What direction will the Tigers choose this offseason? | Tiger Territory

What direction will the Tigers choose this offseason? | Tiger Territory

and welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part of the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tigers podcast. I’m Karen Secley. With me as always, a man who mails in his vote, but he doesn’t mail it in. He is Cody Steenhagen. How you doing? I put the vote in the dropbox, actually. Oh, technical technical sign of effort. No, you’re not mailing it in if you’re putting it in the dropbox. Takes a little more effort than that. There you go. There you go. Well, you’re a smarter man than I cuz I stood in line for two hours and walked a total of like.3 miles to vote on Tuesday uh Tuesday night. So, uh kudos to you for be being uh being more progressive than I am on that. So, we have Cody a very special breaking news update from Arizona and that is Ter School was in Arizona and he was watching couple Tigers prospects uh do do their thing and he was buffed up. What What does it mean? What does it mean Cody? I I I like to think TK’s on. He’s dropping little Easter eggs. The buffs a Detroit thing. That first picture he posted happened to include home of the Chicago Cubs above the dugout there in Mesa. So, you know, uh, but he was showing up. He was watching his boys posted about Kevin McGonagle. So, um, clearly some effort from Scooble to to look is he showing he’s still a Tiger some I don’t know. I think he’s just going about his life. He is a member of the Detroit Tigers and he’s a guy who’s a leader for this team, for his organization. he’s doing his part. Um, one criticism of Scubble that bothers me with like coming out of the ALDS thing, like I I think this guy wants to win, man. I think he’s one of the um most intense competitors I’ve ever been around. I think he has good leadership qualities, and I think as long as he is a member of the Detroit Tigers, he’s going to continue to act as such. Sure. Uh, look, Scoo knows how to play the game. I’ve said it a million times. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows all of his actions are analyzed and macro microanalyzeed and macroanalyzeed, I guess. And uh also I just al I think he just loves ball, you know, like he like like there there’s there’s really no other reason to go out there other than to just kind of be like, “Hey man, like it’s nice weather out here, catch a baseball game, see a couple of my potential future teammates.” Like, you know, nothing nothing wrong with that. Uh, I do think he is a purposeful guy. So, I do think he felt like it was a good thing to share that and tag it and and do all that stuff. But he he know he knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing. And this of course the other developing news I guess if you want to be a little bit exaggeratory in nature about it is uh he’s still kind of being thrown out there on major platforms I would say without calling anybody out with really no actual new tangible news. It’s I think it was Buster Only who who was like you know Seattle makes some sense and then it’s like Buster Only says Seattle could go after Ter Scubble. It’s like ah not doing this. Man, it is exhausting because you see the aggregated stuff and then you go to the source and you’re like, “Well, that’s not really true.” And then it’s and then, you know, other guys are saying, “Well, GMs don’t really think they’re going to trade him, blah, blah, blah.” So, Tuesday or excuse me, Thursday, November 6th, a little bit after 6:00 p.m. Eastern time, no real Teroo update, but the minute something does happen, we will be right there to react to it. And we’ll also react to things that don’t actually happen. But there is Cody something that Karen re real quick. You know I’ve told you that um the Tigers, man, they’re they’re pretty secretive and they’re not leaking stuff to national writers. Little if at all. Nobody actually knows what they’re going to do. Now, next week will be the GM meetings in Las Vegas. Uh I am not getting sent there on site, but you’re going to start hearing a lot more rumors circulate. I’m going to predict none of it’s going to come from the Tigers, but some of it could come from a certain agent and maybe other teams could fill in some, you know, kind of the back channels, what they’re hearing from the Tigers side of things. I don’t know how tangible. I wouldn’t put too much stake into anything Scooblewise next week. Um, but Scott Harris is going to get asked about it again. I think maybe there’ll be something like 5% more tangible next week. There you go. But something that is official is that Terooel, assuming that he’s a member of the 2026 Detroit Tigers rotation, is he will have his buddy Jack Flity in tow. Jack Flity talk. You’re talking about specific language earlier with the with the dropbox aspect of of voting. Here’s some language I I’m trying to get correct. He exercised his optin option. I don’t know exactly. The the bottom line is Ter uh Jack Flity will be back. He’s coming back. He’s going to be on the books uh for $20 million. He had the option to become a free agent. He either like literally or metaphorically declined that option. And so he will be back with the Tigers, like I said, for 20 million. And as much as we joked around throughout the season, Cody, about kind of like the roller coaster of Jack Flity, the I was I I was happy that that this element uh this that is going to be returning to the team next season because there’s a stability factor. There’s a intuitive knowledge factor with Jack Flity that I believe is beneficial for him because he’s still probably going to want to get at least one more big payday. um as he’s you know 30, 31, whatever age he is. And also the Tigers, that’s one less hole that needs to be filled in an off season full of uncertainty, including with the school stuff. So, and also the fan base. The fan base I thought reacted positively to to Jack Flity coming back. So, that actually pleasantly surprised me, too. A lot of people thinking the same way I do. Yeah, it seemed like the industry at large was somewhat surprised that he did not opt out. um you look at, you know, just the contract projections out there for him. We’re still somewhat optimistic, but then you look at how his market played out last year coming off one of the better years of his career and the offers he wanted were not there. I think him um coming back to the Tigers tells you he was terrified or his his representation was terrified of hitting the open market coming off a bad year. It’s possible he still could have got a three-year deal worth, I don’t know, 30 uh $45 million, but I think if you’re on Flity’s team, you you got to think that there’s a little higher ceiling for this guy and that you want to hit the market coming off a good year and not the year you had for the Tigers. In some ways, this isn’t good because 20 million still a steep price. had Flity opted out, you probably could have allocated that money, whether it’s with another pitcher or on the position side, maybe in a more productive manner. But at the same time, it’s kind of a good thing because like you said, you’re in a way you’ve already filled one of the gaps on your rotation. And though Flity is coming off a poor season, um his underlying numbers were better than the actual results. He still strikes out a ton of guys. Realistically, you were probably going to be targeting a pitcher kind of like Jack Flity, one of these guys you get unlock for your rotation. Um, instead, you get one you already have familiar with, you already have familiarity with, you’ve already had some success with. Um, you could do a lot worse than Jack Flity. So, I, you know, I think this is, um, not a huge victory for anyone, but also like a small win-win on all sides as well. Yeah, positive development. And I have to think that Jack’s thinking a like you know I like I said earlier he can you know have a good season get maybe one more payday. Uh b like he is a very vis like he’s a guy that’s always kind of been like very visible if you look at his career uh from the hot star with with uh St. Lewis and then you know like even like Baltimore to a certain extent he comes to the Tigers. He goes wins a World Series with the Dodgers. Like I do believe that there’s a factor of I’m not going to be in baseball Siberia by coming back here and and the but the spotlight a little bit should help. So I I I don’t think that part can be uh can be overlooked and and and neither can this Cody. The fact that you know the Tigers are always looking to replace pitchers. Maybe he maybe he knew this Jack Little move was coming down the pipeline. He was feeling a little he was a little threatened so he’s like I got to make sure my spot’s secure. So that’s why. So you know just saying yeah can’t roll it out. Let’s clarify that that is a joke. I am sure um Jack Little was not really on Jack Flity’s radar and Dodgers organization but uh yeah the Tigers claim Jack Little that puts their 40man roster at 40. I don’t know what they like about this guy. He’s pitched three innings in the big leagues. He had a plus4 erra and AAA and didn’t really strike out guys. Mid90s fast ball, mid 80s splitter, slider seems fine to me. Well, if he has a great spring training, we’ll talk about him then. Right now, I’m u not wellelmed at all with with that pickup. Not welmed. Well, let’s get let’s get to the like the very very very recent news, Cody, and that’s that Gabber Torres or the Tigers extended the qualifying offer to Glabber Torres. He was one of, I believe, 13 players across baseball to get the qualifying offer uh extended to them. Uh it is for 22.025 million. Should he accept, he has until November 18th, right? Is that correct? November 18th to uh to make a decision on that. And and that is sort of right now the the biggest that’s the that’s the first ball. Flity was the first one technically. So now the next ball to drop in terms of how the Tigers are going to construct the team will be this Gabber Torres decision uh and the fallout thereof. So uh what do you make of of of of the offer being extended to Glabber? Yeah, I think if you’re the Tigers, you had to extend the qualifying offer because if he uh if he declines it, he’s going to get a decent payday. Not a huge payday, but enough that you know you’re going to get draft pick compensation. Someone’s going to sign the guy. Will it exceed 50 million? I don’t know. Might be close. Um now, if you’re Gabber Torres, this is a super super interesting decision. Players rarely accept the qualifying offer. It’s normally a pretty easy decline. I think only 13 ever have been accepted. Um, Gabber Torres, man, personally, I kind of think he should accept it because Gabber was willing to take the one-year deal last season. Talked openly about he wanted to rebuild his value. He wanted to pursue a hundred million dollar deal. And his first half, I don’t know if he would have got a hundred, but he was on track to get paid. And then he declined and we found out he was playing through a hernia. And it’s fair to think that had a lot to do with his poor second half. He’ll hit only, I think, 223 after the All-Star break. If he goes into free agency right now, probably 360 is absolute max what he’s going to get given his uh defense and base running, both slight negatives. I don’t think anyone’s committing more than two or three years to Glaver and coming off a tough second half like the AAV is not going to match 22 million. I think he can get a nice check and try to redo this one-year boost thing. Um, that would be interesting and what it means for the rest of the Tigers off season. It’s not a slam dunk decision, but if I’m Glabber Torres’s agent, I’m really, you know, trying to pick his brain. Unless he just really wants two or three years security elsewhere, I think taking this and coming back is the right decision. We’ll get to this a little bit more in a second. I’m hopeful of that. I think your logic is, you know, based in a lot of good reasoning and and I guess the the question is, is it qualifying offer or nothing for his Tigers uh career to extend? That’s a good question, too. Not necessarily, but probably. I think given the amount of infield prospects they have, I don’t know that Glaver is the guy they’d want to go multi-year with, but I I wouldn’t I I wouldn’t rule that out either. Let’s say just you go for Bregman and you don’t get him and Gabber’s still in the market, you have him for two or three years. Yeah, man. Maybe. So, there you go. All right, we are going to take a quick break and then afterward we’re just going to talk in circles about free agency and what to do and what to do with uh with this roster. But first, a word from our sponsors. Hey, we’ve told you about Hule’s new daily greens ready to drink can, but also we do not want to forget about the OG. Your favorite. You love that chocolate peanut butter flavor. You and Krats love that chocolate peanut butter flavor. That’s my favorite one. Mhm. It’s so good. The vanilla also good, but when they sent me the chocolate peanut butter Oh, it’s like a dessert, but it’s not. 35 grams of protein, no added sugar, gluten-free for your boy, under five bucks per meal because it’s meal in a drink. Six grams of fiber, 27 essential vitamins and minerals. Hule makes healthy eating simple. They also just launched into Target stores nationwide. Try both products today with 15% off your purchase for new customers with the exclusive code FO at hule.com/foul. Use that code. Fill out the postcheckout survey to help support FT. Get after it FT fam. All right, coming back here. I will be honest with you, Cody, and and our wonderful listeners and say that my mood and what I think about what the Tigers should do is very likely to change week to week. I would I would like I I fully admit that. So, when people say, “Oh, you changed your mind. You flopped.” It’s just what I’m thinking in the moment. So, I’m being honest about it right now. I’m feeling very go for itish uh for the Tigers and I and I base that on you’re technically a stalemate franchise right now as you have really only gotten more innings that last year than you did the previous year but the end result was the same five games in the DS. You have the best pitcher on the planet, maybe for longer, but as of now, you know, contractually, you have him for one more season. You have a manager that is, I would say, well compensated and one of the best in the game, universally regarded as one of the best in the game. And you have the, if you look at it this way, you have momentum. you have more momentum than you’ve had in a in in kind of a generation of Tigers fans, you know, 10 15 years or whatever. Like you have you have you have a ton of momentum. This is a time to seize it. There’s enough guys out there available that you can go do it. And also last year you did try to get Alex Bregman. So like like it stands to reason that you could do the same similarly this season. And even if it’s not Bregman, make some sort of splash. And realize that like teams around you are spending money. Teams be behind you are still talented even if they had down years. And you are not a like this is a winnable division, but you’re not a shoein for it by any stretch of the imagination. Like I do I do not feel like treading water right now. That’s my thoughts right now. Okay. And I I tend to agree with you, but I finally felt decompressed enough from the season to really look at things, write some things out this week. And I kind of came to an opposite conclusion and that after looking at it, I don’t I don’t know that I how optimistic I feel about the Tigers pursuing one of these big ticket position players. Uh I want to spend most of this segment with this graphic up on the screen if you’re watching on YouTube, just so everyone can get a little idea. This is a rough draft of how I right now I think you could project the Tigers opening day roster. This is with Kevin McGonagle on it at second base, which no guarantee, but I think you’re going to want this guy to play a lot in the big leagues. And if you want him to play a lot in the big leagues, given the prospect promotion incentive, the best way to manage that asset is to have him on the opening day roster. So let’s say Colt, you know, Colt Keith could play second, McGonagle could play third. You could flip that one way or another, but the point I’m getting at there, let’s say Glaver opts in or accepts the qualifying offer. All right. I don’t know. What are you doing with McGonogal? Is he going to play short? Is he going to start in TripleA? You got Colt Keith, man, who when you look at this, the case for trading him from a roster construction standpoint makes some sense. But again, from an asset management standpoint, a young player, a talented young player who’s still improving, I still don’t think it makes sense. That all leads to like, is Alex Bregman actually what you need? Because you kind of have options at third base and second base. You have Max Anderson, you have how you Lee on the way. I don’t know how good either of those guys will be in the majors, but the Tigers like their young players. We all know this. And so Bo Bashette maybe if you think he can play shorts stop, he had a terrible year defensively. But one conclusion I come away from is maybe we got to stop talking less about these corner guys because the Tigers were I think 28th in uh shortstop war and 24th in war from center fielders. Granted, Meadows and Verling were hurt for most of the year, but I think the more glaring needs, ways to improve the team might be shortstop and center field. Um, and then look, with Flity, you got five starters coming back. Assuming Melton’s a starter, you’re going to sign at least one more. I hope they go after a Michael King or or a comparable guy, if not Dylan Cece, given you’re going to lose Scuba, Flareity, and Mai after this season. But you’re in pretty good shape. Kater Montero will be there as depth and then you got to do some real stuff in the bullpin. I mean, you got to get more swing and miss. Personally, I think that should involve spending some money, getting a real guy, but even if you don’t do that, you can get Kyle Finnegan, you can get Pete Fairbanks, you can get um some good arms. Maybe you need a power lefty. So, that’s just kind of my quick overarching thoughts here and what comes to mind for you. So, when you look at the graphic, and again, I hope you guys, you know, are watching on YouTube, uh, because it does just kind of illustrate a lot of what we’re talking about here. This feels I know it’s not the complete roster, but this feels rather thin. Uh, it’s not the complete roster, but just but we know who the other names are, right? And and and in regards to McGongle, I don’t know if this is going to be popular take among uh the Tigers faithful Cody, I’m as I’ve been people who have listened to us know I’ve been as high on McGonagal as anybody since they drafted. So I think I I I hope like uh people, you know, keep that in mind when I say this. I’m just not sure I’m letting McGonagle break either break camp with the team or, you know, come up at some point this year. Sort of anchor my off season because yeah, he has not he’s not playing Triple A. Okay. Like like the talent is there. I believe in it. Like the guy is there. Like, yeah, like I I’m all in on McGonogal long term, but if you’re trying to win a division, potentially win a World Series, win a pennant, is this is how comfortable are you with that with a guy who, like I said, is not playing AAA and just got the double A. It’s not like he spent all year, you know, in in in Eerie. So, uh uh so yeah, like it just it makes it makes me a little bit nervous about that. And then you bring in the draft compensation element uh for for player uh advancement. I just don’t think it’s that great of a threshold that you have to like pencil pen this in because you have to he has to win rookie of the year like that. That that’s not a that’s not a small thing. Win rookie of the year to get that draft pick. Yeah. the MVP thing, too. But again, that’s not a it’s a pretty narrow list of guys who are like what top three and MVP uh uh you know, voting. Like it it it’s hard to do. It’s hard to do. So, I am okay with McGonogal being part of this major league team, the vast majority, even like even if it becomes like he breaks camp with the team, he earns it and all that stuff. But I just don’t know if that should be something that uh holds you, you know, prevents you from making other moves. And you know, you mentioned Bob Bashette. I want to bring up Bob Bashette a little bit be because you said he was, you know, wasn’t great defensively. He was negative. He was negative. Uh Dar last season. Like I I think I’m done with defensive war because it it never adds none of the other metrics like support it. Well, I mean, okay. Okay, Bob Ryan, but I’m just telling you that that’s what -12 DRS. He was -3 outs above average. He’s one of the worst defensive shorts stops in all of baseball. He’s a guy that is a right-handed bat that was How about offensive war? Your fancy? He was a 4.7 offensive war. Uh oh, he can hit last season and and and he would not very much though. below league average walk rates scared me. And he’s still this side of 30, which is uh which is another factor that I’m considering. And uh and and he’s he’s been a pretty healthy guy his entire career. If you go back to 20 uh 21, other than uh 24, he was he had 600 near 700 uh played appearances. So he’s a guy that you can rely on in that regard in my opinion. Uh, shifting gears again as my mind just kind of goes in in different directions. I am pro Colt Keith. I I I believe in like he is an ascending talent as we talked about previously this off season. Uh, I think there is a way for it to be quote good asset management if you trade Colt Keith for the right kind of player. So like I be a damn good player in your Well, yeah. Yeah, that’s what I mean. you know, it’s like it it’s not you can’t trade him for anything less than like a stud in in my opinion. Uh and then you look at you you look at this um you look at this roster right here, we we we always said like, oh, you know, they’re kind it’s kind of overrated that the Tigers are like a little bit too left-handed. Well, this is what you got. It’s no longer an overrated notion that the Tigers are are too left-handed and uh I guess a left-handed starter great against left-handed pitching last year despite being a little too left-handed. But you’re right, this does not include Gabber Torres. Torres or not, you pretty much have to bring another right-handed bat onto this team. That’s that’s the other thing I keep coming back to. Like if you don’t bring in a trustworthy right-handed bat this off season, I just feel like that’s one of those that’s not Monday morning quarterbacking in next August or whatever when when the team is flounding around 500. This is a very this is this was a it’s a very easily identifiable hole and there are plenty of options I would say of guys that you can bring in that even offer some uh off more up offensive upside and some defensive versatility. So and we haven’t even talked about Zack McKinstry and how if he fits in all this like you know Javier Bay is like that’s another thing too about this lineup uh that you that you put out here on the graphic. you go into 2026 with more or less this group, you are clinging to the fact that center field, Parker Meadows, and Matt Verling was kind of like a year from hell and they just never had a shot and and they’re going to be back to something closer to 2024. Stands a reason it could happen. Certainly not bankable. And then there are so many regression candidates on the screen right now. Cody, like you know, Spencer Torlson, what what a season he had, but like how comfortable are you with no real backup plan at first base. H Jav Bayz, a lot of fun. Give him credit for the uh for the postseason. He’s also another year older and and and and and he and his Tigers tenure speaks for itself. All right. And then Zack McKinstry as well, like is another guy that you’re just like, “Oh, okay.” And and you know, Wel, you know, like and then then it’s just a bunch of kind of like juggling guys that you know are slightly above average but could fall to being quite below average dudes if you know if if the league catches up to him a little bit. So like this this right now feels like a team with very little margin for error and it doesn’t have to be that way. Oh, I agree with you. But let’s talk some scenarios. Let’s say Gabbert Tuarez accepts the qualifying offer. So you going to start McGonagle and TripleA automatically? Maybe have him compete. Uh I think you take Trey Sweeney off this roster. McDonald’s playing a lot of shorts stop. Are you actually comfortable with that? You know, he mixes in at some second and third. That could be possible. But Torres is at second. Are you going after Alex Bregman? Because then what are you doing with Cole Keith? Like you are you going to option him? Are you you would almost have to trade him if you plan on going after a Bregman. And although maybe there’s an argument for that, that doesn’t seem very Tigerslike. That seems like that would take a a different line of thinking than we have seen so far from the Scott Harris regime that has been focused on sustainability and future and youth and a homegrown core. That would mean trading a good young player and signing uh an expensive aging veteran player might be what it takes to win the World Series, but are the Tigers about that life? That’s kind of the whole question at hand here. So in that scenario, I don’t know. That’s why I’m like shortstop. You’re right. Bashette, what’s your actual evaluation? Can he play there? People are probably about tired of hearing about my love for Hassang Kim, but man, he opted out and he’s going to be cheap again. And I think, man, the Tigers should be all over that. Yeah, maybe his arm’s not what it once was. I think he’s still a pretty good shortstop. Javi, the best thing he showed last year was his versatility. he can roam around and at the end of the day he’s probably not a guy you want playing every day anyway. And then center field, I don’t think there are great center field solutions in free agency. Jiren Durant kind of an interesting option though on the trade market. Could Scott Harris pull off a blockbuster scubble to the Red Sox for Durant and some other pieces? That’d be fun. I don’t know that I see it. It’s it’s also very hard to actually see that happening. Um, so again, yeah, you talk like talking in circles. I think I just talked to myself in a circle. I think they have to get better. I don’t know what the actual answer is. Scott Harris is never going to tip his hand, but I hope next week at the GM meetings he says something uh to share what’s going on in his brain so we can move forward with at least a little clearer idea of what lane they want to pick here. I think there’s there’s this you mentioned it a couple times and I and it’s not wrong, but I still kind of think it’s a little bit I think it’s like it’s like 8.9 out of 10 correct and that’s like is that really what the Tigers do? Is that their mantra? Like that broader statement that you just said. What the Tigers do is like in multiple occasions over the offse the past couple offseasons they have shown an ability to be creative. The Glaver Torres thing was a creative way to add to your team. Uh the pursuit of Alex Bregman was something that like with the reported contract offer last offseason was something that we would deem like out of character for the front office. Is that fair to say? But they but they but they made that effort. They they technically gave him the best like the in terms of you know sheer dollar amount they gave him the best offer and he decided to go to the Red Sox blah blah blah. We don’t have to you rehash all that but the it stands to reason that you could there is a creative element that we’re not thinking of that could improve all these things that we’re saying. Uh uh again the McGonogal thing it how many times we see prospects come up and they struggle because news flash Major League Baseball pitching is really good and the coaches are really good and they know how to attack you and it might it stands to reason there’s a good case to be made that it’s probably not for the best of his long-term development for him to you know be thrown into the major league. So I’m good with I’m good with Torres. I’m good with I’m good with pursuing Alex Bregman. I’m I’m I’m still on the Kim train with you there. So, like don’t think it’s a solo act. Like I I’m I’m all aboard that as well. That 2025 just is a wash for him coming off that injury. Uh but like I I I and I I I I still think you could keep Colt Keith in a in a variety of these scenarios and you just kind of figure it out. Get the guys and then figure it out. Like you know, if you’re Scott Harris like, “Okay, AJ, we got you this guy. we got you this dude. Figure out a way to make this lineup work. Yeah. Defensively, offensively, figure out a way. That’s what the Boston Red Sox did last year. It’s what they did. They had all these young players. They had de. They went and signed Bregman and they kind of said, “We’ll figure it out with Roman Anthony and with Christian Campbell and with Marcelo Meyer.” Figuring out ended up trading Raphael Devers, which in the long term will probably be looked back on a good thing. So, you could say that’s great. That’s a great aggressive model you should follow. Tigers are probably up there saying, “You know who won the same amount of games as the Boston Red Sox? We did.” You know who made the playoffs? We did. And they and they Well, yeah. And and and they are both wild cards. Um made it farther than them. Yeah. So that’s I think always the drawback. The reason I am still hesitant to see the Tigers kicking it into that next level of aggression because even though sometimes it feels like a little bit of smoke and mirrors, um, they won the same amount of games as the team that did probably something closer to what fans would like to see the Tigers do and what I would like to see the Tigers do. Because if you’re if if you’re serious, you have to find a way to raise your ceiling. It doesn’t mean they don’t have a good team. It doesn’t mean they don’t have a healthy organization. It doesn’t mean the future is bright, right? But I don’t know, man. I don’t I I don’t That’s that that might be the best way to put it right there is you have to find a way to raise your ceiling. We we talked for 20 minutes about this and and it really kind of comes down to that because like the the ceiling for this team that we have that we that we’ve been talking about that the graphics up right now it’s not that high and the floor is certainly and if you trade Scoo your ceiling drops significantly unless you do some real other moves on top of it. Yes. So like raise your ceiling and and then and then just and and and and figure it out. Like the Campbell thing is the ultimate example. I should have brought that up with McGonogal concerns. This dude tore through the minor leagues, man. And he had like a good March April and then was unplayable like like unplayable. Uh so they had to send him down. And that’s that’s another thing. you know what happens if Mahongle is the only second base option and then you uh you know he’s he struggles and you know it’s May 28th and it’s like well we got to send him down because he’s you know he’s batting 198 or whatever you know like it’s it’s a concern it’s a concern and another thing too that people need to kind of realize and I got and I say people I mean everybody myself included is that these front offices like the best teams in baseball aren’t spenders with no like uh analytical approach or whatever or just the h sav savvy analytical teams that don’t spend. The best teams in baseball are doing both. Okay. Like and it’s really actually been that way for a long time. Uh but but we always kind of think of it as an eitheror proposition. The Red Sox would be an example of that. Obviously the Dodgers are an example of that. You can do both. You are capable of doing both in my opinion. So do so do both. So do both. You are a stalemate franchise right now that people are kind of selling trying to, you know, sell high on. Yeah, there’s plenty of opportunities there to uh to change that. All right, let’s uh transition quickly here. Tigers did make some uh some coaching moves. Are they are they confirmed yet or are we still going with It’s all It’s all official. All official. It’s all official. Okay. Just wanted to make sure there. I didn’t want to speak out of turn, but they have hired Anthony Sanders and Cody Ashley. Ashie. Yes, correct. Ashie from the Baltimore Orioles. Uh Sanders will be the first base coach. Ashie will be an assistant hitting coach. Also, Gary Jones will no longer return. There are probably other moves that I am uh am I I am forgetting, but uh but yeah, those are the ones on the major league staff. There’s some other front office shuffling. Congrats to everyone involved. Um, if you haven’t been keeping track, Keith Bogard, an assistant hitting coach, is gone. Um, Anthony Iposi, first base coach, is gone. And Gary Jones is gone. Anthony Sanders, he was with the Orioles as first base coach, been there since 2020. They hired him. And then Cody Ashy, hitting coach. Um, before that, he was a major league strategy coach with the Orioles. They hired him. Um, I don’t know that much about these guys, so I’m not gonna say whether it’s a good or bad hire. I don’t I don’t think AJ Hinch would hire them if they weren’t good coaches with good reputations. It is interesting plucking two guys from a team that really underachieved. Um, not all that long ago, Ashie was kind of a a hitting coach on the rise. Like, he was a pretty hot name. Um, and then Orioles fans were kind of like, you know, dancing on his grave. Glad to see him leave after a lot of young hitters underachieved last season. hitting coach is a tough job, man. I’m I’m going to assume Ashie is a talented guy and has some good thoughts where the Tigers would not have hired him. So, maybe they just saw the floor falling out in Baltimore last year as an opportunity to get some talented coaches who were kind of casualties of that. Um, still kind of interesting that they hired two guys from the same team coming from that situation. kind of a situation people crossing their fingers and hope does not befall the the 2026 Tigers. Um, right. So, so yeah. Well, uh, you have to you have to trust AJ’s judgment here. Um, I I Billy Boyer promoted to, um, a major league quality control coach. He will replace Gary Jones on the staff. So, Billy Boyer had been an instructor, coordinator in the Tiger system, and he was actually around the major league team a lot. Seems to be really wellliked, really talented, good infield expertise. Uh, congrats to Billy Boyer because I think that one’s welld deserved. And uh, and I’ll miss seeing Gary Jones and his uh, toothpick, man. Yeah. So, that’s that’s a that’s a it’s a whole new era of Tigers baseball without Gary Jones and and and his toothpick. So, uh, we’ll see. We’ll we’ll see what uh what other moves are made and and uh and we’ll react to them obviously as the offseason continues. Uh anything else, Cody, before we jet out of here. There was a lot of news this week, man. I feel like we’re forgetting some stuff. Paul Seawald option declined. Randy Dock, not even worth mentioning, but uh that option is declined. What else? Feel like there’s some Jose Oh, Jose Rakiti. Uh I don’t know if I I didn’t know what to expect there. It kind of makes, all right, we don’t need to get off on a tangent 38 minutes in, but it kind of makes the whole Joseé Ariti experiment seem pointless because that always seemed like a deal geared more toward 2026 and if you could get something out of him in 25 great. Well, they spent most of 25 talking about, oh, we can get her down the stretch and then he appeared in what, two, three games and looked bad and then they just got rid of him and it was like, what was what was the purpose of all that? Um, maybe it’s a lesson learned to stop relying on guys coming in off injury. I guess we’ll see what other moves the Tigers make this off season. Best luck to Jose Ariti. Seems like a great guy, but uh kind of a strange little side story for the 2025 Tigers. Yeah, I mean the Tigers are always going to try to make as many moves as they can around the margins and, you know, sort of like lottery ticketes uh uh moves and that was one of them that didn’t pan out at all. that’s it’s obviously fine, but uh you can still make those moves while making the big ones, too. So, to to bring it back to the general roster construction. So, all right. I hope you guys enjoyed that discussion. If you have any strong thoughts on direction, players like you know, are you on the the Kim train with uh with with us as well? Like, you know, buy us uh on on Twitter, Cody Stammanhagen. I’m at Kieran_steley page at Tiger Territory_. Please subscribe to YouTube so you can kind of follow along as uh visually a as we talk about this stuff because I do think it helps to uh to kind of see it and then react and and talk about it. So appreciate everybody who’s already done that. If you haven’t done so, please do. Uh so a lot of fun. Big off seasonason ahead. So for Cody Senhagen, I’m Kier Steley. Everybody have great day.

The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen and Kieran Steckley break down a newsy week for the Tigers.

Is Jack Flaherty’s return on a $20 million deal a good thing or a bad thing? Should Gleyber Torres accept or decline the qualifying offer? And now that we have some distance from the season, what is the Tigers’ best path forward? Should they go big in free agency or stay the course? All that and much more in our latest episode

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