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Breaking News: Tigers Sign Torres · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the Ball Territory Network, a for Tiger's podcast. I'm Karen
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Steckley with me as always a man who if he
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: has an off switch, he hasn't found it yet. He
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is Cody steaven Egg and how you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Do doing good care? And it has been a long day.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: We finally have some news to talk about. I started
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: this day in Texas, hanging out with family for the holidays.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Was driving a rental car to the DFTW airport when
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the news hit. So shout out to my girlfriend and
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: some texting getting the news confirmed.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: She's a better reporter than I am. And now we're
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: back here in Michigan.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Had some time to talk to Scott Harris, process designing
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: of Labor Torres, the news Detroit Tiger.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, so basically this podcast that came out this morning
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that we did got out the relevant pretty uh pretty quickly.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So thanks thanks Scott for that. But we we don't
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: look back, we look forward. So I'm sure everybody knows
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: by now Labor Torres is a Detroit Tiger. It's a
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: one year deal for reported fifteen million dollars. There's some
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you know, other legal not legal but contractual mumbo jumble
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: in there with some finances, but it doesn't really matter. Also,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: it's a one year deal. Finances don't really matter all
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: that much anyway. So the nice little trickle down on
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Tiger's Twitter of a lot of speculation. It's like, all right,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: was he gonna play third? I thought the Nationals try
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to get him to play third, because I had like
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: thought about bringing him up several times in terms of
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: free agent options. But I was like, oh, surely he's played, like,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know, some third base in his career. No,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: he literally has not logged in any at third base
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: as a major leaguer. I didn't go in that a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: both miners, but as a major leaguer, hes not logging
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: any the third base. So I just kind of cast
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that to the side.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Silly me.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So then Scott Harris does a little brief availability. Credit
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to him for doing that, and we get a more
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: clear picture. He is going to be your twenty twenty
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: five second baseman. Was I mean for cold Keith? Cold
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Keith is going to move to centerfield? No, I'm just kidding.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Cold Keith is going to first base, which means that
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: special Torgelsen is now on the outside looking at so
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: several layers to this move. There's there's so many different
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: things we can kind of go to. I want to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: summarize it by this kind of give the most important
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: talking point at the top here, Cody. This is obviously
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: gonna be a shorter podcast as we try to get
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: some some of our takes out there. Labor Torres in
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: many ways for this Tigers team is a problem helper,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: but he is not a problem solver, all right, and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: we'll get into that a little bit more. He raises
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the floor of this team. He doesn't really do anything
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: for the ceiling. And we have a new era or
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a new chapter of the Scott Harris era where he
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: is signing the He's you know, used to be these
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: picture contracts one year, double digit millions of dollars, has
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a great track order with that in a short time
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: leading the Tigers. Now he does it for a position
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: player for I think you would say like real dollars,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: even though it is a one year deal, and there
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: are some projections for Glabor that he might get from
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: somebody like two for thirty six or something like that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe opt out in there. He signed on one for fifteen.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: It kind of feels like he got him for market
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: value and you got him at a time that he
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: just like those pictures that I talked about Lorenzen and Flaherty,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that he's trying to prove himself still, so he fills
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: a couple needs.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: This is not a al.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Century Central winning move by any stretching the imagination, but
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: it is one. As Scott Harris said, like, I don't know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: twelve times today makes the Tigers better today. So that's
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: my kind of service level analysis there, Cody, what do
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you think?
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, much like you and much like I did without cop.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I had not put a ton of thought into glaber
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: tour As this offseason because I looked at him and
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, he's a second baseman. They don't
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: really need a second basement. They have Colt Keith. And
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: even though he's going to take grounders at first. We've
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: talked about how the Tigers it seem hell bent on
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: trying to make Colt Keith at second base work, and
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Colt look, I just don't think it ever made since
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: long term, but he did get better defensively. Oddly enough,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I think you just downgraded your second base defense and
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: that's why I have very conflicting feelings about the Glaber
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Torres signing. I think if you have to boil it
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: down to one thing, you know what he does make
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: this team better, just the presence of his bat in
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the lineup, so not here to pan it by any means.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: My initial reaction thinking, oh, wow, they're going to get
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: this guy to mostly play third base, Like before I
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: knew anything before Scott had talked, really was not a
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: fan of it because that would seem to kind of
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: make it feel like the only move. Right now, we
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: know there's a lot more, and it's already grown on
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: me in the course of like six hours.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Torres.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Look, this guy's I really like his offensive profile. He's
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: a good at bat, makes great swing decisions, doesn't Chase
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: doesn't strike out a ton, really consistent on base numbers
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: over three thirty for the duration of his career. We
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: just talked about that on our last episode. This guy
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: that's going to get on base, give you a good
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: at bat. I don't know if he'll ever hit thirty
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: eight home runs again like he did in twenty nineteen,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: but that's a good profile.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Now. The flip side of this is I.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Worry fans are not going to take two Glaber Torrez
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: because Yankee fans didn't necessarily, And part of that was
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the high expectations he's set for himself by hitting thirty
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: six homers or thirty eight homers at age twenty two
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: and then never quite getting back to that level. But
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: part of it he's just a negative defender almost year
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: in and year out. He's not a good defensive second basement.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: It's one of the worst base runners in Major League Baseball.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: That runs pretty counter to what we've heard about how
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: much the Tigers care about base running and winning on
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: the margins. Now he can be prone to just some
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: mental lapses. There's a little bit of the the Hovey
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Baiaz frustration factor, even though he's a very different offensive
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: player his overall game. That's part of the package and
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that does worry me. But we also talked about like
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the Tigers words seem to indicate they don't like Spencer
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: toorgles In their actions seem like, well, no, now we
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: got an action. Spencer Turklesen is kind of on the
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: ropes here, and unfortunately, I think that makes your team
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: better too. You almost upgrade two positions at once overall,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and then they're still the factor. You can do something
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: at third base. I'm going to try to only say
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the name Bregman once today because they're just all speculating
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: about this. But there's room to do some more maneuvering
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: in the roster and highly interested to see how this
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: picture will eventually come together.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So the key numbers to kind of look at are
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: he is a career three point thirty on bass guy,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: all right, and that and he's like three thirty four,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: or he was three thirty four last year, so basically
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: last year was kind of his average. I might have
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: had those flip regardless, last year was basically his career
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: average as on base and that would be third on
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the team among regulars returning from last season's Tigers team.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: So that right behind Riley Green and Cary Carpenter. Right,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: So that's number one. So that's your righty on base
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: guy as the roster is currently constructed. Okay, Number two
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: is against lefties. He's would be based just on twenty
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: twenty four numbers, top five in pretty much every offensive
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: category you would look at against lefties. And again, like
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: he's a guy that this is not like an andy
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: a Banyaz type situation where like he spot lefty hitting,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you see what I'm saying, Whereas Torres like he's in
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the lineup every day. You mentioned in your article on
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the Athletic you know and said you're like durable. He
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: is a legitimate every day, legitimate everyday player, So any
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: at bats against lefties, it's not like advantageous automatically that
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: he's going in there, right. So I think that when
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you provide that context, it makes it. It does make
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: it sound a little bit better. And he has a
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: ton obviously playing for the Yankees, a ton of postseason experience.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Ton he's been in the playoffs every year, I believe,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: as a major leader, except for twenty twenty three when
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the Yankees didn't make it. Right, So he I forget
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: how many games he's had. I can look that up
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: real quick, but he's got a excuse me, bats to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: sixty seven batting average in the postseason. So, like, again,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: we're talking about things that matter. We're not like I'm
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: trying to like overhype like what this does. But these
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: are real tangible benefits to this Tigers team. And I
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: think you also have to give Scott Harris a little
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: bit of credit for number one, staying really true to
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: how he wants to build this program in terms of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: getting guys at I don't want to say bargain, but
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: getting guys an advantageous advantageous situations. And then also not
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: being stubborn, because again the torque thing could have been
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: just an easy, stubborn thing and we'll just kind of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: hope that it works out. No, no, no, no, he
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: is pivoting off what is numbers? Why something that has
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: not worked out outside of basically one stat for one year, right,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: So like he there is, there's no just kind of
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: gliding into the next season. This move dictates that. And
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: then with you know, Coke Keith again not being stubborn,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: just signed this guy to a long term extension second
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: year in the major league's already moving him to a
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: less important offensive position. Arguably that's sometimes stuff for debate,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: but certainly a less important offensive position. So uh, I
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: like it when teams kind of stay true to themselves.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And this is a move that that that Scott Harris
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: has made it about this Tigers organization and Taurus checks
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: every single box, so for that he deserves credit. However,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: this is not a game breaker by any stretch of
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the imagination.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think one of the more interesting things Scott
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: said today it was that Labor had, you know, multi
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: year offers from other teams, turned it down to play
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: in Detroit. Obviously, that's like kind of a battle on
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: yourself type thing. He's trying to rebuild his value to
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: what it could be, or what it could have been
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. If you remember back in
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: the day when people wanted to trade like Michael Foelmer
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: for labor toures or whatever.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: So you know that that struck me as interesting.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: This is a guy who wants to be here, who obviously,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: on the one year deal, has a lot of incentive
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: to have a big year, and he's walked into what's
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: what's going to be a good opportunity to do that.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: You know, we'll get to know the person a little bit,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: but some of the writers I've talked to in New
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: York seem to really like him, Like, despite the frustrating
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: nature of his game on the field, seems to be
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: a really stand up guy off the field. Hopefully we'll
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: makewell at this clubhouse, provide a little bit of the
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: veteran leadership factor, like you said a dude who has
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: been there and done that and gets.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: You a needed bat in this order. Obviously.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Now it's there's so many questions like what comes next?
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: We don't know, but you can you can start to
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: see a world where maybe you inter spring training feeling
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: pretty good. If there is another big move or two
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: to come. What's next for Spencer torkleson That's a massive question.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: If I had to guess right now, Tork's not on
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: this roster one opening day, which is actually kind of
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: crazy to process.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know Sky Harris, Yeah, I say this
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: respectful usob because he says like Glaver's going to play
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: second base, and then he's like col Keith is going
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: to play first base. And then someone's like, so what
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: about Tork. He's like, yeah, so Tork.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: It was kind of funny. It was kind of funny.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I I I laughed that, and you know, he did
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the very professional things. I talked to Colet Colts fired up.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: You know, whever that's worth, I guess. Colt was like, yeah,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I guess I don't have to do as much running
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: on the field. Cool, I'm down with that. And then
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Tork said, like, you know, I've been working hard this offseason,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah, all those cliche things. But now
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it's real. This is always in theory for Tork. Now
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: it's really real that it's in his face of like
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: his his time with the Tigers in jeopard I want
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to say majorly as a major leaguer, but his time
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: with the Tigers is definitely in jeopardy. And we'll have
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of time to dive into that deeper about
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: what that means or whatever. But you know, the Jay
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Hen thing that we were talking about last week, like
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: if we're we're trying to find a place for him,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Literally less than twenty four hours later, we're talking about
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: trying to find a place for Torglesen because as of now,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: value added is not in Tourglesen's favor and you have
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a president of Baseball operation that didn't draft you and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: now here and you haven't performed.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: These are the of things that happened suddenly.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: The actions very much match the words. Right when it
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: seemed like the Tigers were out one doing anything at
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: first base, turns out they got a first baseman by signing.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Team elevation, and the team elevated beyond just being having
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to wait, you know, like we've compared him to Andrew
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Vaughan before, Like if the Tigers were the White Sox
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: of the past, like you know, a handful of years,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: you would just be putting torqu out there every day
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: and just kind of hoping hope time is like over, bro,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: like it's over.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: And and and to have like a tourist signing kind
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: of kind of facilitate that it's not on my Bengal
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: board for the offseason. That's that's why, that's why we
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: love the sport.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a reminder that the Tigers can get pretty creative.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: They've proven they're pretty good at it, and there could
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: be more to come.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: The Twurklesen thing, like Scott.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Harris supposedly told Spencer that, you know, work hard, whatever
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: you're you're still a right handed power bat.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: We need that.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: There could be a role. He also said the Tigers
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: aren't going to experiment with him playing corner outfield or anything.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: He's still first base DH that's a hard roster spot
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: to win, right handed backup first baseman, not allowed to
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: demand go down the roster right now. Dinglers Jake Rogers, Cole,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Keith Glaber Torres, Pavi Baiez, Trey Sweeney, Matt Vierling, Riley Green,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Parker Meadows, Kerry Carpenter. We're at ten. You paid Bonyez
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: and McKinstry. Wintle, peis switch hitter, plays multiple positions. I
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: mean we're looking at Perez, Molloy, Jace Young, Spencer, Tourklesen
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: potentially all fighting for one spot, and Tork is the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: most limited of those players, both positionally and right now.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Young is more of the shiny new toy. Jay Hen
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: has shown some good things at the plate, is now
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: playing multiple positions win, so we know kind of what
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: he can do. It's going to be a tough path
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: to a roster spot for one Spencer Turtles.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the for a team like the Tigers, you know,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: headed by Scott Harris, managed by an Aj Hinch. The
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: lack of ability to do multiple things, it's just and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: or and not even be able to do one thing.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Great that that's a not for a long spot for you.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: That's just that that that's now we actually see it now.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Like I said, we've talked about stakes being real. This
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: is a Steaks being real move. So uh there, there's
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: gonna be more for us to talk about UH here
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: moving forward, but we wanted to get a quick podcast
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: out there so to get our thoughts out. Like I said,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: sum it up, real quick upgrade, raised floor, doesn't do
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: anything for the ceiling. But again, an everyday player with
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: with like like Cody said, a real incentive to UH
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: to perform out there. And it probably won't be the
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: most pretty baseball that you've ever watched in your life,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: but the numbers are that it is going to be
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: a valuable guy to the team and would look a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: lot more valuable if some other the right handed infielder
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: also signed as a free agent to the team, but
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll talk about that a different time. So U
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: long long day for Cody, Appreciate him popping on here.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Appreciate everybody for listening following us on x at Cody
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Staveenhagen at Kieran Underscore, decintely at Tiger Territory, Underscore, Spotify, Apple,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your podcast YouTube, subscribe there so
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you get old the latest content from us. So for
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieren Steckley. Everybody have a great day.