Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold On Tigers At The Winter Meetings | Costa and Jansen

Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold On Tigers At The Winter Meetings | Costa and Jansen

covers the Tigers for the Detroit Free Press. He’s down in Orlando for the winter meetings. He is Evan Pzled. And Evan, just so you understand, our drive into work today, snowy, treacherous. Whose lane is it anyway? I’m assuming uh conditions a little nicer in Orlando. A little bit nicer in Orlando, yes, but some cloudy weather the first two days here at the winter meetings and then we should get some sun sunshine here today in the afternoon. But much better than driving around in the snow uh not knowing where you’re going. When are you coming back? Coming back tonight actually. So the rule five draft is tonight where you know some minor league names get moved around and then after that I’ll be coming back to shuffle my driveway. So let’s start with TKO. What are you hearing? What’s the latest? Yeah, Terrace Kubel is the hottest name here at the winter meetings. And just to get this out of the way, I don’t think the Tigers will trade him. I don’t think the Tigers will extend him. And I don’t think the Tigers will go allin to win with him before free agency. As for the latest, the Tigers have shifted their tune. They had these flurries of no comments at the general manager meetings in November. And now here at the winter meetings, Scott Harris is saying that he’s listening to offers. So, the Tigers are entertaining Terrick Scubal trade offers. There’s no question about that. I think the Dodgers and the Mets are the top teams that could trade for him. As of how the upcoming expiration of the collective bargaining agreement impacts this situation with the chances of a lockout, I don’t know that anyone truly knows, but as a reminder, the CBA doesn’t expire until December 1st, 2026. And as we know, free agency starts at the beginning of November. So if a team like the Dodgers, if they want to sign Terrick Feeble for more than 400 million in the first month of free agency next off season, they can. I mean, right before the expiration of the last CBA, we saw the Texas Rangers sign both Cory Seager for 300 million and Marcus Semian for 175 million. So I don’t think the CBA hurts Teroo. I think it could actually help him if there is a deadline for teams to make moves. Deadlines force action. And if you’re Teroo, you want all the action you can get next off season. As for where we’re at right now, I mean, as we’re at right now, I mean, Scott Harris, he is afraid to take a risk. I think that kind of leads me to believe that they’re going to keep Terubel, let him walk after the season, collect the draft pick after the first round when he signs elsewhere in free agency. Like, if Scott Harris is too scared to build around him, then how is Scott Harris going to have the guts to trade him? for a trade to happen. I think the Tigers would have just have to be overwhelmed by the return. But Tigers view Scuba as the best pitcher in baseball. The other 29 teams say he’s a one-year rental. It just makes it hard to line up on value. Do we know if the Tigers have made any credible offers to him in the last couple months since the season ended? As for a contract extension, I haven’t heard about any renewed negotiations between the Tigers and Scoo. Like the last I heard is what I’ve reported, four years, less than 100 million after the 2024 season. Publicly, his agent, Scott Boris, has come out and talked at both the general manager meetings and the winter meetings this off season about Scubble being ready to listen listen to anything and everything from the Tigers. So that makes me think that they are still waiting on another offer from the Tigers. So you you opened it up by saying you don’t think they trade him. You don’t think they extend him. So, let’s start with the first trade. Why? Why not? Why not trade him? I just think it makes it really hard to line up on value. Like, if you want to get what you think Perrick Scubel is worth, but other teams view him as a one-year rental, that’s really difficult to line up on a trade. And if you say, “Oh, the Dodgers could trade for him and then sign him to an extension.” Why would Scott Boris do that? Like for example, if the Dodgers are willing to trade for Scooble right now and sign him for 400 million before he hits free agency, well, what if the New York Mets are willing to do 450 million in free agency? And then what if the Dodgers would then be willing to go to 500 million in free agency and maybe the New York Yankees go crazy and they say, you know what, we’ll do 550 million. I mean, a trade and sign scenario is not going to accomplish a bidding war. And I think Scott Boris wants a bidding war for Terk Scubal in free agency specifically before the CBA expires. And then in terms of what you’re getting back, like if you’re the Tigers and you decide that you’re not going to trade him, you can’t extend him. And if they’re not going to go all in to win with him, because they didn’t do that last year, remember like they had the opportunity to go all in at the trade deadline to win with Termin. They didn’t do it. So what makes you think they’re going to do that in 2026? I I just think that if that happens and the Tigers don’t win the World Series, that’s going to be a huge blemish on Scott Harris’s resume. I know he doesn’t like to take risks, but to me, like doing nothing when you have a Hall of Fame caliber talent like Terrick Scooel in this situation is a pretty big risk and it could come back to haunt him. I just think a trade is so much easier said than done, especially when the two sides just aren’t going to align on value because the Tigers, understandably so, they want to haul, but a team like the Dodgers, the Mets, the Yankees, whoever it may be, they’re still going to view him as a one-year rental because that freightening sign is just so unlikely. Talking to Evan Pzel, Detroit Free Press, he’s down at the Winter Meetings covering the Tigers and all things baseball. Who are players that the Tigers have been linked to at the meetings? That’s a big question. What happens next? I mean, we got Jack Flity back, Glaver Torres back, Kyle Finnegan now has returned. Drew Anderson signed for 7 million coming over from the Korea uh baseball organization. So, the 2026 Tigers are looking a lot like the 2025 Tigers. I think running it back is probably not a solution that you want if you want to ultimately win the World Series. But, one new name to keep an eye on from the position player side is shortstop Hassang Kim. I think he could be an even better fit than Alex Bregman. Now, I’m not calling Hassan Kim a better player than Alex Bregman, but for how the Tigers are talking and for how we’ve watched the Tigers act under Scott Harris, Hassan Kim just seems like a better fit than Alex Bregman. The Tigers say they don’t want to block their young players, which doesn’t make any sense because they continue to block guys by locking Glaver Torres in as a second base only player. But if you don’t want to block Colt Keith from playing third base and you don’t want to block Max Max Anderson from playing third base, and that’s what I’m expecting. Colt Keith against righties, Max Anderson against lefties there at third base for opening day. If you don’t want to block those guys, Hassan Kim is a good fit because his primary position is shortstop. So, we push Jav Bayz to a more fitting utility role. The Tigers want that from Jav Bayz anyway. They want him to play some shorts stop, some center field, maybe some other positions in 2026. When Hassan Kim is right, it it’s elite swing decisions, a ton of contact with the bat-to- ball skills, drawn walks, limiting strikeouts. Like he probably wouldn’t hit in the top half of the lineup, at least not right away, but he would provide some significant length to the lineup. That’s where Hong Kim comes in. I think there is open playing time there at shortstop. As for pitchers, the Tigers have shown interest in guys like Michael King for the rotation, Pete Fairbanks for the bullpen. But that was before signing Drew Anderson for one year, 7 million, and Kyle Finnegan for two years 19 million. So I think we could be looking at I know this is scary for you guys, but and and for all Tigers fans, too. We may be looking at more Finnegan and friends in the bullpen. I don’t think the Tigers are going to make another big upgrade to the rotation either. I think Drew Anderson may have been their big rotation upgrade, even though he’s probably going to wind up in the bullpen. and Kyle Finnegan was probably their big bullpen upgrade. I think you’re going to see the Tigers sign a lot of depth starters, a lot of depth relievers to compete for jobs in spring training and ultimately fill roles in Triple A Toledo. Do not count on a bigname starter or a bigname reliever, but definitely keep an eye on Hassan Kim at shortstop. So, I want to go back and and ask you a couple of questions about Scooble. If they’re not going to trade him, they’re not going to extend him. In your estimation, you you’ve you’ve researched this. you know more about this than anybody else that that we’ve talked to. What is the best scenario? What’s the best outcome that we can expect for the Tigers and school scenario? The best scenario is in this case if the Tigers can’t extend him and if they don’t trade him, the best scenario then would be to go into 2026 and it seems like they may just run it back outside of a few extra additions and you win the World Series. Like that is the best case scenario is you find a way to get past the ALDS, you you get into the ALCS, you surprise somebody, you win the World Series. And that’s where I do think again like Scott Harris does not like to take risks. But if the Tigers do nothing here, if they stand pat, they hold on to Terk Scubble, they try to win the World Series, then they let him walk in free agency, they get the draft pick compensation after the first round, like they can go that route, but you better win the World Series. And if you don’t, that’s a huge blemish that could come back to haunt Scott Harris. Well, and and it becomes a risk in its own way, right? There is the risk that you don’t win the World Series. So, even if you don’t want to take risks, you’re kind of forced to to take some level of risk in this off season going into next year. Before we get you out of here, you had the headline, um, Tigers lukewarm on Alex Bregman, and we know they pursued him heavily a year ago, and maybe they will again this year. Why Why would they not be interested the way they were a year ago? Alex Bregman is such a great player, such a great leader behind the scenes. He does everything that you would want him to do. But you’re right, the latest update there is the Tigers entered the winter meetings with lukewarm interest in Alex Bregman. And from everything I’ve gathered over the past two days, the Tigers are not preparing to chase Bregman this off seasonason like they chased him last off season. Do I think Alex Bregman will be a Tiger in 2026? No, I don’t think he will be a Tiger in 2026. Now, that can change if the Tigers redefine their interest, but nothing that I’m hearing from either side right now is linking the Tigers to Bregman like it was last offseason. I I’m just going to ask you maybe got to speculate here like why the change cuz cuz last year it felt like they were much more serious. If you had to speculate or what you’re hearing, why would that same interest not be there now? Yeah, I just think we know the Tigers like him as a player and we know the Tigers offered him the six years, 171 a.5 million with an oped after 2026 last offseason. Then Bregman signs with the Red Sox. I think there were some sour feelings there on the Tigers side of things. But as much as Bregman turned down the Tigers, and we talked about this before, the Tigers also turned down Bregman. Like the Tigers rejected two offers from Bregman’s camp last offseason. 6 years 186 with a knockout after 2025 and seven years 200. So the truth is the Tigers could have had Alex Bregman if they simply accepted one of those. I also think that we have to talk about the payroll. Like that is a situation where you know Tigers a lot of people think they’re acting like a small market but when I think about the market small mid large like take a look at the payroll. Like the Tigers have a projected payroll of 175 million in 2026 which ranks 14th among the 30 MLB teams right now. I know that can change before opening day, but in 2025, the Tigers had a payroll that was at 143 million. So, the projected payroll for 2026 is actually higher than the 2025 payroll by nearly 15 million. So, I think having a payroll that ranks around 14th in MLB, like that is the definition of a mid market, but it’s higher than where it was right last last season. So, I mean, you talk about trying to bring Alex Bregman back, you’re you’re pushing 180 million for the 2026 payroll. Like that’s not something the Tigers have shown any willingness to do. So I think that’s a part of it as well. He’s Evan Pzold. Enjoy the sun cuz there’s not going to be much when you get back here. Hey, thank you guys for having me on. I appreciate it. Anytime. Covers the Tigers for the Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Tigers beat writer for the Detroit Free Press, Evan Petzold, joined Costa and Jansen Wednesday morning to talk Tigers at the winter meetings and Tarik Skubal.

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