Rebuilding Detroit Tigers for 2026

Rebuilding Detroit Tigers for 2026

The Detroit Tigers started 2025 as one of the best teams in baseball, but down the stretch they stumbled hard, barely limping into the postseason. Still, they managed to take down the Guardians in the wildard round before running out of gas against the Mariners. Now, the Tigers head into the offseason looking to take that next step as a franchise without needing to take a step back. Hello, my name is Avery Taylor and welcome to Rebuild October, a series where we rebuild a new team every day across the month of October. So whether you’re looking for your favorite team or just generally curious as to how every team should approach the off seasonason, then this is the series for you. And with that being said, let’s jump right into the video. When you look at the war by position, it’s clear that this roster gave some middling returns across the board. The pitching staff headlined by Tariq Scubal looked like a pretty good strength moving forward. While the bullpin leaves a lot to be desired, Tigers aren’t far off, but there’s definite work that needs to be done if they want to build on their 2025 success. Before we dive into the impending free agent decisions, we need to talk about Tariq Scooball because that’s where everything’s going to start this off seasonason. Scooball is entering the final stages of team control and extension talks between him and the Tigers have gone pretty much nowhere. So, the Tigers have two paths. They can either cash in now and reset with a massive hall, or they can see it through to the trade deadline and let the team’s performance dictate what happens next. If the Tigers are in contention again, you carry him through to the playoffs and hope you’ve built enough of a winning environment to convince him to stay. But let’s be real, with Scott Boris being his agent, he’s going to get that back. For me, I’m seeing it through to the deadline. Scooball stays for now, and we’ll let the team’s direction in 2026 determine what happens with him. Now, let’s get into the free agent decisions because they still have some big decisions to make this off seasonason. Jack Flity has a player option for $20 million and given how his production slipped in 2025, there’s no reason for him to test free agency. He’ll stay in Detroit for another season hoping to bounce back which will be greatly appreciated as the Tigers need a number two behind scuba play Torres who’s about to be an unrestricted free agent absolutely needs to stay in town. He had a great season in 2026 and was a huge part of stabilizing this offense. He’s consistent. He has a veteran presence and he fits nicely into this lineup and helps balance out some of the youth and experience. Keeping him in town should be one of the first priorities beyond scuba. Paul Seawald, on the other hand, has a mutual option for $10 million and the Tigers will decline it on their end. He only appeared in four games for Detroit and finished year with a 4.58 RA. He just didn’t show enough in Detroit to warrant keeping around for that much money, especially whenever relievers are kind of hit or miss. But then you look at Kyle Finnegan who had a terrific short stint with the Detroit Tigers, putting up a 1.5 RA in his 16 appearances. He gives this bullpin something it’s been lacking, stability and reliability, so he’s absolutely worth keeping around as a middle relief option that will hopefully get built on during this off season. José Arc had a $4 million club option, but the Tigers won’t pick that up. His rehab didn’t go nearly as expected, and when he returned, the results just weren’t very good either. just not worth keeping around for Detroit. And the same goes for Alex Cobb, Rafael Montero, Tommy Canley, and Chris Paddock, who are all unrestricted free agents, and they will all hit the open market. Moving into the prospect pool, the Tigers future looks incredibly bright with those big three prospects that we’ve been hearing about for a long time. Kevin McGonagal will be the fastest to reach the majors. He was just incredible last season, and he’s the number two prospect in baseball for a reason. He has an elite hit tool, legit top, and has a mature approach at the plate for his age. He walks more than he strikes out and can play any second, short, or a third. There’s very little to knock in his game and he could force his way up way sooner rather than later. Max Clark looks every bit the center fielder of the future. He continued to improve offensively year after year and the power finally showed up in 2025 with 14 homers. He’s also walking more than he strikes out and defensively he’s already big league ready. And then there’s Hose Borceno. The mashing bat exploded onto the scene after a historic Arizona Fall League showing last season. He carried that momentum straight into 2025, hitting 20 homers with 76 RBI’s. The glove, it’s a question mark. Who knows where he’ll end up long term? Probably at first base, but that bat will absolutely play at the next level. Now, if you’re deep into the weeds of the Tiger system, you might be wondering where Tyrone Laoronzo is. And that’s because he got traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in my Tampa Bay Rays rebuild along with Jake Rogers in exchange for Pete Fairbanks. Fairbanks gives this bullpen something it desperately needs, a true closer. He’s been one of the most consistent high leverage relievers in baseball, posting a 2.83 RA last season and bringing elite strikeout stuff to Detroit. He’s going to be the anchor that solidifies the back end of this rotation moving forward. Players returning to the roster will have to start at catcher with Dylan Dingler. Colt Keith will start at first base versus righties. Javier Bayz will be back at shortstop. Bradley Green will man left field. Parker Meadows takes center. And Curry Carpenter will be in right field versus right-handed pitching. Spencer Tolson will primarily be the DH while Wind Perez serves as the platoon partner to Carpenter in the outfield. Zack Mckensry will platoon at third base and Jamai Jones will platoon with Keith which will occasionally shift Torlson to first base. Eduardo Valencia, an unranked prospect who tore up Triple A last season, will be called up to serve as the backup catcher. His offensive production was just too strong to ignore, and he can serve as a solid backup to Dangler. As for the platoon at third base, the Tigers will dip in the free agency to grab Yoan Manata. He mashed right-handed pitching in 2025 with the Angels, and while his defense is far from pretty, he gives the Tigers a legitimate bat at third. The rotation will remain steady with Casey Mai, Reese Olsen, and Troy Melton rounding it out behind Scuba and Flity. The bullpen will return Will Best, Brennan Hanny, Tyler Holton, Brent Herder, and Jason Foley coming back off injury. For the final spot, the Tigers will add a high leverage lefty, Alex Vesia. Over the last five seasons with the Dodgers, Vessia has just been dominant, posting a 3.02 RA in 2025 while striking out a ton of batters and virtually being unhitable versus lefties. And that’s going to do it for the video. But the Tigers have seemed to hit a little bit of a ceiling with this current roster and they need to make some moves to not only break past that ceiling, but also try to entice Scooball to stay in town. In doing so, they can’t really spend a whole lot on multi-year contracts because they need every penny they can to try to get Scooball Ball back for 2027.

The Detroit Tigers were a tale of 2 teams during 2026, and with Skubal trade rumors swirling, can they not only keep the band together, but take that next step into world series contender?

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