One of the great late-season surges in baseball history brought the Tigers from eight games under .500 to within a game of the AL Championship Series. With the rebuild now over, the Tigers have plenty of avenues available to bolster the roster for 2025.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Javier Baez, SS: $73MM through 2027
- Colt Keith, 2B: $24,142,500 through 2030 (includes $2.6425MM buyout of $10MM club option for 2030; deal also includes $13MM club option for 2013 with $1MM buyout, and $15MM club option for 2032 with $2MM buyout)
- Kenta Maeda, SP/RP: $10MM through 2025
2025 financial commitments: $38.5MM
Total future commitments: $107,142,500
Option Decisions
- Casey Mize, SP: $3.1MM club option, $10K buyout (if option is declined, Mize is still arbitration-controlled through 2026)
Arbitration-Eligible Players (projections from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Tarik Skubal (4.114): $8MM
- Casey Mize (4.111): $2MM
- Jake Rogers (4.040): $2.5MM
- Will Vest (3.100): $1.4MM
- Zach McKinstry (3.099): $1.3MM
- Jason Foley (3.033): $3.5MM
- Matt Vierling (3.026): $3MM
- Akil Baddoo (3.003): $1.6MM
- Alex Lange (3.003): $1.3MM
- Andy Ibanez (2.170): $1.5MM
- Beau Brieske (2.134): $1.3MM
- Non-tender candidates: Baddoo, McKinstry, Lange
Free Agents
- None
After moving most of their veteran players at the trade deadline, Detroit looked to be playing out the string as late as August 10, when a 3-1 loss to the Giants dropped the Tigers' record to 55-63. That's when the magic started happening, as the Tigers went 31-13 over their last 44 games to surge into the final AL wild card spot, giving Detroit its first playoff berth since 2014. The club then upset the Astros in the Wild Card Series and took the Guardians to the limit in the ALDS before Lane Thomas' clutch grand slam in Game 5 finally put the upstart Tigers away for good.
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bkouchnerkavich
Colt Keith $13MM club option for 2013???
eddieb85
Baddoo and Lange are not arb eligible.
TJG88
You can still non-tender them, even if not eligible.
TJG88
Don’t see them non-tendering McKinstry. He’s one of AJ’s favourites (although, I agree he could easily be upgraded).
CTS4
Was Fun to watch this young team go on a great run….Good Luck Next season Tigers !! (from a disgruntled Jays fan ) :)
Big whiffa
Can’t get behind these tigers after giving flaherty away to the evil dodgers ! There was a playoff day on draft kings where they didn’t have a starter named and flaherty was the starter of an opening series smh, wtf ?!?
84LeFlore
Tigers don’t make the playoffs without wiping the slate clean and playing youngsters, incl. Sweeney, whose play helped win a few games (more than they would have w/Baez or Z-Mac @ SS).
TJG88
It’s clear anyone who thinks this didn’t start watching this team until mid-to-late August. Before the deadline, there was nothing to suggest a Wild Card berth was even plausible.
Are we supposed to believe that this team would have made the same type of late-season run with Ryan Kreidler and Javy Baez platooning at shortstop the final 45 games? That’s a dubious take.
Not to mention, Sweeney wasn’t even the headliner of the trade — Liranzo was. And sure, Sweeney has his flaws, but compared to the production we’d gotten out of the short stop position for 4.5 months before then — he was a blessing from the baseball gods, and a significant reason why that Wild Card-chase happened.
manfraud
I think their main question is going to be what to do with Baez. I think you have to go into the offseason expecting him to be better off on the bench
TJG88
Not even sure they’d give him a bench spot since he doesn’t have any other positional flexibility beyond shortstop. My guess would be he either has a monster spring training (with noticably obvious plate improvement / discipline / power) or they flat out release him.
The latter seems far more likely…
TerryTurnbuckle
The worst thing they could have done is make the playoffs. Now people will think that will happen ever again. Detoilet
For Love of the Game
Obviously you haven’t been to downtown Detroit in many years, if ever. It has actually become quite nice.
letitbelowenstein
Detroit will never be nice. Never has been.
TJG88
Depends what you’re comparing it too. Compared to Beirut, Lebanon it’s paradise.
For Love of the Game
The Tigers should make a run at Burnes. Skubal-Burnes would be a nice top of the rotation for two years, and then Skubal probably ends up somewhere else in free agency.
Keider Montero has the best knuckle curve I’ve ever seen. It’s so good that he might be able to stick in the rotation with three pitches, including a 95 mph fastball and decent slider. His changeup has been a disaster.
Casey Mize will surprise people next year. His velo picked up to 96-97 after TJ and he got the feel for his splitter late in the season.
The Tigers could certainly use more offense at short, third, and catcher. Internal options are more than a year away.
84LeFlore
Tigers have a lot of nice pitching to play with, but adding a #2 starter would go a long way extending the rotation.
I’m not ready to give up on Mize. Don’t forget about his SEC partner Faedo, also. Let’s see what they do in ST. They’re both at about the age where they’re ready to take the next step.
Montero, Madden & Hurter were revelations. Sawyer Gibson-Long is coming back, too. He was hanging with Reese start for start before he got hurt. (He’s a quality person, too.)
I wouldn’t mind if JJobe stays in Toledo after ST to get his command under control..