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Detroit Tigers Free Agent Watch 2025 · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And well, I'm into another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of the Battle Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Kieren Steckley with me as always as a man who
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: gets cold, he doesn't actually ever get a cold. He's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Cody Stapenhagen.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How you doing. I think he nailed it right there.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure out if I've adjusted to Michigan
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: winters at all. Like I still't like the cold, but
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I think maybe I'm a little better at handling it,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: somewhat like walking the dog stuff like that. You know.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: I go out and do it just to make myself
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: and cold. No, I don't really believe in getting colds, So.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. I can tell you
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I was in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago Patriots
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Bill's game, and it was like nine plus wind chill.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Didn't have the most grand old time in that environment.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: So I could say I am not that well adjusted.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But we're gonna get some pre sip here in Texas,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: so we'll see how your boy does here later in
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the week. All right, speaking of Texas and Texas boys,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys had a chance to listen to
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: our Austin Jackson introduction episode. Austin's gonna be joining us
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: on average about once a week there for us, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I can tell you he's a lot of fun. I
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: can tell you Cody and I met up with him
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: at winter meetings and then obviously we did a pod
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: together and same guy the entire time, like just the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: you know, most down to earth dude, like sharing some stories,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: not even like any crazy stories, just like life on
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the Ranch stories that were awesome.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: We give him to tell that bobcast story on the podcast.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's all right. I have a question. We are
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: doing an Austin Jackson mail bag episode, hopefully for later
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: this week, depending on what the Tigers do. So we're
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: listening questions. I've already got one question, Austin, tell the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: people your podcast story.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, And so you can on Twitter at Tiger Territory, Underscore,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: at Cody Stavenhagen, at Kieran Underscore Steckley you can ask
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the questions there or I'll just say this, you're more
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: likely to get it answered if you are subscribed to
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: our YouTube channel and ask a question on this episode's
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: page as a comment. So just a little incentive there
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to help grow our YouTube page. Very very happy with
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: how much it's grown in the offseason. So thank you
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: everybody for listening, liking, subscribing, wherever you listen, wherever you watch.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: It's it's a lot of fun to do what we do.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun to see that people enjoy
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: what we do. Okay, So, yes, a.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Thousand subscribers, Guys, we're trying to get there. If you
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: haven't hit that subscribe button yet, we'd appreciate it. Yeah.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: So, and if you enjoyed Austin, there's gonna be there's
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: gonna be much more of him, and think very thankful
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that he decided to join us on this beture here.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: All right, speaking of adventures, the Tigers have signed nobody.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: They haven't signed anybody since the last time that we talked.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: We're still in the uh.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: They're only a couple of weeks of it removed from
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: sign Give them a little buffer before we start roasting
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: them again. Come, it's a.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Lot of roast. It's just saying, you know, it's just
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: it's just been a second of the holidays happened, and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: so we're just we're still into speculation and now Cody
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: for the first time, because we haven't done this this year.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It's now it was Bregman Watch twenty twenty four, now
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: it's Regman Watch twenty twenty five, and we it feels
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: like we've talked about this, but then more things happen
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: of what we talked about, so then we decide to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: talk about it again. So what I'm referring to is
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: sort of the framing of like the Bregman reporting, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: this is not specific to anybody. It could be anybody
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: that's verified or unverified or aggregate accounts or whatever. But
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the way that the bregmant stuff kind of goes into
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: my timeline on social media is a bunch of things
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that I kind of read through. I'm like, all right,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: well there's nothing here. You get phrases like it's the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays and the Tigers, and then phrases like you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: so and so team is quote still in, which is
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: as meaningless a phrase in free agency as it gets
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: still in. Everybody's still in. Everybody is eligible to sign
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Alex Regman. So like the entire you know, Korean baseball
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: teams are still in to sign Alex Regman, like everybody's
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: in on it. So you know, I would just say numbers, contracts, years, dollars,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: all that stuff incentives. It's all kind of pixie dust.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: That doesn't necessarily mean anything right now, that doesn't mean
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: that there's not merit to these things going out there. However,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it's hard for me to get like emotionally attached to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of these updates because of the language that's
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: being used, and it feels like a lot of fodder
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: being put out there by organizations, and you know, probably
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Bregman's team as well. He is a Bors client, so
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: he got anything for Redman Watch twenty twenty five number one.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure how much fodder is even being put
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: out there if you look at what has been said,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: like for myself from other reporters, there's not all that
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: much substance. I reported last week Tiger's Blue Jay's Red
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Sox were all still in no decision was imminent. That
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: was I think pretty solid reporting. I'm not sure anyone's
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: really said anything a lot more tangible than that. It's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: actually been. Despite the constant noise, despite the incredible fodder
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Regmann Watch has been for social media, we don't know
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: a lot about what's actually going on in these negotiations,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: and despite last week being mad and I did you know,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I went on the Big Foul Territory Show and talked
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: about it. I want an MLB network radio and talked
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: about it. I'm not sure anything happened last week, Like,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: do we have any real update of some change. I
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: don't think we do. You're right, the framing has become
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: a little bit different as more people have weighed in,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: But I've got no tangible updates to that indicate we're
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: any closer to a decision here. My big takeaway from
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Bregman to watch Man, MLB needs some sort of free
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: agency deadline because this is maddening, this is frustrating. What
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: is it? I don't think Alex Bregman is refreshing his
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: phone near as much as I am, and here as
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: much as a lot of Tigers fans are. I don't
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: know what the actual thing here is. It seems pretty
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: clear this is again reading the tea leaves more than
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: reporting that the Tigers have some number they're not going
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: to go above the Red Sox. Look, they have some
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: roster things to figure out and probably a number they
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: don't want to go above. I don't know what's going on.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: With the Blue Jays, but probably similar. I think the
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: idea of Bregmann getting seven two hundred is probably out
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: the window at this point. But I do wonder like
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: some really some team's not just gonna come and throw
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: six one eighty on the table, Like I feel like
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: that's what should happen. I don't know that that's what's
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: going to happen. But the longer this drags on, either
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Bregmant's gonna sign well below what he originally wanted, or
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: when teams like the Tigers don't act, don't get aggressive
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and either come up with a creative contract or just
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: say hey, here's six one eighty six one eighty five whatever,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: It does leave the door open for someone to swoop
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: in later in this process. I don't know, but it
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: really is kind of frustrating as we all sit here
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: and just nothing happens. What if there were a deadline
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: to create action on the free agent market. Similarly, we
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: know if the Tigers want to sign a relief picture,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: no one in the whole league is signing relievers. I'm
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: not really sure what the rationale is for that one.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: It's it's kind of silly. I think everyone waiting on
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: other another team to like quote unquote set the market.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: This shows these risk adverse front offs. Is it gets
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: a little bit silly when it comes to pregnant and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the Tigers are either going to get him on like
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: a huge discount and come out looking amazing, or they're
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: gonna miss out and they're gonna look really bad. I
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: don't know which one that's gonna be.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: So a couple of things there. One, I'm one hundred
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: percent in favor of a free agency deadline. I could,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I would probably argue free agency technically starts too soon
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: for major League Baseball, not that that really matters all
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that much, but there's no anticipation of free agency because
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: it's like, all right, season's over. Free agency begins like that, right.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: So.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Anything that like ups the anty a little bit and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: adds a little sense of urgency in baseball, Like I'm
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I'm in favor of it because I think that creates
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: more interest, especially you know, during this time. It's obviously
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a football college football, a little bit NBA dominated time
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of the year, right, So number one in favor of that.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Number two, I'm a quote your boy Jerry Jones here
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: for a second, Cody and Jerry Jones has said that
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: he's never ever regretted over paying for something he really wanted.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: He's only regretted under offering something he really wanted. So
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: my question for that is, do we talked about.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: The things that come back? Because like, how long has
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: it been since the Cowboys are in the NFC title game?
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, but like the he has made them relevant.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, we we'll do it Jerry Jones podcasting at
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the time. But but but that's just but that's more
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: of like, you know, but that's the business part of it.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: The business part of the Cowboys is impeccable, all right,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: So uh so, anyway, but like we talked about the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: things we don't know, I think another underrated thing we
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: don't know in regards to Bragman Watch twenty twenty five
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: is how much do the Tigers really want Bragman? Because
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: when you're looking at I'll round up to an even
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: number four four teams that are in on Alex Bragman,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: you know, the three you mentioned, and then we'll throw
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: just generic wildcard team out there.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: So we'll make it four.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: If, like, if there is a small amount of competition
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: for the services of Alex Bregman and we know the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: numbers are pretty much all right there of what he
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: what the market value for him is. I feel like,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: if you really wanted him, you could just get him.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: You could just get him and live with like, I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: don't know, one hundred and ten, one hundred and twenty
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: cents on the dollar overpay, Like if you really wanted them,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: that that could happen. So part of me is like,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: how much do they really want them? I don't know
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: just what this is?
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: A front office that is, and perhaps an ownership too,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: but front office just as big, if not a bigger
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: part of it. That is that really sticks to its
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: guns in terms of value, in terms of market value,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: in terms of especially in multi year deals. They are
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: very set in that. So I think it has less
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: to do with wanting the player and more to do
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: with like adhering to, you know, the term we like
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: good baseball decision. Scott Harris uses a lot like I
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: think they view that through the lens of economics, and
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: so they do not want to overpay, especially on longer
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: term deals that could have consequences down the road. I'm
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: not sure that that's right. It's like, I don't know
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: anyone tried to buy a house lately. I did almost
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. Good luck trying to find
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: a deal. Good luck trying to get below market value.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: A lot of people these days pay above market quote
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: unquote market value. And it comes down to like, well,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: do you do you want a house or do you
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: want to keep renting. It's a little bit oversimplified, but
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: like do you want to win the World Series or
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: do you want to keep, you know, fighting tooth and
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: nail for a wild card spot. I think that's what
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: it comes down to, and now it is it is
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: possible we're over valued, Like Bregman has kind of become
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: this godzilla, like he's become like I saw someone like
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Tiger's Twitter has made Alex Bregman mid two thousands a
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: rod and it's kind of right, like, yeah, he is
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: thirty one coming off a down year. We're gonna talk
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: about Anthony Santander in a minute. And it's interesting to
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: compare their win probability added Alex Bregman was negative last year,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: minus zero point eight four. I think he's a great player.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I think the Tigers really need him. I think they should.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: There's no reason they shouldn't just be willing to pay
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: six one eighty five. If they end up signing him
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: at a bigger discount, Scott Harris will look like a genius.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: But again, if they don't man.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Well, sometimes there is a risk of trying to be
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the smartest person in the room. And this is not
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: an indictment of Scott at all. This is just a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: general thing. I think a lot of front office types
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: try to kind of be that guy or the most
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: clever guy in the room, you know what I mean,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Like that's that's kind of like.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: That that's a problem in baseball is now you have
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: about twenty three front offices all kind of trying to
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: do the same thing. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, and
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: you know, probably I would argue, like the Rangers won
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: the World Series because they don't really do that, or
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: they they weren't when they were building this roster. And
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: the Dodgers have found a way to be the smartest
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: people in the room while also being the most aggressive
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: people in the room, and they're them and maybe the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Mets are kind of the only teams operating on that way.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Length Yeah, well, there's what the Dodgers. It's I don't
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: want to compare to the successes, but I remember when
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: like the Houston Rockets back in the day had like this,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Like you know, they were like breaking everybody's mind with
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: like the passes the three James Harden becomes MVP and
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: it's like, man, the analytics and some people were like,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know analytics or is it the fact that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: James Harden's a lefty who can shoot threes and passes
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: really well? It's like, you know, are the Dodgers the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: smartest front office or did they just say, Hey, the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: best players, we're gonna get them and we're gonna pay them.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they're not smart, you know. Blah blah
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Blah'm not taking anything away from the.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Time innovating like deferred money and being creative in contracts, Like.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: It's smart, But it doesn't take a genius to figure
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: out like Otani is worth whatever dollar amount you can
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: get him to sign to. You know, it doesn't take
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: a genius to figure out that Mookie Bets is gonna
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: be more valuable than these five minor leaguers that you
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: send to get them, Like like you know what I mean,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Like it takes a willingness, it takes I don't again,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to criticize the Dodgers, but it's like, oh, yeah,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: they have the best players, or like the Yankees, it's like,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, they have the best players. It makes sense. Yeah,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you know, they don't have to be that creative to
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: figure out that Jan Soto is a great player.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying, speaking of like mindset and and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: talent development. We've had a lot happen in the past year, Cody,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: with our Parker Meadows experience, and last year we talked
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: about how everyone's just kind of banking on Parker Meadows
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: being okay at the plate and then this is gonna
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: work out. He's gonna play center field, and like everything's
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: gonna be good, Riley Green doesn't have to play center
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: like you're gonna save his body, blah blah blah. And
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: then Parker Metals got off to a horrid start at
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the plate, had to get sent down to his credit,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: came back up. Then he got hurt, but came back
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and was obviously an instrumental part in that run to
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the postseason and through the postseason. Now I kind of
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: feel like we're doing a little bit of the same thing, ironically,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: with kind of more evidence that like we should feel better,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: but when we're now, we're just kind of like, you know,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: he was a two war player last year despite that
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: horrid stretch of offensively. I do it too. This is
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: not me criticizing anybody. I do it too. I am
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: very excited about the possibility of Parker Meadows. But then
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: I take a step back and I'm like, but am
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I ever gonna actually be confident year to year with
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Parker or even like we'll say, like a quarter of seasons,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a quarter of season basically like it's there's still gonna
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: be because it's Parker Meadows, because it's his whole story.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: There's still gonna be some anxiety about whether, like can
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: he like really hack it at the plate over a
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: long period of time, over the course of a season.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Plus I think he can. But at the same time,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I'm getting a little nervous that no one else I
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: have not seen much level of anxiety about, like is
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: this Are we still good here? Are we still good here?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Because just like last year, even more so this year,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: with the pressure on the team to you know, expectation
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: when they ail central, like if this don't work, it
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: throws a lot of things in motion, and a lot
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: of stuff that we're talking about now becomes largely irrelevant.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's very like the ideal world scenario
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: is Parker Meadow's is your lead off hitter and he's
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: a four or five win player and he's dynamic and
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: he's an All star.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Sounds awesome.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know that that's necessarily the most realistic scenario.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: He played at that level for a month plus and
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: he was great after coming back from injury and coming
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: back from the minor leagues. But I'm not a huge
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: believer in like setting off these sample sizes and treating
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: them as the whole does not exist. I know, like
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: I've heard it from space.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: All we've done for the past four years with like
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: we've done it with Hobbyer, We've done it with Sport,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: We've we've done it with everybody, and.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I hear it from the Tiger's front office, well you're
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: just looking at this when if you just broke it
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: down to this sample, it was like, well, yes, I know,
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: but it's one hundred and sixty two game season for
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: a reason, and Parker Metos made some improvements. He's obviously
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: he can I think he can do this, I think
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I have two thoughts. One, if you sign a guy
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: like an Alex Bregman, take some pressure off Parker Medos
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: to hit a little bit. There is a reality where
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: if he can hit good enough and just play elite
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: defense and run the bases at a high level, Like
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: he does not have to hit at a crazy level
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: for this team to be really good. But looking at
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: the Fangrafts projections he's picked to, you know, ZIPS has
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: him hitting two thirty three with a ninety six ops plus.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It has him as a two win player. Mike just
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: point some people. But I kind of like I could
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: see that world. For as good as he is, He's like,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: get two thirty one against breaking balls with twenty nine
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: percent of the time. He with thirty four point two
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: percent against off speed. A lot of that probably was
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: in the first part of the season, but he can
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: be susceptible to that. There's still some holes in his
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: swing at the plate. And then ZIPS does an interesting
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: thing where it shows the eightieth and twentieth percentile in
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the projections. So this is kind of layperson's terms. ZIPS
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: takes all these numbers, runs them through a simulation like
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: a thousand times and then kind of comes up with
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: an aggregate that is what you see as the projections,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: but like the eightieth presents like his best outcomes, So
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: that had him hitting two fifty six three twenty seven
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: one base, three point three war, the twentieth percent style war,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: so the bottom twenty percent of the projections zero point six.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: To compare it, Riley Green is either four point eight
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: war to two point one more. I don't know if
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: this is making any sense because it's harder to do
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: without showing you guys the numbers, but basically ZIPS shows
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: a large range of outcomes possible for Parker Meadows, which
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: is in a way unsatisfying, but it I think this
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: represents there's still lot of volatility possible in his.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Game one hundred percent. And part of like, like the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: reason that I'm still always going to get excited for
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the Parker metos is like, you look at his season
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: last year. I'm on Baseball Reference. His offensive war was
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: one point seven, his defensive war was point eight. Now,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: obviously that's a center field you know, Obviously everybody's best
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: fielder is in center field, right, so we understand all that,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: but it's like, man, you could get one point seven,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: you have any sort of improvement you're looking at, you know,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: approaching to offensive war Like, sorry, you're feeling pretty good.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: You're feeling pretty good. But there's just so much has
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: happened in his pro career that it's not that I'm
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: not confident in him. Is that like if nobody else
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: is kind of talking about these range of outcomes and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: makes me think, are we kind of setting ourselves up here?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: And obviously the front office AJ stuff, they're not ignorant
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: any of this, but just in terms of like how
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: we discuss the team, how we smartly analyze the team,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I think it has to be like a pretty a
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: pretty good factor. And then it's also like he always
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: is kind of a microcosm for this whole mantra of
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: team building, whereas, like you know, the AJ quote from
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Winter Meeting, it's like, we can't be last year's team.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: We we have to be better. We're trying to win
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the central blah blah blah. That's all well and good,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: but if you're running it back with like everybody, almost everybody,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and you have to bank on this unlike this intangible
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: thing to become tangible, which is development it's kind of hard.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: It's kind of hard, you know, year to year and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: credit to what they've been able to do, but we've
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: also seen examples of where it hasn't worked. You know,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: a guy just lost his position a couple of weeks
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: ago because it has not worked with all the talent
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: in the world.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: So yeah, Like, I think Meadows has a higher floor
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: than Turklesen just because of the defense, the base running.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I do think I'm not necessarily worried
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: about Parker Medows having to go back to the minor leagues.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: I'm just not sure. You know, he's guaranteed to hit
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: this kind of star ceiling that has kind of been
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: thrust upon him. And then this is probably like the
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: sixth time we've mentioned this in passing, But Trey Sweeney
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: is this year's Parker Meadows. Like we just all think
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: he's the shortstop and it's like he did some good things,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: but he's a twenty four year old player who up
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: until last year had never quite projected as anything more
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: than like a utility infielder. He only hit to eighteen,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: he only walked five point nine percent of the time.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Scares me, man, because there's a world where Tray Sweeney
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: has the Parker Meadows first thirty forty games and has
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: to go back to Triple A and then as of
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: right now, I don't know what you're doing it stually,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: it's like baby.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Ryan Kreidler season, you know what I mean,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Like and do that again. So so yeah, so just
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: just thought sometimes, you know, it's early January. Sometimes this
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: is really an outlet for me to just kind of
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: get out thoughts that I just kind of have in
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: my head. And I don't even know how valid they are,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: but it's just like I just kind of have to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: get them out there and and bounce them off you
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and everybody else who wants to tell me how if
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: they feel the same way or if I'm wrong, like
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: you know, like it's it's there's a lot. There's a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: lot going on, despite the fact technically not a whole
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: lot has gone on.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Well, let's go on to another player who
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: could ease some of this anxiety. All right, We've heard
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: mentions of the Tigers having interest in on Anthony Santander.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: This was actually pretty quiet for me until a couple
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: of days ago. I had not heard a lot of
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: this for myself, finally did like that there is some
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: interest here. Tigers have done a deep dive on Santander recently,
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: they're looking into this. I'm still as like a Plan
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: B for Bregman. I'm still skeptical. Like it's not that
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: this interest isn't real, but it's like I have a
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: hard time seeing Anthony sons hunder wearing a Detroit Tigers uniform.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Supposedly he's seeking five one hundred and the goat about
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Santender is obviously the power dude at forty four homers
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: last year. Can you imagine putting forty four homers and
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: the Tigers lineup man? That would be awesome. But he's
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: a thirty year old player who is a pretty atrocious outfielder.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: He's a pretty bad base runner. The Tigers just signed
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: a player who is a pretty atrocious fielder and a
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: pretty bad base runner. And especially if you're gonna get
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: sans Hunderer in a four to five year deal, I
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: mean even next year, but especially going into the future,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: I think you would have to take up a lot
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: of dhat bats, which aj Hnch has notoriously been like
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: pretty opposed to. There's a time last offseason I was
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: all about get JD. Martinez for one year, having DH
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: like whatever, I don't think I would feel the same
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: in this Tiger's lifespan, and especially for talking a multi
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: year deal. I'm just gonna take AB's away from other
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: players right now. You have some guys like Barsanio and
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Theronzo on the rise. In theory, in four or five
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: years time would occupy some DH at bats. So those
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: are reasons I don't love it, especially for talking the
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: longer contract. But I think the reason that Tigers are
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: in on Santander is much like Bregman, what if no
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: one signs this guy and what if you can get
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: him for say two or three years. I wonder if
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: it's a similar philosophy, and just like we're staying in
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: in case the market kind of crashes and we can
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: get him on a deal that is a little bit
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: more to our liking. What do you think here?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: So in the past couple of days, there's been reports
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: that he has been offered for for eighty two and
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: I believe that a, uh, that's a Toronto offer, I
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: believe is what the reports are.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Just kind of blue Jay written all over him.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I did a little bit of a
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: dive on Santander, and I'm gonna try to say that
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: as correctly as I can. And there's this the way
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I can't. The way I think about it is, if
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: this was this would be a move to make, if
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: you really thought you were just like one right, like
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I would say, and I don't want to say, slightly
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: above average, but decently above average bat away from winning
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a pennant and then you know, whatever happens in the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: World Series because like he like especially for this team
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: specifically excuse me as a right handed hitter, so obviously
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you know versus left handed pitching, one T three WRC
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: plus all right, he's a one thirty two as a
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: lefty obviously against right handed pitching, and he has a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: pretty decent pull percentage thirty two point five. That's above
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: league average. You want that for obviously, you know the
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: porch and right feel. He limits you, like like he's
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: that rare player that makes you better. He raises your floor,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: but he also limits you of what you can do
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: with your roster, which is obviously you just talked about.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: And like the twenty twenty five version of myself would
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: love to see Santander on this team because again, like
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: he could provide like a little bit of a spark offensively,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: but the detriment but there is a lot of possibility
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: of him being detrimental to the overall makeup of the team.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And if you you mentioned some of the young guys,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: what if Carry Carpenter just becomes a DH in two years?
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: You know, I mean like.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: You're looking at carriers playing the outfield almost every day.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, so are you comfortable with that?
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Like I am not sure, and you probably don't want
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: to limit the possibility of like, all right, he's just
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: our DH for the next three years talking about Carpenter
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: so uh so, yeah, I just I just feel like
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I would like it for twenty twenty five and then
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: as I would try to analyze a way to make
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: this team better in year in the years that follow,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I just don't know if I would be as down
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: for whatever contract. But if it's one of those things
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: that as you talk about market collapse, I'm down to
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: give three year deals to any of these cats with
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: opt outs after one or opt outs after two. Like
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: if he took like a Bellinger type deal, maybe you
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: want a little bit more organizational leverage. Uh but like,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: you know, something like that, Like I'm open to it
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: because I again, I think he definitely makes your twenty
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: twenty five roster. He raises your floor offensively. Uh and
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: and but then you would have to kind of change
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the makeup of the rest of the roster around him.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: You probably have to with him at tours in the lineup.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: You probably have to emphasize base running a little bit
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: more for some of these other guys in the lineup.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: And then you would have to you know, you would
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: have to manufacture your lineups a little bit because he
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: is a switch. These are all, you know, relatively good problems.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: But it would feel like it feels like if you
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: think you're a year away, you do it. If you
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: still want to kind of build up the same way
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: you've been building, this would be kind of a This
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: would be a building block that wouldn't match the overall wall,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: if that makes sense.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The other going on concern with Santander, like you're
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: basically just banking on power. Forty four homers was a
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: career high. He had twenty eight the year before that,
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: thirty three the year before that. You're going to put
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: him in a tough ballpark to hit home runs and
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: just hope he can sustain that into his thirties. I
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: feel like there are a lot of empty calories in
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Santander at bats to forty six career hitter, three oh
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: seven lifetime on base percentage doesn't really help your whole
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: on base thing very much. He actually doesn't strike out
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: as much as it was seen based on those numbers.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: What he does is he hits the ball in the
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: air a lot, and that's not always a good thing.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: We talked about the volatility of Babbit. His batting average
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: in balls and play is almost historically with the exception
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: of twenty twenty three below league gaverage two sixty three
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: lifetime because he hits a lot of pop ups. I think,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: like top two or three in the league in terms
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: of infield pop up percentage. Now, you guys can go
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: look at that leaderboard. I don't have it in front
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: of me, but Alex Pregnant is like ten or eleven
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: on that list. Okay, so let's keep that in mind.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: But that just concerns me. There's so much sta being
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: put into basically his ability to hit home runs. And yeah,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: maybe you put him in CA America and he hits
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: like more doubles or whatever. And it's not like Baltimore
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: was the ultimate hitters Park, but it just doesn't seem
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: to mesh with like the ethos of this team is
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: how I view Anthony sunsend there, Yeah.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: And again would make the team better, but you would
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: have to so I want to get that loss in
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: there would make the team better. But like, if you're
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: asking me which contract would i'd rather stomach, I'm gonna
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: say Brega. So that's that's just how I feel, all right.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I want to remind everybody once again, if you want
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: to ask a question to Austin Jackson, we will read
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: it and he will answer. That's how Q and A's work.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: And if you send it on Twitter, it's a good
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: chance we'll read it. If you do it on our
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: YouTube page on the at the bottom of this episode
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and you subscribe to our YouTube page, there's a better
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: chance that that that we will that we will ask it.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: So uh reminder at Tiger Territory Underscore, at Cody Stavenhagen,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I'm at Kieran Underscore Steckley, and our YouTube page, Tiger
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Territory Podcast, and also Apple Spotify wherever you listen to
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: your podcast, So thank everybody for listening. I want to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: thank everyone who chimed in for the Austin Jackson episode.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot more where that came from.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: So for Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Karen Steckley. Everybody, have a
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: great day.