Reese Olson and Jace Jung 2025 Reviews, More Skubal Talk, and More!

Reese Olson and Jace Jung 2025 Reviews, More Skubal Talk, and More!

Today we continue our player reviews by talking about Jace Young and Ree Olsen as well as a few other news and notes. All today on Locked on Tigers. You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Lockdown Tigers. I of course your host Scott Bentley. Today is Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. We love our friends over at FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get 300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So download the app today. Welcome in everyone. Happy Wednesday. Halfway point in yet another week here. Going to spend most of the show continuing our 2025 player reviews. We will talk Reese Olsen today. We will talk Jace Young today. two very different uh tones, I guess we’ll say, in regards to those two players. We do have a couple of news and notes to start off the show. Nothing earthshattering yet again, but stuff I still want to bring up. I I want uh, you know, to pretty much relate anything that is related to the public or that happens within the organization, I would like to speak about in some capacity. So, we’ll talk about that. But I also got a question the other day when I I I think it was Monday’s episode maybe. Was either that or the end of last week. I don’t know. Time all like blends together at this point. But we ranked the well we didn’t rank. We listed the three possibilities uh of TK Scubble really and like the three outcomes that are pretty much on the table for the Detroit Tigers. And somebody asked me in the comments, what is the likelihood of all three of these happening? So, we’re going to rank them today really quickly before our player reviews. Let’s start off with news and notes. The only one I have today is Brian Pñena signs an extension with the organization. This is beautiful, wonderful, and fantastic news. who’s a catching coordinator for the Tigers organization in 2025, was not strictly held to the major leagues. Uh he worked with Iron Lorzo a lot. Evan Pzold wrote a great uh piece about that earlier in the year. So yeah, like he he worked with all catchers in the organization. He has very very notably worked incredibly well with prospects in the minor leagues in his Tigers tenure. And yeah, he was a great like player first manager, right? Put his players kind of above everything. Every minor leager that has played for him absolutely adores him and I’m really glad he’s returning not only to the organization, but also it was announced with this announcement that he is returning to be a minor league manager, which I think is beautiful. Not that I, you know, I’m sure he was great in his role as catching coordinator. I just I I almost feel like that is I I like he’s overqualified to do that if that makes sense. I I would rather him be a minor league manager and working you know hands-on with every single player that goes through this system as opposed to just one position and and kind of a select few. So I I’ve said this for threeish three maybe even four years now on this show. I think he’s a rising star in the coaching kind of landscape and it would not surprise me if he moved his way up through the ranks of the uh the minor leagues and through the ranks of kind of coaching if you will over the next, you know, four or five years. So, um glad that he is back. Sounds like a two-year deal. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Um so, let’s talk Scubble again as we do. Yesterday was the first day I think since the Tigers got eliminated that we didn’t bring up Trick Scoop in any capacity. So, let’s give ourselves a pat on the back. Okay. And now the clock starts again because we’re going to talk about him today. I I wonder what the longest we will go is. Le and I don’t want to I hope that’s clear. Like I I’m not happy to be talking about this situation literally every single day, but something comes out about it literally every day and it’s probably the biggest story in all of baseball in the off season, obviously after the World Series. So, as I said on I think it was Monday’s show, we kind of outlined three branches of thought and three different possibilities for the TK Scubble situation and how it would end, right? three different outcomes and someone had asked me, you know, what is the the one that’s the most likely to happen of those three that we mentioned because we didn’t really talk about that in that that show. So, I’m just going to rank all of them straight up in my eyes of order of likelihood. Okay, we’re going to start off number one, the most likely is option C from that episode, and that would be they don’t trade him, and they also don’t extend him. They try to win with him in 2026. Maybe they try to extend him. Ultimately, he enters free agency. The Tigers get a competitive balance pick to or a comp pick rather to well compensate for losing him after they inevitably offer him a qualifying offer after next season. We’ll break that down a little bit more here in a second, but I think pretty clearly that one is the most likely outcome. Second most likely is B. They trade him this winter. Now they realize that the gap is just simply too large for contract negotiations and they figure we might as well trade them now bolster the roster at least try to with the return that they get and then the least likely in my eyes again I could be very wrong I’m just an idiot with a microphone is a and that would be to just extend him in the next 11 months 12 months. Um there’s really not too much else to say in regards to a uh I I will not believe that he is extended until he is like as simple as that. I am just going forward under the interpretation and under the belief that he is not going to be extended by the Detroit Tigers. Um, that doesn’t even necessarily mean he won’t come back, but if he does, it will be a brand new contract because the Tigers will have outbid everybody else in free agency. I I just do not see him getting a deal done before he enters, said free agency. As far as the trade goes, I’ll be honest with you. I believe that a trade, I’m I I I’ve slowly come around to that more the possibility of it, I should say, more in recent weeks. Um I I think a trade is more likely now than I did uh certainly a year ago, but probably even like I said, two to four weeks ago, a month ago. I I think there’s momentum there that is growing and I think a lot of teams will be calling Harris during GM and winter meetings. Now on the flip side of that, if you want, you know, angel and devil on your shoulder, if you want to play devil’s advocate here, the other thing we have learned about Scott Harris in his three years going on four with the Detroit Tigers organization is that he does not budge on his interpretation of value. He will stand pat on a player at the deadline. He will stand pat on a player in the off season. He will not force a trade. He will not trade just to do it. And even if you’re a little bit less than what he wants, I if you are not giving him an adequate return that he believes matches the value that he is giving up, he will absolutely just not do anything instead. For better or for worse, I I think that that’s that’s welcomed in some situations and I think that’s frustrating in some situations. But I think that we have we have learned that over these last well certainly trade deadlines and and winters as well. C being the most likely also means that it’s the most frustrating one to talk about unless it ends in a World Series win, right? Like there’s a chance that it’s not even necessarily anybody’s fault. like there’s a chance that he just refuses to go to or to extend with the Tigers and and him and Boris are just like we no matter what want to test free agency and then there’s also a chance that nobody else in baseball you know there’s going to be some good trade offers out there I’m sure but matches the value that he’s truly worth and the Tigers just go okay we’re just going to ride out one more year with him before he walks I think that’s the most likely scenario by a pretty significant margin. Maybe not all the context and like qualifiers I threw in there, but I I think the most likely is just that he plays one more year for the Tigers and then walks. My only ask throughout this is to fully commit to one. Okay? And we will talk about that a little bit more right after this. First though, got to talk to you about our friends over at Monarch Money. 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Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, making us your first listen every single day. Shots of the everyday that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back tomorrow as we keep the offseason train rolling along. Today we talk about Reese Olsson and Jace Young here in a second. But to put a bow on today’s edition of where in the world is TKO. Um my only ask is that they fully commit to one of those if they do it. Okay. Like like fully either pay up and extend him, right? Trade him for a massive hall and make sure that that is the return to to your incredibly high standards, which it should be. or accept that he’s walking after 2026 and be way more aggressive this off season and and this 2026 trade deadline to bring a World Series ring here before he does walk. Whatever you pick, just pick it intentionally. I do not want him to just walk in 2026 and they didn’t do a whole lot else either because they were just kind of crossing their fingers and holding out hope that something would change. Whatever you pick, we’re going to have to live with this. This is a front office definfing move and will be, as I said Monday, no matter what. Whether it’s good or bad, it will define this front office’s tenure. Just make sure you pick it because you actually want to pick it, not because, oh, well, we just ended up here and nothing else worked. A and B didn’t work, so it has to be C. go all in on one of them. Okay, enough of that. Let’s talk player reviews. We’re going to get through two players today. First, we will talk about Jace Young. Second up, we’ll talk about Reese Olsson. Jace Young is a little bit more of a downer, I guess, of a conversation. Um, I I don’t even want to just look at his stats in 2025. I’m just going to straight up use his major league career statistics, which is about 150 played appearances. He has a 190 batting average, a 315 on base percentage, and a 230 slug. That is a 545 career major league OPS and 150 played appearances. Um, like I said, I think it’s more appropriate just to use his whole MLB career rather than just one season. And honestly, that gives him like more of the benefit of the doubt because his 2024 was well both neither of them were good. His 2024 was certainly better than his 2025 offensively. Um he just hasn’t adjusted to big league pitching and big league velocity. Uh, the worry I have with Jace Young is is that the Tigers aren’t in a position to give him 500 played appearances against MLB pitching a and ask him to just figure it out. And the reason they are not in a position to do that is because they are trying to win games. And we know that him at his quote unquote worst in terms of production at the major league level is a a 545 OPS. I mean, even that again is is with a better 2024 mixed in. His stats this year were even less than that. and that if he doesn’t ever make that adjustment and the timing never is something that he’s capable of consistently at least matching then you’re just not going to get production out of your everyday you know wherever he ends up second base third base. So they can’t afford to do that at this point. If this was 2019 or or even 2022 you’d probably say so be it. just throw him out there and see if he can adjust to the pitching. But we are well past that. This team has made the World Series two years in a row. The issue with that is that I think for his development, the best shot he has at reaching his ceiling at this point at now 25 years old is by seeing a lot of major league caliber pitching on a consistent basis. I I really just don’t think Triple A does too much for him at this point. Like he hits well at AAA. He always has hit well in the minor leagues. I don’t think that’s going to stop or or like change. The jump between AAA and the majors is is always the hardest and always the biggest. That that’s fairly obvious. and and he has made some mechanical changes this year to help his biggest issue which is he can’t hit high velocity. Um you look at the pitch distribution that he faces he he just gets forcefed fast balls man. Um he and he should he he hit 080 against fast balls in 2025 at the major league level I should say at the MLB level he hit 080 against fast balls this season with zero extra base hits. I mean he only had five hits total at the major league level this year and they were all singles. This is a guy that had a lot of power at Texas Tech and it was a big reason why he was drafted in the first round. He hit for pretty decent pop in AAA and pretty solid power throughout the minor leagues and has literally zero at the major league level. He has yet to hit a major league home run. He he got called up in the middle of 2024 and he only has I I believe it’s five doubles, five total extra base hits and 150 played appearances. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom. There is still a profile here that some people can grab onto and believe in. Um, and I I think that that’s worth talking about as well, right? This is not like, oh, he’s just the worst header I’ve ever seen, and there’s just nothing here. There is still reasons to give you hope. It’s just a matter of how much you believe in them. Um, he doesn’t swing and miss a lot. around league average whiff rate at the major league level. Improved on that throughout the season at the minor league level. Um even to the point where he was hitting better against lefties than righties at one point in the minor leagues. And that being the case despite the inability to catch up to velocity is kind of fascinating to me. Um and then his biggest positive at the moment is his walk rate. Uh the fact that he has a sub 200 batting average and an on base percentage over 300 is honestly kind of remarkable. Like that is that is incredibly difficult and impressive to be real with you. Um so yeah, a walk rate of almost 13% this year and if you include 2024, his major league career walk rate is almost 15%. That is astronomically high. So the decision-making is there. the bat to ball skills aren’t awful. He’s just late on dang near everything. And again, he tried to change his mechanics this year to help with that. He had a really unique um bat or hand positioning and not only his hand placement, but his load, too, was just very I mean, he did the thing with the bat, right, where he kind of set it weirdly. You don’t see that too often. So, he’s changed that. He’s trying to be quicker to the ball, right? hands, quickest possible path to the baseball. Um, the defense I I think it’s fair to say, has been pretty underwhelming in his career. I I do think to his credit that he has improved significantly from 2024 to 2025 in terms of third base defense. I think he much looked much better at third base in this calendar year. And then he’s he’s not a fast runner at all. So, like the reason I bring those things up is ultimately we can talk about, you know, the tools that a player has and and with everybody and Jace Young included, but this is a guy you brought on board. You drafted to hit. Now, Scott Harris did not draft him, right? This is an AVLA pick, but you brought him on board to hit. And if he is not hitting, he is not going to provide a ton of value really anywhere else on the field. So, what’s the future of Jay Young? I I I’d bet he’s somewhat of a DFA candidate this year. Um, not because they’re like chomping at the bit to kick him out of the organization or anything, but I think that maybe they’d put him on waiverss, get him to clear waiverss, remove him from the 40man once he does, but then still sign him back to a minor league deal. Um, now he has options remaining. So like they don’t have to do this unless they run out of room. Um, but like Akil Badu last year like got DF8 and then got brought back on a minor league deal just so that they could remove him from the 40man roster. I I see some people that are like all year this year we’re talking about trade him, trade him, trade him, dude. like he he’s 25 years old and doesn’t have any other plus tools outside of the batters box and he has yet to prove that that is a a major league caliber tool in itself. Like I I really don’t think there’s a ton of trade value here. So maybe he can be part of a bigger trade. Maybe there’s a a a couple of larger trades that happened this winter and he’s slapped on there to increase value, get it over the hump, or another team maybe thinks that they can, you know, fix his swing at the major league level. Um, but I I doubt that on his own he has too much trade value at the moment. So, we’ll see. like I I hope he makes adjustments and like I mean if if he does then that’s huge for the organization because um it would solve a ton of problems which is the the black hole that has been third base for the last couple of years and and it’s been his job to lose and he’s done really nothing at the major league level but but lost it. So I I mean I I’ve heard nothing but positive things about him as a person. I I a lot of pe like reports out of there said he’s a great dude and a great teammate. Um I it just right now it seems unlikely to me that he is going to take the third base spot and run with it. Um and and like I said, I’m not even really sure he makes it through the winter. So we’ll see what happens. The best case scenario is he gets in the lab, he makes some more adjustments, he comes into spring training and starts raking. And that’s everybody’s hope. And uh I’ll be rooting for the kid no matter what. So okay, let’s talk about Reese Olsson. We will do that right after this. First though, going to talk to you about our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you won’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. You pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. There’s so many great features. You can build parlays, try player props, even follow the games live and bet on live lines. So, it makes watching football way more fun when you’ve got a little bit of something riding on the action. So, what are you waiting for? 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Rouette, stop making excuses and start making moves. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. Third and final segment. Locked on tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always. Let’s finish this episode by talking about Reese Olsen. uh 315 erra in 2025, a 1.21 whip. He went 4-4 in 13 games started. He was shut down about halfway through the year and never returned because of a right shoulder strain. He also dealed with a strain on his finger earlier in the season and missed a couple of starts due to that as well. He is fantastic. Um he was this team’s second best starting pitcher this year in his limited time and there’s so much good to take out of his game. Um he has two elite swing and miss pitches in the change up and the slider and he pairs those with a mid90s fast ball. He absolutely rocks. The sinker that he has has a lot of movement on it. I I I think his stuff is is dynamic in every sense of the word. I actually think his change up is his best pitch at this point, which for a while it was just a foregone conclusion that it was the slider. I think this year that changed to the changed to the change up. He was better against lefties than righties this year as a right-handed pitcher. And that is almost solely due to the effectiveness of his change up, right? He throws the the slider sweeper thing that he has to righties and he throws the change up to lefties. and both of their whiff rates were around 40%. The change up was barely hit at all all year. Um he is amazing. The biggest thing is just to stay healthy, man. Um the areas of improvement I I mean there’s a couple I I guess in a perfect world, but like this dude had 315 erra this year. Um you know, if you want to be nitpicky, I’ve really been talking about it and been complaining about it for his entire major league career. He does not get whiffs on his fast ball despite it moving a lot and it being a high V low pitch. I would like to make maybe an an uh arm angle adjustment, a point of release adjustment, whatever it is to maybe tweak that and get it to a point where it’s getting more swing and miss. Um I guess he could have been a little bit better with with runners in scoring position. Had an OPS over 700 with that, but like it it wasn’t terrible. Like guys were hitting 220 I believe it was with risk against him. Um Really, I I think the biggest difference between the two seasons, 2024 and 2025, that is, is uh his ground ball rate. I think in 2024, I I stomach the lack of swing and miss in the fast ball because he had a ground ball rate over 50% along with two elite swing and miss pitches. So, he could really get you out any way he wanted. And in 2025, his ground ball rate was was not bad. Okay, it was still above league average. Um, but it was just barely above league average. It was not the, you know, 51 or 52% that it was, which is very, very high, um, in 2024. So, um, getting that back to a point where, hey, it’s either a ground ball or a strikeout, like that, that’s best case scenario. That’s exactly what you want out of a starting pitcher. That is literally what is taught. So, that’s maybe something we could hope for. and uh and hopefully there’s some adjustments that could be made in that regard. Um the only real glaring thing when you look at his makeup is just when he gives up contact, it is hard hit. Um that that is kind of the profile he has though, right? Like a guy that does not get swing and miss on his fast ball and throws a lot of breaking balls. that that is kind of like, hey, he’s gonna get a lot of swing and miss, but he’s also right like fast balls get hit hard when they’re timed up well and and when they’re not swung and missed that, which he doesn’t do. And the breaking balls produce a ton of whiffs when the spot is hit. When it’s hung in the zone, it gets hit very hard and and often for extra bases. So, that improves somewhat if there’s just some whiff in the fast ball. I sound like a broken record. I’m sorry. But, um, again, ultimately, if he can get the ground ball rate back up to near 50% again, I won’t care as much about the hard hit rate. Like, you can hit the ball as hard as you want if it’s in the ground for all I care. Uh, just do that and and continue to get the swing and miss at a, you know, top 20th percentile in baseball rate. He’s the man. He I’m I’m really just nitpicking for the sake of like being fair to everybody. Um, but he’s the man. I I think if it wasn’t for injuries, we’d be penciling him in as the number two starter going into next year. Um but the biggest issue in his career is that he has missed significant time honestly in literally every Major League Baseball season he’s been a part of. So um he should be healthy by spring training in in this this goound and uh will either be the number two or number three starter on opening day based on what the offseason looks like and if they bring anybody else in. um if there was a world in which they trade Scoo uh depending on what the return is. You know, you’re talking about a guy that may end up again being the the two or even one if that were to happen. But as said earlier in the show, I don’t think that that’s uh all too likely. So, okay, I think that’s pretty much all I got. World Series kicks off on Friday, an absolutely classic ball game on Monday night. That’s when game seven was. All-time classic, man. George Springer. George Springer I think is weirdly one of the most underrated players from those Astros teams. He has just been nothing but but rake a every postseason of his life. One of the true great postseason hitters of my generation certainly. And uh yeah, Blue Jays Dodgers man. whole lot of blue in that World Series that kicks off on Friday. I will be pulling for our Canadian brothers and sisters, but uh to each their own. Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. Shout out to every day that do tune in every day and we of course will be back tomorrow continuing offseason talk. Peace and love going to therapies dope. I’ll catch you all then, baby. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss the Detroit Tigers ability to re-sign Tarik Skubal, Brayan Pena, and we do a season review on Reese Olson and Jace Jung.

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