Detroit Tigers Biggest Offseason Questions: Skubal, Offense, Bullpen, and More!

Detroit Tigers Biggest Offseason Questions: Skubal, Offense, Bullpen, and More!

What are the biggest questions surrounding the Detroit Tigers heading into the off season? We’ll talk about that all today on Locked on Tigers. You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Locked On Tigers. I’m of course your host, Scott Bentley. Today is Friday, October 24th, 2025. Thank you so much for making Locked On 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 day. Today’s episode is brought to you by 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 today. Welcome in. Welcome all everybody. Happy Friday. Hopefully we can send you off into the show here with a solid batch of questions today. Today I ask you the questions. No, but what we’re going to do is kind of just highlight the biggest I don’t want to say concerns. I think questions probably is the right way to to word it surrounding the Detroit Tigers organization and roster as we head into the off seasonason. Right, the World Series starts tonight if you’re listening on Friday. There’ll be a couple of games down by the end of the weekend when we see each other next. So, I want to make sure I get out ahead of this and really set the stage because once the World Series ends, like deadlines for uh, you know, non-tendering players and and player options and whatever are are really quick after the World Series ends. So, want to make sure we do this while we still have some downtime here. And yeah, that that’s what we’re going to do today. So, let’s hop right into it because I have a plethora of questions to get through. Number one, to no surprise to literally anyone, is what to do with Trick Scooble. I literally wrote on my show sheet, duh. Like, of course, this is the first question. Of course, this is the biggest question. Everything else we talk about in this show today and everything we’re going to talk about the Tigers and the offseason and strategies and stuff the rest of the winter all revolve around this question. The return that you would get in a trade if you do move him would change your positional needs. Would presumably fill holes in the lineup or in the rotation or hopefully both, right? like we’ve already beat this dead horse constantly and it’s not even the end of the World Series that I mean I’m recording this before the start of the World Series even. So, it’s going to be a long off season and I’ve said that even a million times already. Um I would want them to extend him like I I don’t think that’s like a hot take. He’s the best pitcher on the planet. I I would really like him to be on this team for as long as possible. Yeah. Um, but as I said earlier this week, I think that the most likely scenario is for them to just keep him one more year and then let him walk. So, the trade possibility again really kind of determines every other question. So, we’re going to start with that. The next question I have is, is Glaver Torres back in a Detroit Tigers uniform in 2026? I still think the answer here is probably no, but I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong plenty of times in my life and I will be wrong plenty more times going forward. Um, he might legitimately be the best second baseman on the free agent market this year and he wants a multi-year deal. So, I if you truly believe, and when I say you, I I guess I mean you personally, or like if you were running the Detroit Tigers, I if if the organization truly believes that the second half slump that Glabber had was solely because of the sports hernia and and no other factors were at play, it was just he was hurt, then maybe the Tigers are a little bit more inclined because in the first half of the season, he was incredibly valuable to this lineup. My thing that I keep going back to even with the hernia thing at the forefront of my mind when when I think about the future of Glaver is Spencer Tolson, barring a a trade, which I I don’t think is happening, is not going to go anywhere. The Tigers, whether you you love him or hate him, I I I can almost guarantee you he’s going to be the first baseman on opening day next year. So that means I don’t think you extended Colt Keith before he made his major league debut just to have him be like a platoon guy that sometimes plays third base. And I think that they’re just going to let Colt Keith be the second baseman next year. He’s going to move back to that position and they’ll get someone else to play third base full-time. But it’ll be an interesting development because I think the Tigers will, for all of that being said, they will still kick the tires on Glabber and talk to his agent and figure out what a AAV or or term is. you know, him and his camp are kind of thinking because I I don’t think it’s completely ridiculous to just extend him and see if Cole Keith can play third base and then McGonagle can play third base andor shortstop as well when he comes up. It’s not like an impossible fit. I just think that it’s not going to be a high enough priority to garner the amount of money that he is going to want from an organization that has plenty other holes to fill. That’s all. I I would not mind Gabber coming back. I’m not like a a Glaver Torres hater or anything. Um, that that’s just how I see the situation. That transitions us into the position of third base. Another question I have is, uh, is this the year that the Tigers finally sign a long-term third baseman? Because we’ve been waiting since like Brandon left. I That’s too dramatic. I I guess it’s since Jr. Pandelario left really. Um they’ve just had a revolving door there. Um Zack McKinstry, Andy Abanz, Colt Keith, etc., right? Like we’re serviceable there. The revolving door of third base in 2025. The platoon kind of mania third base chaos if you will was fine, but I’d imagine at some point they would like a more consistent, steady, long-term option at third base. Um, Bregman is almost certainly going to be a free agent, but you also have guys like Yueno Suarez. Um, you have guys like Max, he has a club option, and I just really can’t picture him playing anywhere but uh, LA. So, we’ll see what happens there. Um, you have Kik Hernandez, like that that’s, you know, like an okay player in the regular season that just turns into Barry Bonds in the playoffs. And then you even have some other guys that like Yon Manata. I know it sounds, you know, wild to say maybe a year ago, but like before his injury this year had had a couple of really productive months for the Angels. So, I don’t know. I I I think third base is going to be, and I’m not saying you have to sign, you know, Hernandez or Mata or anything. I I’m just saying there are going to be some options available for you at third base. That’s going to be those players are going to be your high-end third base free agent market this year. Um, you’ll also have probably a couple of tradable assets from around the league. And then of course, even if you don’t want any of those guys, which is fine, and I don’t even necessarily like hardcore disagree with, there’s the possibility of the prospects coming to the majors and guys like McGonagal filling that role at third base. So, let’s talk about that right after this. First though, I got to talk to you’all about our friends over at Rouette. Let’s be real, making excuses doesn’t solve anything. We’ve all heard it before. It’s just stress, I’m tired, or it happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little bit of extra support. And that’s where Rouette comes in. rouette.com can offer fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designated and designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rouette makes it easy to get started. You just connect with a board certified doctor 100% online. 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Now we’re going to ask the big question on everyone’s mind. Do the prospects play for a legitimate period of time in 2026? I it sounds like at least McGonagal will be up at some point in 26. And I think you could probably convince me to that they intend on playing Clark and and maybe even Brano at some point in 2026 as well. But the question is when is this an opening day thing? Is this a you know halfway through July thing? is this September callup thing, right? Like maybe they don’t sign a third baseman, maybe they don’t trade for a third baseman and they just put Colt Keith at second, Torqulson at first, McGonagal at third and call it a day wouldn’t be the most shocking thing in the world. So that’s a big question and that obviously the answer to that and their confidence level in somebody like McGonagal then kind of changes your answer for some of these other questions like you know do you go and pay Bregman however much money he’s going to want. The other question that’s going to be tied to somebody like McGonagal and others is just how content are you at the position of shortstop? Um I I think this is kind of an underrated storyline maybe like is Javi and Mckenry I is that platoon just good enough for you? Like Javi did better than he did in 2024 and and obviously he was an all-star in center field somehow but like I don’t want I want both things to be acknowledged and to be true. Like you can it is okay to understand like wow he did better than he did in 2024. Okay, he was one of the worst players in all of baseball in 2024. Like he he still wasn’t like that good in 2025. Certainly in the second half he completely fell off a cliff after the All-Star game. So I I think there’s a little bit of a question there. That being said, maybe Javi plays solid defense. McKinstry plays good enough defense. One’s a lefty, one’s a righty. You just platoon your way through the season at shortstop, and you don’t feel bad about it. Both of them hit better in 2025 than either of them did in 2024. But maybe McGonagal is solid enough defensively to justify at shortstop, that is to justify some sort of of shakeup with that. You also have some free agents like Bo Bashette, Miguel Rojos, Trevor Story has some options attached to his name. So, we’ll see what happens there. But, um, I I I have a hard time believing they’re going to put financial resources into a shortstop long term, like externally at least. Um, but I don’t know. I I think shortstop is maybe a little bit more of a question than some people give it credit for. I I don’t think that this is all just like, oh, shortstop is sunshine and rainbows and there’s nothing to improve there. Another position that certainly falls under that category that I am very interested in is the position of center field. What is your comfort level in center field going forward? Parker Meadows has shown flashes of being incredibly valuable when he’s hitting, but also has had two very large sample sizes of not hitting for really much of anything. So, how comfortable are you with Meadows in center field on opening day? Is this a situation that’s so bad that you need to go sign a center fielder? Do you need to go after I mean, Bellinger’s a free agent. I can’t imagine the Tigers are going to be in on him. That’s just yet another lefty outfielder. Um Harrison Bader, he has an option attached to his name, I believe. But Trent Gisham, um I guess again, you’re talking handedness of batter. Uh Cedric Mullins, same thing. Like there’s there’s some decent center field options out there, but I think the most intriguing question here is not as much the external alternatives as opposed to the internal. Where does Clark kind of come into the fold? Where does Max Clark fit into the conversation of center field? I I’ll tell you this right now. I I had this conversation the other day with a few people. I really wouldn’t hate just rolling into the 2026 season with opening day is Parker Meadows. And if you get a month and a half to two months in and he can’t hit for anything, then you trot Max Clark out there on June 1st and he’s your center fielder the rest of the year. He’s going to give you good defense. He’s got a cannon of an arm. He’s really fast. He’s going to, you know, probably draw walks at a minimum even if he, you know, doesn’t hit right away. A and this off season you use the money that you have for holes that are more blatant and more obvious and more apparent. They they need more production out of center field than one they’ve gotten o over the last year certainly. That doesn’t mean that you have to go to the other extreme either and be like, “Well, we got to sign Bellinger to an eight-year deal.” I I I know it’s not super sexy or like this huge splash, but I don’t know. Like I I understand that’s what people want, but I I think it’s more beneficial to the Tigers and the budget that they do have to use their resources and money to improve in other areas and then just see if one of Meadows or Clark in a full season cuz like Clark is supposedly the center fielder of the future anyways. So, I I mean, if you want to sign like a stop gap, I guess, but I I think it’s probably worth just seeing if that can be Meadows before you fork over a lot of money. I don’t know. I’m kind of just like thinking out loud and spitballing here. But that’s kind of how I view centerfield and we’ll see if the organization agrees or disagrees with that. Can the Tigers be legitimate players in the NPB market? We talked about this a lot yesterday, so we won’t spend too much more time on it, but there’s a lot of great talent coming over yet again for like the third, fourth off seasonason in a row. Um, and will the Tigers, I mean, even if you take this year out of it, just answer the question, will they ever be a team that can make a splash in Japan? And, uh, they just never have. So, it’ll be interesting to see whether they are negotiating with or or you know contenders on some of this uh great talent that’s coming over from there. Yet again, let’s talk about pitching. This one is not as much do you need starting pitching help as as much as it is to me at least. How much starting pitching help do you need? Is one starting pitcher sign enough? I don’t think anyone on the planet thinks that they just shouldn’t sign a single starting pitcher and should just roll in with how it looks right now. So, is one enough or is this a situation where you need multiple legitimate starters? I said this last year and I’ll say it again this year. I think you need to add multiple arms to this rotation. Let’s look at how it looks right now. Okay, we’ll paint the picture a little bit here. Right now, if the 2026 season started tomorrow, your rotation would be Scooble, Olsen, Mai, those would be your only guarantees. Those three, three guarantees, not a lot. Melton hopefully. And then Flity is a maybe because he has an option. And that will be answered in the coming weeks. So, even if all five of those guys that I just mentioned come back in 2026 and are healthy on opening day, the Tigers used 11 different true starting pitchers this year and almost 15 different starters if you include like the openers, you know, Tyler Holton starts and whatnot thrown in there. especially considering Ree Olsen and Casey Meis’s injury history, the fact that Troy Melton is literally going to be in his first MLB season. And uh you can sign people to more than one year and Scoo, I mean, if you want to even get bigger picture, is only even guaranteed for one more season. So, it might not hurt you to go out and get a starting pitcher that I don’t know, maybe is under contract past 2026 because right now you you barely have any of those to your name. I want at least two starting pitchers this winter. Uh, and that’s even if all five of those guys I mentioned come back. Uh, if Flity leaves or if you trade Scoo, then that number goes up to even three or four. And there are plenty of starting pitching options to choose from. Want to talk bullpen as well, then we’ll get into a few more questions. These are the only blinds I have at the moment if you’re watching on YouTube. So like I I don’t know what to do. I the sun is just going to be it’s been like nothing but dark clouds for 72 hours straight and then now right when I’m trying to record a weekend show, we’re just going to have the sun blinding everyone watching. So sorry about that. But I I like I’m still I’m still I I haven’t even I mean clearly like completely finished unpacking this room and everything. So um we’ll be back 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. 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. I love how FanDuel makes it easy to play in so many different ways. You can build parlays, try player props, and even follow live lines during games. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. All right everybody, welcome back your third and final segment Blocked on Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, making us your first listen every single day. Finishing up this episode of what are the biggest questions surrounding the Tigers off season. As we head into said off season after the World Series, what is your confidence level in the bullpen? It was very poor this year and was even worse in the second half of the season specifically. Is this a situation where do you just add a couple of arms and you call it good or do you completely revamp the entire pen? I love Will Vest so much. I think he had a great year. I also don’t think that he is like the lockdown elite closers that you see all these other team that makes that all these other teams that make deep playoff runs have, right? He had an RA of three. All of these other teams have guys that have ERAs of of you know 12 and5 and throw 104 miles an hour. Does Kyle Finnegan return? Is he a priority? And then you have obviously a billion relievers that are free agents as you do literally every off season. Um just to name a couple I mean Edwin Diaz, Riceella Glacius, Ryan Hley, Devin Williams, Robert Suarez and again that that’s just like the top four or five. There is a billion relievers every year. There’s more relievers than any other position in baseball. So there’ll be plenty to choose from in that regard. But I would really also like a high leverage lefty. Tyler Holton’s fine. Okay, he he had an okay like serviceable year and is going to be back next year, but for a while down the stretch there, he was literally the only left-handed pitcher in the entire bullpen. So, I I would like that to not be the case. And I think that you should aim higher than like pitch to contact Tyler Holton out of your bullpen. You should get like a legitimate flamethrowing lefty if possible. But again, a lot easier said than done there. Two more questions for you. Two more. Three more. Yeah, three more. Are Carpenter Green and Tolson your best hitters in 2026? And this is kind of twoprong. This is uh a question that you can just ask yourself going into free agency and going into winter meetings when trades happen and be like do we need to bring in uh you know one or multiple people that are better than these guys that that’s that’s also I want people to understand like that’s really easy to say and a lot more difficult in practice. This is this is not like I know people are frustrated with them. This is not a super low bar. These are guys that had 800 ops’s and 30 plus homers. Like like all three of them, you know, when Carrie Carpenter was injured, but like if you prorate it, right? Like those guys aren’t don’t just grow on trees. That isn’t like easy to just obtain. The Tigers went like seven years without somebody hitting 30 homers on the roster. Okay. So, you’d either have to spend a lot of money, a lot of money, you know, get someone like whatever, Pete Alonzo or Kyle Schwarber, whatever, but then like where do they fit into the lineup, you know, like there’s if you sign somebody of that caliber, you find space for them. I’m not saying there’s no room for guys like that. Obviously, little bit of nuance with that comment, but you either have to pay a lot of money or you have to get one in a return for Terk Scoo really like that. Those are those are I mean honestly your only two options to get someone who’s like significantly at least better than that core. But I I think even aside from you know the the conversation in practice about like you know is this something we address in the offseason it’s also kind of a you know to get like weirdly deep like a philosophical question as well. Like, are these three guys going to get better or is what they did in 2025 their ceiling? Because if they take another step forward and Green does cut the strikeouts and the average goes back up to what it was, you know, two years ago and and and the power and RBI kind of remain and Torqulson maybe takes another step forward, like then you might be getting somewhere. Um, but if if you know Carpenter finally plays a full healthy season and and looks like he did down the stretch, like then maybe there is uh again a higher ceiling for this lineup and you don’t have to necessarily go all out to add someone who’s guaranteed to be more productive than them. But if this is kind of the limit and this is as good as they’re going to get, then then yeah, I mean, you have to consider what is the true ceiling of offensive production with those three guys in the middle and um do you like completely shake up, you know, your core and your offense if that’s the case? So, I I think the the think piece that I had there is is much more intriguing to me than just like will they sign anyone, you know, better like that that’s that’s going to be difficult to do to be real with you. Um, but a they can if they want to. B I I I think it’s a lot more big picture maybe than just like in 2026. That’s what I’m trying to say. Quick question here before we get to our final one. Do you care about stolen bases? I will literally I swear to you I will literally do an entire episode dedicated to the improvement of the stolen base number on the Detroit Tigers. Why I think it matters and why it’s important. Okay, I I will do it at some point this winter if need be. But joking aside that they were comfortably 30th of 30 in steels and for a team that is gets so much value out of base running, you would think it would be extremely beneficial for them to have that aggressive base running style with guys on second base rather than first base. And for a team that notoriously does stuck with runners in scoring position, maybe you eliminate 90 feet. I don’t know. Just kind of spitballing. But this is an area I would love maybe like a niche weird thing. I would love to see them improve this area if possible this winter. We’ll end you with a fun one here as kind of a a pickme up for any of the ups and downs that this questions may have caused your conscious here. Th this is just kind of a fun does it happen, does it not? Justin Verlander reunion. Yes or no? I think ultimately no. Let’s let’s talk about something happy. Just kidding. I’m going to pull the rug out from under you. Apparently, that was not my intention, but um I I do think the answer is probably no. I I also think if there is some optimism to be had like of all the years over the last I don’t know ever since he left where you know people talk about this literally every winter and they will until he retires to be honest with you and and so it was you know is it this year? Is it this year? Is it this year? I I think of all the years, this one is probably the most likely in my eyes. More likely than previous years does not mean likely to happen. However, this is strictly based on comparison to the likelihood of him coming back in previous years to me, which I have never taken seriously. And ultimately, even this year, I still think no. But I think it’s probably the highest percentage it’s been since he left. Whatever that’s worth to you. So, still no, but unless not maybe. Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back on Monday hopefully with maybe some better blinds or or something. It got a little bit better here, but my goodness, what a disaster. Okay, peace and love. Going to therapy’s dope. And I’ll catch youall on Monday, baby. Happy World Series. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss the Detroit Tigers biggest offseason questions going into the winter of 2025. We talk Skubal, Verlander, Meadows, Clark, McGonigle, and more!

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