Decision: Why Detroit Tigers CUT Alex Lange – DFA Move SHAKES Organization + Tarik Skubal Cy Young!

Decision: Why Detroit Tigers CUT Alex Lange – DFA Move SHAKES Organization + Tarik Skubal Cy Young!

For the second year in a row, TK Scooble is your American League Sai Young Award winner. How does that affect the organization going forward? We’ll talk about that and more 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 Thursday, November 13, 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. 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 Thursday to all. We got a few things to talk about today. One, we will obviously discuss TKO winning the American League Sai Young Award for the second year in a row. He backsto back backto backs it. the award that is uh it has not happened in the American League in a very long time. So we’ll talk about that but I want to start off we’re also going to talk about like the impact you know does that have an impact on the organization. Scott Boris spoke on Wednesday. So we’ll talk any news and notes that came out of that as well. Well, we’re going to start off by talking about a roster move, however, and that is the Detroit Tigers officially designate for assignment Alex Lang, and that is a corresponding move after they claim Dugan Darnell from the technically from the Pittsburgh Pirates, although he played for the Rockies all year this year and then was DFA by them and then was claimed by the Pirates. So, he’s been a pirate for like a month and never played a game for them. Um, and he is now a Detroit Tiger. I want to start off with Alex Lang. And the reason why is because this marks potentially not 100% certain that it’s the end, but it potentially marks the end of one of the most bizarre Tigers tenurs in recent memory. Not the most bizarre. Feel like Spencer Turnbulls probably is like since I took over this show, which was what halfway through 2021, Turnbulls is probably like the wildest just roller coaster of a career on end, you know, like his turmoil kind of with the organization and whatnot. Lang is is is up there though, man. He again, he could clear waiverss and if he does, then he’s just I he has the option. he could still just be a part of the organization, but even if he does clear, I I’m kind of of the belief that he would just prefer to be released and just be a free agent and see what’s out there, man. Um, he may have been, if we’re going to like timetable this, he may have been the best reliever in baseball in April and May of 2023. legitimately struggled in 2024, wasn’t like unplayably bad, but certainly had had pretty clearly taken a big step back. And even at the end of 2023, like the second half numbers are nowhere close to the first half numbers, right? So, this was kind of like writing on the wall a little bit. People realize he just doesn’t throw the curveball in the strike zone literally ever. So, you can just kind of take pitches until like he walks in a run. He struggles in 2024, then he gets injured after being demoted. That’s the thing that I I think some people forget is like or maybe only I forget. He he wasn’t injured and then like rehabbed in Triple A. No, he was demoted and then got hurt in his first couple of appearances in Toledo. Missed the rest of 2024. came back this year and in Triple A still had an erra over 4.6. Like he he wasn’t lighting it up down there. Okay. Erra o well over four and a half and still had a pretty high walk rate on top of that. He pitched one inning for the Detroit Tigers in 2025. He struck a guy out. He also walked a guy just like and now very quietly and very quickly he’s 30 years old and he has not been fully healthy in at least two calendar years and he still doesn’t throw a lot of strikes. That’s not like a an issue that he came back from injury a and something that was corrected down in Toledo. he was still missing the zone a ton and still was walking a high number of batters. So, like it is what it is. Now, I will of course worry about if another team is able to fix his strike throwing and get, you know, that peak Alex Lang back, that that first half 2023 Alex Lang back. I I of course that’s going to be in the back of my mind obviously because he was that good and his stuff is still that good. I’m also in the same breath not mad, upset or like uh confused about this decision. I also, speaking of like turmoil within the organization, I also wouldn’t be super shocked if Alex Lang and the organization were at some sort of odds to an extent. I’m not saying they they like hate each other. And I don’t know anything. This is just pure speculation, okay? Journalistic integrity and whatnot. This is not a report by any stretch of the imagination. This is me being completely hypothetical from my apartment. It It just It looks like I don’t know, man. He He He has a lot of flaws and we just listed most of them, but this bullpen wasn’t good this year, had zero swing and miss, and got paper thin by the end of the year. He’s a body to start off that throws in the mid 90s with a ton of movement and can at least get whiffs when he’s near the zone and he didn’t even get a chance in the second half, dude. And now as DFAD, we haven’t even signed a free agent yet. And we also aren’t even at the 40man roster protection, the rule five protection deadline. We’re a big influx of players. Like there wasn’t even a decision to be made. They picked up a 28-year-old off Wavers that’s pitched 11 innings of Major League Baseball and we’re like, “Yeah, we we’ll probably just, you know, boot Lang. He’ll probably be the odd man out.” I say this all the time on this show. I say this all the time on the Red Wings show. It’s one of my favorite sayings. Teams will tell you how they feel about a player if you just listen. Even with all of the shortcomings the bullpen had and all of the help that the bullpen needed this year and very clearly needs next year, they DFA Lang before they even got to uh a a like big important date in the off season in terms of adding a bunch of players to the 40man roster. I wish him nothing but the best. Um he he was electric to watch here and I I would like to believe that that version of him is still in there and I will root for him genuinely wherever he goes unless it’s like Cleveland like he he could go anywhere and and I will root for him because I I he is that fun to watch and as that good of stuff and you know like the combined no hitter like he was a part of that like there’s and I don’t think the Tigers would mind if he did stick around, if he did clear waiverss somehow and, you know, continued to, you know, agreed with the organization to come back and and just be on a minor league deal or whatnot. Um, but I I that feels very far-fetched to me. I I I feel like given his stuff, I I would imagine he’s gone either way, whether it’s another organization picks him up off waiverss or again just like his own accord. Like he he clears waiverss and then is like I would rather be a free agent. Let’s talk about the player the Tigers did add to the 40man. Not a player that is is been removed. Uh Dugan Darnell, the 28-year-old right-handed pitcher from Northville, Michigan. We’ll talk about that right after this. First though, got to talk to you about our friends over at FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of a game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps everything exciting, especially when your team is making the late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanuel.com to sign up today and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, everybody. Welcome back here segment two of Lockdown Tigers. I appreciate you all so much 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 tomorrow uh for a Friday episode as we recap the week of GM meetings. We also talk about what the future could look like, all the rumors, news and notes, and of course continuing our player review series as well. So, thank you for tuning in and making the Lockdown Network the number one sports podcast network out there. Today, we talk about a decision that was made, a roster move if you will, that was made by the Tigers organization. And then we also celebrate TK Scubble officially winning back-toback Sai Young awards. We start with Dugan Darnell, the 28-year-old right-handed pitcher from Northville High School and Adrian College. So, in terms of the the the profile and the stats of the pitcher himself, a 319 erra in AAA last year, uh had really good strikeout numbers, K rate over 30%. Um throughout his minor league career, that is um so that’s really solid. Fast ball gets up to about 94 miles an hour, sits around 94. He pairs that with a splitter and a slider. He’s got three pitches. Against righties, he uses two of them. And against lefties, he uses two of them, as is common practice, especially by right-handed pitchers in today’s game. So, against a right-handed hitter, he throws fastball slider. Against a lefty, he obviously throws fastball splitter. He had a 386 RA in a very short 11 in stint of Major League Baseball this year with the Colorado Rockies. That doesn’t look bad on paper. It probably wasn’t as effective as that would insinuate. His whip was almost one and a half in that. Now, he also is pitching for the Rockies. So, like, who even knows? It’s it’s tough to even gauge how talented or productive a pitcher is when pitching for the Rockies because it’s the Rockies and Kors and etc. Not a lot of swing and miss or strikeouts at the major league level, but again, barely pitched 10 innings. um also had a lot of walks in those 11 innings. So, we’ll see. Not like a a a short major league stint that necessarily blows you away. Um his path to get here though is pretty fascinating. Um he has been a part of the Rockies organization since he turned pro, which was before the 2021 season. So, coming out of COVID, obviously the no minor league baseball, the taxi squad, all this stuff. Um he finished his career at Adrian before that and was not drafted at 24 years old coming out of COVID pitching in the US PBL pitched for the Eastside Diamond Hoppers um and was then picked up by the Colorado Rockies. He was DFAD by Colorado at the end of the season this year. Okay. So, had pitched all throughout, you know, minor league deals all throughout the the Rockies organization. Worked his way up. 28 years old this year. And I we already mentioned what he did this season. He gets DFAD. The Pirates claim him right after the season ends. Then they DFA him last week. And now the Tigers have claimed him. So, he’s played for three teams technically. not played for. He’s been a part of three teams, three organizations in the last month and a half, not even the last like five weeks. Now, another important thing to keep in mind here is he tore his labum in his hip at the end of August and had surgery. Now, there’s no injured list in the off season, which was the motivation behind Colorado DFAing him. They knew that they had to add guys from the injured list to their 40man roster. They weren’t going to have room for him anyway. He gets DFAD despite getting hurt and having major surgery. Um I I say major. I don’t I’m not a doctor. Maybe that’s a really simple procedure. Um but has a an a surgery that will sideline him going into next year. He almost certainly will not be ready by spring training. So, you’re talking like midseason 2026 would probably be the earliest you can expect him. Maybe like, you know, May, June, a rehab assignment starts, something along those lines. This to me smells heavily. It It reeks of a player that the Tigers claim and then they try to sneak through waiverss themselves in a couple of weeks. Allah. Literally what the Pirates did and it didn’t work. that or the alternative is they like him so much that they’re going to roster him throughout the entire winter and then when the injured list opens back up again in spring training, they’re going to put him on the 60-day injured list. I that feels hard to believe to me. Um but we’ve seen crazier things. Okay. Uh hopefully he can add some pitching depth and some strikeouts to a staff that desperately needs it. I am not anticipating him to be like uh you know like a high leverage reliever. Certainly not or you know a guy that uh that is a fixture in the bullpen next year but has a decent enough minor league track record where the Tigers thought it was worth taking a chance on him. We will see if that pays off and we’ll obviously keep tabs on Alex Lang, too. I mean that decision was one for one. They’re going to kind of be tied together now. Um, we we’ll see if uh what happens in with the future of Alex Lang’s baseball career and if he’s able to turn it around and then we’ll see if uh if some a great name by the way just like Dugan Darnell an an S tier an 80grade name if you will. So hopefully he brings some muchneeded pitching depth to this organization. Speaking of pitching, the other talking point on today’s show, Terk Scooel officially wins the Sai Young award for the second year in a row. He is the first American League repeat Sai Young winner since Pedro Martinez at the end of the 90s there. Before we get to talking about Scubble, I do want to acknowledge Garrett Crochet. Locked on Red Sox is a fantastic show. Okay, Gabby does a sensational job. She she’s one of the the better hosts that um th this network has to offer for sure. Okay, so go listen to her and and she has talked about Crochet a lot throughout the year. Will probably have much more insightful opinions on Garrett Crochet than I do. Scubble deserved the award. He was the clear choice. I I haven’t seen the votes yet. uh that this like just happened for when I’m recording it. So, I haven’t seen the voting if he won it unanimously or if it was relatively close. Um won it unanimously last year in 2024. But I do want to give a ton of credit to Garrett Crochet who had a transcendent year. Like truly a phenomenal season for the Red Sox on the mound. Um was neck andneck with Scooble in a lot of stats until kind of the last couple of months of the year. Still even ended kind of in the same breath. I feel like in 2024 it was like, okay, no one’s even on like the same stratosphere as Terrick Scuba. He’s just so clearly the best pitcher in the American League. And I still believe that. I still believe he’s comfortably the best pitcher in the AL. But I think Crochet at least earned the right to like be in the same breath, which I I I really can’t say for any of his peers in 2024. So I I want to give him credit and a kind of a tip of the cap to Crochet who I mean again phenomenal year. The separator with TK Scubble and the thing that makes him so great we know there’s a lot of things that make him so great but the biggest difference between TK Scubble and the field. Okay, and this is like including Paul SK. This is this is everyone. The thing that makes him so much different than everybody else in baseball is nobody dominates the strike zone and and exemplifies and personifies what dominating the strike zone is more than TK. He has mastered it. He has perfected it. He strikes out everyone and he walks no one. There there’s a lot of pitchers out there that get a lot of strikeouts. None of them get the the the strikeout rate that he has paired with the walk rate that he has. Both being just ridiculously good. Blake Snell for a lot of years and and Blake Snell even like cut the walk rate a little bit, but Blake Snell for a long time was it’s either a strikeout or a walk. Paul Skins has not really struggled. I think that would be ridiculous to say in his major league career. There’s an argument he’s the best pitcher on the planet. It’s not TKO. I I I don’t like get mad at people who say that. He’s obviously a generational talent. Skins does walk some people sometimes. Tercoel 94th percentile in K rate, 97th percentile in walk rate in 2025. He is incredible. For my money, he is the best pitcher in baseball. A and I think that’s like starting since he came back from injury in 2023. And even if you disagree with that and are like, “No, there’s no way he’s the best pitcher in baseball since July of 2023.” I think he’s inarguably objectively top two and the other one isn’t in the American League. So that’s why he’s won backtoback Sai Young awards. I want to talk about how awesome it is to just have a talent of this caliber. And obviously we’ll talk about the impacts and the side effects of that as we have a lot throughout this off seasonason already. But it is it is I don’t want to even call like a blessing. Like I mean it is but like I like I have no part in like it’s not like I’m I’m like I’ve earned like Terk Scoop on my baseball team. like it it’s not as much of that as it is just it is it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted. I’ll put it that way. We’ll go a little bit more in depth on that right after this. All right everybody, welcome back your third and final segment of Lockdown Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always, making us your first listen every single day. Today we celebrate TK Scubble winning back-to-back American League Sai Young Awards. It is just so awesome to have a talent like this again, man. And it’s just it’s been a long time. It’s been a long time. It’s probably been since I mean uh not probably it has been since you know that 2010 to 2014 era for the Tigers, the Detroit Tigers to have one of the best players in baseball and a consistent award winner and you know at worst arguably the best at his position is just so cool to say again. Um, and I I know that doesn’t mean anything. That that’s not like an analytic or or anything like that. Like that that doesn’t mean anything that that makes me happy. Like no one cares. Okay. The front office certainly doesn’t. It’s just one of those things that no matter what happens with TKO going forward, I will be able to say with confidence that I enjoyed every second of his Tigers tenure. The ascension through the minor leagues is something that I will never forget. This is a guy that had legitimately to this day I I think still the highest K rate in the minor leagues that I have ever seen. Like that I’ve been like that I have been alive and like witnessed. Go look at Trick Scooble’s double A strikeout rate. Go. You can pause this and come back. You can go. It can be your homework. You can look at at the end of the show. Go look at his K per nine when he was in double A. It is the most asinine thing I’ve ever seen in my life still to this day. And so from that moment even the hype builds and the team is terrible. The major league team is so awful and all we have is Mai Manning Scooble. Manning Scubble and then Riley Green gets thrown into that and then Spencer Torlson gets thrown into that and it’s all just the future. The future. Are you seeing what Scooble’s doing? I Is he even better than the number one overall pick? Is he better than than Matt Manning that was a first round pick? You have the the minor league ascension. Then then you have the injuries. Then you have kind of the the amount of home runs he gave up as a rookie is is is still mindboggling to me like how far he’s come and then it you know leads to January 2023 and coming back on was it the 4th of July against the Oakland Athletics still Oakland Athletics I could say that I I feel like it was around the 4th of July if it wasn’t the 4th of July he makes his first start back and immediately starts striking out everybody and has a sub3 RA the rest of the season and is arguably the best pitcher in baseball in the second half and the last two full seasons since then are Sai Young award winners. It’s so fun to have a player of this caliber and even if 2026 is the last season we have of it, we should never take it for granted. And even if 2025, even if this is the end and he gets traded, it it’s just it’s nice to just sit and and block out all the nonsense about like is he going to get traded? Here’s, you know, four D-level prospects that no one likes and and you’re going to trade him to our organization for for nothing. like just blocking all that out and just being like we have one of the best baseball players breathing oxygen right now and that’s so awesome. So just take a second just close your eyes unless you’re driving. Do not close your eyes if you’re driving a and just or like at work. You know what? Don’t close your eyes. Too risky of a of a request. Um, just think and just enjoy the fact that the Detroit Tigers have a talent like that again. Okay, great. Now that we’ve enjoyed it for a few seconds, Scott Morris did speak on Wednesday and it was absolutely ridiculous. Like I don’t mean ridiculous in terms of like, oh, what he said was like um I don’t know, like egotistical or like he said something that isn’t true or like I I mean he literally ridiculous like like Like actually it it was it was out of a Dr. Seuss book. Like I it was the most absurd thing I’ve I’ve ever seen. He spoke I’m not kidding either. You can go look this up if you haven’t seen it. He literally spoke in like puns and and riddles the entire day. And it wasn’t just with Scooble. It was when he was asked about anybody. It was one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen for like maybe the most powerful human in baseball. He was asked about Pete Alonzo and his answer was all it was all like the letter every word started with the letter P. He was asked about Alex Bregman and he like referenced Brexit and called it Bregit. The Terrick Schubo quote is is just as absurd. It’s like he he talked about the Little Caesars’s mascot running around Detroit yelling sigh instead of pizza pizza and like like something about like it it would be a Detroit doink if they didn’t extend him. And like so people are are asking me as if I know anything about anything but are are asking me like what do you what do you take out of you know like the the Boris you know comments or whatever. Nothing. And I urge you to also take nothing out of it. It was it was absurd. And Scott Boris has one goal and that is to get the fans to put pressure on ownership and to to be mad at ownership and and that’s how the game is played. He wants all the fans to talk about how ownership is cheap and stupid I if they don’t resign him and put more and more pressure on the front office. ownership doesn’t want to put all of their resources and all of their budget that they cut out for any given winter into literally just one player that plays every five days, no less. So, we’ll see. We’ll see. I am taking zero, literally zero, out of any of the the riddles and and puns that that he was talking in on on Wednesday. I I’m not dissecting nonsense, okay? And that’s that’s what Wednesday was. Um, other news before I get you out of here, Anthony Ayoce is now a Houston Astro coach. Uh, looks like he’ll be on the hitting side of things, assistant hitting coordinator, some title like that. So, did find work. Wishing him the best. Um, I’ll leave you with this and and this is this is also your homework, okay? A lot of homework today. I apologize for that. Where does Terrick Scubble rank all time in Tigers starting pitchers? And I I I mean today, not what he could be if he signs a 10-year deal. Let’s say he’s traded tomorrow and never pitches in a Tigers uniform ever again. There’s not a lot of pitchers in Major League Baseball history that have two SAI Young Awards, period. No less backto back. no less backto back before turning 30. So my question is where does he already rank? Because there’s a real ch I mean if he gets extended for 10 years like it would be really hard for him to not be the best pitcher in franchise history by the time he retired, right? And some people think he’s already there. Not sure I’m one of those people, but I I I go back and forth a lot. It’s the the peak versus longevity argument and like different eras and whatnot. But I’m I’m curious of the fan base’s opinion and people that have been um I don’t want to say alive longer than me, people that are more experienced, as my dad says, uh that than myself and and saw, you know, like I I’m I’m a a child of of the Verlander generation, right? Like I I saw this dude throw 140 pitches and go nine innings of shutout ball or or two-run ball with 15 strikeouts for you know three years in a row basically like there there are but then like I wasn’t alive for Morris. Um and then like you go back even further. I’m not sure we have a ton of people that are are can say they watched Hal Newhauser live where we’re we’re we’re coming in on a century since the Hell Newhauser era. But like those are stats that are absolutely unbelievable. Hall of Fame career. So, like I it’s it’s just it’s interesting to me to have that conversation and just kind of open the door to and that’s not even mentioning you know like Sherzer was a Tiger for however many years and um you know David Price for a year like obviously he’s not like there’s just there’s a lot of of good talent and it’s a very storied franchise so I wonder where people kind of rank him in that regard. Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. Shout out to that every day that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back tomorrow as we continue talking about offseason ball. Peace and love. Going to therapy’s dope and I’ll catch you all tomorrow, baby. Go Tigers.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal claims his second consecutive AL Cy Young Award, putting him in historic company—can Detroit turn his individual dominance into team success? The Tigers shake up their roster by designating Alex Lange for assignment and claiming Michigan native Dugan Darnell, sparking questions about bullpen depth and future relief roles.

00:00 Tigers DFA Alex Lang
05:17 “Speculation on Alex Lang’s Future”
07:40 “DFA’d Pitcher Sparks Reflection”
10:41 “Tigers Moves, Skubal’s Cy Young”
15:28 Tigers’ Pitching Gamble Assessed
17:23 Skubal and Crochet’s 2025 Dominance
23:33 “Skubal’s Remarkable Rise to Dominance”
24:34 “Appreciating Baseball Greatness”
29:34 Best Pitcher in Franchise History?
30:54 “Tigers’ Legacy and Offseason Talk”

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