While the main theme of the Tiger farm system is the group of top shelf prospects leading the way, the other big story in the system is a pretty disastrous run of pitcher injuries over the last two years. They’ve invested pretty heavily in prep pitching over the last three drafts, and right now they […]
The 2026 international signing period opened a week ago (Jan. 15), and Detroit signed seven players. While prospects can sign any time between Jan. 15 and Dec. 15, the good ones come off the board almost immediately. Of course, even more so with prep picks in the amateur draft, these players are a real roll […]
Happy Friday everyone! We’re light on Tigers news, but there are still some big baseball stories to check in on. The Hall of Fame inductees were announced this week, and Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones will be heading to Cooperstown. We also check in on Matt Vierling, plus a big move for the White Sox, […]
Ah prospects. Sometimes they really hurt you. After watching the Detroit Tigers pass on Zach Neto and instead select Jace Jung in the first round of the 2022 amateur draft, there was some hope of redemption in the second round. The Tigers picked up an athletic shortstop with power out of the University of Oklahoma […]
Heading into the 2025 season, right-handed reliever Yosber Sanchez was a hard-throwing relief prospect on the rise. There were even hopes that he might be ready to pitch in the Detroit Tigers bullpen by the second half of the season. Unfortunately, he too dealt with injuries and struggled some in making the jump from High-A […]
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced the induction of two new members into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday night: Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones. For the former, it was the fourth ballot he had appeared on before getting the nod, while the latter took nine tries to reach baseball immortality. Funny […]
National prospect list season continues with the latest iteration from Baseball America. You won’t be surprised to learn that the Detroit Tigers placed four prospects on BA’s new list, but there are some pretty interesting tools grades assigned. As we continue to work through the fringe prospects and potential role players in our 2026 scouting […]
Going into the 2025 season, left-handed starting prospect Gabriel Reyes was one of my picks for an unheralded prospect to break out. As it turned out, the stuff was willing, but the body and the command were not. Reyes spun his wheels at Single-A Lakeland despite good results, and now he’ll head into his age […]
Baseball might not be broken quite yet. For what feels like a very long time, Major League Baseball has been trying to solve the issue of increasing strikeouts, less contact, and what many deem to be “boring” baseball. I’d argue a lot of that boring is beautiful, but that’s an argument for another day. I […]
Of all the things that went wrong for the 2025 Detroit Tigers from the All-Star break to the end of the regular season, the starting rotation felt like the biggest piece of the puzzle to many fans. Injuries to Jackson Jobe and then Reese Olson left that group vulnerable, and the front office failed utterly […]
Inspired by Mike Carlucci at Over the Monster (and, perhaps, an Instagram trend) I thought it would be a fun exercise to look back at Detroit Tigers teams from ten, twenty and thirty years ago and put myself in the shoes of the average fan in the winters just before those seasons. Some of you […]
Happy Monday, everyone! The past few days have stoked the flames on the offseason hot stove into a fever pitch (no pun intended, I promise). With the Mets losing out on signing Kyle Tucker, and the Dodgers once again proving they’ll spend whatever it takes to become the next MLB dynasty, we’re seeing a lot […]
When the Detroit Tigers traded left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin to the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline in 2024, it was never likely to be an impactful deal. The Tigers got sidearmer Chase Lee in the deal, but it was the second piece, right-handed starter Joseph Montalvo, who was expected to be the modest centerpiece. […]
One hallmark of the AJ Hinch-era Detroit Tigers, especially with Scott Harris in charge, has been flexibility. On a roster without many stars, Hinch’s job has been to maximize the value of each player. This takes different forms for each facet of the game. On the position player side, it usually means defensive versatility – […]
Some of the top names in the Detroit Tigers’ 2025 draft class may take a while to really get cooking. With the group headed by prep shortstop Jordan Yost and prep catcher Michael Oliveto, the Tigers are unlikely to see one of them rushing the upper levels anytime soon. In the meantime, eighth round pick […]
The Detroit Tigers offseason really holds only one major question left, and that question is what to do with Tarik Skubal. Whether the front office is waiting to see if a big spender who missed out in free agency coomes calling with a monstrous trade offer, or they’ve decided to run it back in 2026 […]
The Detroit Tigers draft strategy under Scott Harris has focused on prep talent and a few value plays for college players. That has left them looking for bargain development projects with their other picks in order to save the money to go overslot on their main targets. Right-hander Preston Howey fits that mold, receiving the […]
The Detroit Tigers selected UC Irvine shortstop Woody Hadeen in the sixth round of the 2024 amateur draft, paying him $300,000. The switch-hitter was known for his outlandish contact ability as well as his defensive versatility. He put all of those traits on display in his full season professional debut in 2025, but didn’t show […]
We’ve had a little bit of a soft spot for right-hander Carlos Marcano over the past few seasons. The 22-year-old has barely gotten a mention nationally, and that was pretty understandable until late in the 2025 season. His breaking stuff was pretty fringy, and he basically profiled as a 92-93 mph sinkerballer with advanced control […]
The July 2024 deadline feels like a very long time ago now with two postseason appearances separating the Tigers from their last sell cycle at a trade deadline. Other than Trey Sweeney, the young players the Tigers acquired haven’t reached the major leagues yet. One of the minor deals Scott Harris made at that point […]
Since news emerged last week that the Detroit Tigers and their ace left-hander, Tarik Skubal, were $13 million apart in arbitration numbers, the whole thing has quickly blown up into a proxy for everything distasteful about the business of sports, and every frustration surrounding the Tigers, specifically. The arbitration battle gets into every aspect of […]
For the second straight year, the Detroit Tigers have struck out on one of their biggest free agent targets, third baseman Alex Bregman. Last year, the Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs were the three finalists for the former Houston Astros’ services, with the BoSox prevailing with a three-year, $120 million contract with opt-outs […]
Happy Wednesday, everyone. Hope you’re all having a good week, and if you like to count down to things, well, we’re only about a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting, so we should soon be seeing some ugly Spring Training caps to make fun of! An annual rite of passage. Some trade and free […]
One of the side notes to the Detroit Tigers prep heavy draft strategy under Scott Harris has been saving money elsewhere in the draft in order to go over slot to various prep pitchers they like each year. They’ve accomplished this by taking less heralded college players that they can get for minimum or close […]
Infielder Cristian Santana has so far proved another cautionary tale about early breakouts for teemaged players, and the difficulty of sustaining that progress. Al Avila’s front office shelled out $2.95 million for the then 17-year-old back in the 2021 signing class. That was the largest bonus ever paid by the Detroit Tigers to an international […]