same time, Kevin McGonagal hitting just 254 in 46 games for Double A Erie, whereas Riley Green hit nearly 384 games for DA Erie. So, so walk me through some of that, right? Spray big league big league camp, opening day roster, if not when, and then how much of an impact can Kevin McGonagle really have on the Tigers offense in 2026? Do you throw all your eggs in the Kevin McGonagle basket? Or maybe do you think about a couple of plan B, plan C, and maybe even plan D. And shout out to Raelio Castillo D report too for for doing that too. And yes, maybe we are slightly responsible for elevating a little bit of the expectations for Kevin McDonald. I will say, and he’s talked about this is he he started getting fed a ton of breaking balls and change ups. He destroys fast balls like a lot of hitters and he’s very good at hitting everything, but double A pitchers just started throwing him tons of junk. And what resulted in that his batting average on balls in play was like 230, which is, you know, traditionally it’s going to be closer to 300. That indicates a little bit of bad luck, but part of it was him trying to figure out what to do with these, you know, slow breaking balls away and and sometimes he would punch him the other way, but a lot of times he was rolling over on the ground partly because he had kind of he worked on his swing and his bat speed this year to get more power and more pull power and that was, you know, great results there. But so he he just has to make some more adjustments and that’s going to happen again at the big league level. As to whether he’s going to make the roster out of spring training, I think he will be given every chance to. I I suspect that uh you know he’s going to be starting at either second base or third base on opening day next year. If he doesn’t have a good spring, they may look to one of the other guys in the system who kind of play those positions. M Max Anderson, how you Lee, they’re not necessarily as highly touted. Well, certainly not as highly touted, but they are they’re there and they could play that for a little bit until McGonagal is ready. Now, if they go out and get Alex Bregman, uh, then that’s, uh, not going to happen. But, uh, I got can also play shortstop. So, maybe he displaces Trey Sweeney in some regard and maybe Jav Bayas is playing more center again. Uh, I think that he’s going to make his way onto the major league roster relatively quickly. I I just I can’t guarantee that’s going to be on opening day, but I I think they would like for him to be there on opening day because of even if he’s not necessarily hitting, as you said, you know, hitting 250 in in uh, DoubleA, he was hitting for plenty of power, was get on base a ton. His defense is a work in progress, but he can add value with on his with defense and with speed. There’s a lot to like there that he can help even if he’s trying to figure out the hitting. And you know, the other guys are mentioning at double A. He’s, you know, Max Clark is is another one of the 20-year-olds. Uh, and he’s not considered maybe like quite as ready as McGonville, but he’ll be up in the big leagues next year, too, I think, because he’s getting close. Jose Bceno, another 20-year-old, uh, first baseman catcher. He struggled a little bit more than those other two. Part of that, I think, is he was just playing a lot of games for the first time in his career. And and he basically was catching every game down the stretch. And he’s, you know, I I don’t think he’s a catcher in the big leagues. If he could be, even for 25, 30 games a year, that’d be super valuable. He’s got a lot of work to do. It takes a long time to learn how to be a good defensive catcher. And and it’s a very demanding position. So, his offense dipped a little bit, but he’s another guy with a really good eye, with a lot of power, good hitter. So, these are three guys who can come up and help next year. I think it would be kind of foolish to expect all of them to come up and immediately be good. And as you were saying, there’s a huge adjustment period in in the big leagues. And you saw we saw it with Parker Meadows, we saw it with Colt Keith, we’ve seen it with Riley Green, it’s Richard Torlson, Nick Kurtz, who’s going to win the American League Rookie of the Year. He had a bad first five or six weeks. It takes time, but the the one thing I feel pretty confident about Kevin McGonagal is he’s going to figure it out and and become a very good offensive player, you know, in in relatively short order. We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we are going to touch on a couple of other things. And then we’re going to get out of here. [Music] We’re back. Let’s dive right into AJ Hinch. He receives a contract extension from the Tigers. That happened at some point during the 2025 season. We know he was hired by Aloa in October 2020. He was extended by Scott Harris in October 2023, then again in the summer of 2025. And the Tigers have never shared any of the contract details. This is probably more about money than years at this point. But I do wonder if AJ Hinch is under contract for more years than Scott Harris. Like, wouldn’t that be interesting? And obviously maybe a little bit of a bad look for Scott Harris. If that’s the case, like if AJ Hinch is under contract for longer than Scott Harris, then it would tell me that Chris Ilich trusts AJ Hinch more than he trusts Scott Harris when it comes to the future of the organization. And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how Chris Illich feels when you ask Chris Illich about AJ Hinch. He just glows. He just lights up. I mean, not that he doesn’t light up about Scott Harris, but it’s just a little bit different when he talks about AJ Hinch and what a great manager he is. So anyway, I think this is probably more about the money than the years with this extension. The reason why AJ Hinch was extended in October of 2023. And then we see Craig Council, he becomes the manager of the Cubs. He sets the market at 5 years worth more than 40 million. It made him the highest paid manager in MLB history, both in terms of average annual value and total value. So, we know AJ Hinch wasn’t making 8 million per year like Craig Council before the 2025 season, but now with this new contract, maybe AJ Hinch is making more than $8 million per year. Maybe he has surpassed Craig Council. Maybe AJ Hinch has the new record for highest paid manager in MLB history based on this new contract extension. So, that’s why I guess this is probably more about money than it is years. Maybe a year tacked on because he just just had a contract extension. So, why would you need another contract extension? Like, if you’re already locked up long term, which he he AJ H was locked up long term. Like, why do you need more years on top of long-term? I think it just has to do more with money because of the way that we’ve seen Craig Council get paid, the way that we’ve seen Alex Corey get paid. I think it’s only right that AJ Hinch gets paid what he deserves for being the best manager in baseball. If AJ Hinch is getting paid like Craig Council, let’s say that he is getting paid somewhere around 8 million per year like Council, you think that’s justified considering what we’ve seen from AJ Hinch, the way that he is able to do what he’s able to do with the roster that he’s given. I think it’s it’s easy to forget like this Tigers team is nothing like the AJ Hinch Houston Astros team. I mean, AJ Hinch what he has to do specifically on the offensive side, the position player side to get the most out of this group. I mean, it’s almost like magic watching him go out there and work, you know, night in and night out. So, I think he definitely deserves every million that he’s getting just because of what he has to do and put up. I mean, it is not a lock it in and go type of a lineup. It is definitely a plugandplay mix and match and he does it as well as anybody in baseball. Yeah, I mean, we we’ve talked a lot about uh you know, kind of our respect for for AJ Hinch and how he does it. I think he is probably the best manager in baseball in terms of both the way he manages the clubhouse and and the strategic aspect of the game. Uh, and if he Yeah, I mean it’s kind of like in college football, right? Whenever uh, you know, Nick Sabin, you know, before he retired, you know, if he’s getting paid $10 million a year, then somebody else has to be, you know, oh well now Urban Meyer’s got 11 million and now well Nick Sabin’s got to get 12. Like it and it doesn’t help to put it out in public. I I guess I understand why the Tigers do. It would be helpful for people who care about the sort of thing, but then all it does is go, you know, people complain about him making too much money, but yeah, like I can just go pure saber metric nerd aspect of it. The traditional thinking is that, you know, the cost for a win, a win above replacement is somewhere between like eight and $10 million a year. And so if you think AJ Hench is worth one win to your team, uh, then he’s worth $8 million. I think he’s probably worth more than that. I I don’t know if it’s more than three or four, it’s tough for a manager to to think, you know, huge difference like that, but I I I rarely feel like AJ Hinch gets outmaneuvered. Very rarely. And so I think he’s adding a lot of value to the team on the field and and, you know, behind the scenes. All right, before we get out of here, because it is time to get out of here, what is the biggest need for the Tigers in the off season? Yeah, we touched on I think they need some more contact skills. It’d be nice to have a veteran hitter, maybe a Bobette, maybe an Alex Bregman, but I think another big need we kind of touched on it would be nice if they had another solid starting pitcher who could give them, you know, length in the playoffs. Somebody who’s that good, a number two for real. That’s, you know, again, it might be wishing for too much and they have some other pitchers available, but I think those are the two biggest needs and then followed up with uh some more swinging miss in the bullpen. For me, it’s all Alex Bregman. He’s got two years remaining on his three-year or $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. He can opt out of his contract. Now, we probably won’t know his decision until 5 days after the end of the World Series, which is when the option decisions are due. He has a player option, so he gets to decide if he wants to opt out of the contract. I’m expecting Alex Bregman to opt out in pursuit of a long-term contract. Now, it is 2 years, 80 million remaining on that Red Sox contract. And yes, a lot of that is deferred, but either way, he’s not going to get 40 million per year elsewhere, but he could get more total value over more years elsewhere, which is what I think he wants. So, I think there’s a chance that Breman restructures his deal with the Red Sox. If not, then it’s going to be Red Sox, Tigers, Cubs, Dodgers, Mariners, among other teams going after Alex Bregman in free agency. The Tigers missed out last offseason. I really think that cost them this year when it really look back at what went wrong for the Tigers. I think it all starts with Alex Bregman and it ends with Alex Bregman. Like, they missed out on a middle-ofthe-art bat, a stable presence at third base, and a leader in the clubhouse. and Alex Bregman was right there for them last off seasonason, but the Tigers chose not to sign him. Tigers offered Breman six years, 171.5 million with an opt- out clause after the 2026 season. Meanwhile, Alex Bregman made two offers to the Tigers, 7 years, 200 million, 6 years, 186 million with an opt- out clause after the 2025 season. The Tigers turned down both of those offers. The Tigers could have accepted and signed Bregman, but the Tigers declined Alex Bregman. And then Alex Bregman picked the Red Sox offer instead of the Tigers offer. The Tigers cannot miss out on Alex Bregman this time around if they’re serious about winning the World Series in 2026 regardless of what happens with TK Scubble. I think you have to go after Alex Bregman and you have to get it done this time. And if it takes Chris Illich to come in and get involved in negotiations, then that’s on Chris Illich to get involved this time and make something happen. cuz I just don’t think the Tigers can miss out on Alex Bregman again. All right, let’s get out of here. Thanks to Chris Brown from Tigers Minor League Report for co-hosting with me this week. Thanks to everyone out there for listening to the latest episode of Days of Roar. And look, this show went through a lot of changes over this past season. Thank you all for sticking with us and listening week in and week out. Please like, rate, share, and subscribe. Drop us a rating and comment what you think about the show. Stick with freak.com/sports for the latest Tigers coverage. I’d like to thank the editor of the Free Press, Nicole Avery Nichols, sports editor, Bill Bradley, and our magical producer, Robin Shan. Robin, thank you so much for cutting up this episode, our longest episode we’ve ever done. There was a lot to discuss and there was a lot to dig into, and you’re the reason why we’re able to do it all. So, hat tip to you, Robin. For the Detroit Free Press, I’m Evan Pzled. We will catch you next week. Until then, go in. Peace. [Music]

The 2025 season is over for the Detroit Tigers after a heartbreaking 15-inning loss to the Seattle Mariners in Game 5 of the ALDS, which eliminated the Tigers from the MLB postseason. The Tigers have been knocked out of the playoffs in Game 5 of the ALDS in each of the past two seasons. On “Days of Roar,” Evan Petzold and Chris Brown (“Tigers Minor League Report”) share takeaways from the Tigers’ postseason run and discuss the big offseason topic. What happened to the Tigers in Game 5 of the ALDS? Should the Tigers trade Tarik Skubal this offseason? We also react to what president of baseball operations Scott Harris and manager A.J. Hinch outlined during the end-of-season press conference, with Harris putting the blame on the offense. If the offense is the problem, then what’s the plan to fix the offense ahead of the 2026 season? We look into Hinch’s contract extension, plus what the Tigers need most in the offseason.

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