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Analysis: How comfortable are the Tigers at each position? · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network, Detroit Tigers podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: I am Kieran Steckley.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: With me, as always, is a man who knows baseball
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is something else.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: He writes about it every day.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: He is Cody Stavenhagen. How are we doing?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Something else, huh? That can mean so many different things.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: And baseball means a lot of different things to a
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: lot of different people.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, look, we got the full range of emotions
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: watching the Tigers this year from the hype and the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: promise of the beginning of the season to the immortal
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: May of 2026 and then the injuries and the school trade.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: And then, oh, the young guys look kind of all right.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: So what did the 2026 mean? It meant a lot
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: of things to a lot of people, I'm pretty sure.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And so it makes it kind of a fun challenge
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to try to, like, you know, project forward what what
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: what what the tigers will do with this roster to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: try to get back into the playoffs and more. And
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: so on that note, I kind of wanted to do
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: something like a little bit different here, Cody. And next week,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about some roster decisions, guys that,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't look like they're going to be
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: coming back guys that maybe really ought to be back
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: on this roster.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: But there might be a hurdle or two in there.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So that will be what we do next week.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So, I kind of wanted to set those episodes up
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: by doing a concept of how much are the Tigers invested,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and I don't mean that in a financial sense strictly,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: although obviously that plays a part in it, in the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: guys on the roster right now. How much are they
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: invested in there? And then, look, it's baseball, right? So
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: why don't we kind of do it in hitting terms?
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So single, double, triple, home run. Obviously, home run being
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: like the all-in investment, right? So I think we could
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: start out, you know, as an example, Kevin McGonigal. I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: would say that's a home run. Like, you know, they
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: feel pretty invested in Kevin McGonigal, you know, contractually and metaphorically.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So hopefully that makes sense to you guys. And then
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I'll tally these. Cody and I have not done this
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in advance yet. So I'll tally these and then that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: will kind of give us like a little bit of
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: an idea of what we think the Tigers think of
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the roster. So hope that makes sense for everybody. I'll
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: go ahead and give a tally for home run for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Kevin McGonigal.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: And here's another kind of.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Go around the horn. Now we got to go in
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: positional order. You're going to, you're going to frustrate me.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: You want positional order as in numerical or positional order?
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: You know, just down the line on baseball reference.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: What do you, what do you prefer?
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Are we even doing pitcher? I don't know if we're
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: doing pitcher here.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: We'll do pitchers, yeah.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Okay, well, pitcher's one, so that's where we're starting. Then
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: we're going catcher, first base, second base. I could go
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: either way on third or short. I don't have a
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: real preference. You know what? Let's do shortstop first. I
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: don't really think it should be six. I think it
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: should be five.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: There you go, rewriting the scorebook rules. All right, pitcher.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Let's go with Cater Montero.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Cater Montero. Well, I think the Tigers really like Cater Montero.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I think he's valuable. I think it's highly unclear what
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: his role is going to be next season. He certainly
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: made a great rotation case for himself, and yet we've
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: kind of talked about it before. There's still going to
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: be competition coming into camp. So the overall, I mean,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: is it wrong to say the overall investment is probably
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: a single? Should it be a double? I'd say at
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: least a double because he's on the team next year.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: It's just a matter of what role.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, I kind of look at this as
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: like investment and like kind of him being in the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: plan sort of moving forward without any sort of like
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: real change. So go with a double for Montero. You
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: want to stick with all pitchers? You want me to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: go literally around the horn right now?
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we're going. It's going to take a while
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: to get through all the pitchers, so we'll have to
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: speed around the pitchers. Unfortunately, don't be mad, guys, if
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: you don't get the same analysis as Cater Montaro did.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: All right, Dylan Dingler.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Oh, he's not a pitcher. Dylan Dingler. One, two. I
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: think to be a home run, you have to get
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: a contract extension. And I do wonder, you know, is
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: that something that could be on the table? I also wonder,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: you know, what does his slow finish to the season
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: mean for His value. If I'm Dingler's camp, I'm kind
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: of like, I don't know, man, you played at an
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: MVP caliber level for four months. Like, can't let them
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: lowball you now. If I'm the Tigers, you know, maybe
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: a little more hesitant. You know, we know we got
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a gold glove caliber catcher. How good is the bat actually?
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: I'll still say triple. I mean, this guy's an all-star
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: gold glove caliber player, no doubt about it.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: All right, doing the around the horn thing. Torkelson.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: That's the big question, right? We've talked about it before.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: In an ideal world, I think it would be nice
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: to feel better about your first baseman. At the same time,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: unless you can show me another guy who can hit
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: 25 homers and regardless of what the metrics say, handle
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: first base well. I think the overall investment is a single.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: I think it's pretty fringe. I think we'll see what happens.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I think there's a strong chance Torkelson is back next year. But,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: you know, Cole Keith there. I think at some point
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: you start running out of rope. He's nearing the end.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: But I do kind of expect him to be back.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I'm going single.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: All right. It's this one.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I should say there's a fifth category, if you want, Cody,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that's just like I call pinch hit.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: So it's like not. In the team's future, short-term or long-term.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: I was going strikeout there.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: You can do strikeout. I thought pinch hit was a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: little kinder. But we can do strikeout.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Maybe pinch hit is more if you're in between.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Gleyber Torres. Basically, is it for sure that.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: He's... Strikeout seems mean, but really he's just a pending
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: free agent. I don't know.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Walk?
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Walk. He's probably walking into free agency.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: There you go that's a good that's a good that's
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a good way to put it.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Seems i don't think the tiger is going to bring
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: him back although another thing we've mentioned like kind of
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: got to replace that right-handed production somehow.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: All right let's do because you love we did kevin
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: mcgonagall already so that was shortstop was taken care of
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: what about.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Colt keith.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Well, they've given him a contract extension, so I think
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: it's a double. I think it's a double. He's under
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: contract for several more years still. Finding his actual role, man,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't think the Tigers know. I
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: think they're being somewhat serious when they talk about, well,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: it's kind of good that he can play multiple positions.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't be, well, we talked about the first base
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: platoon before, which is interesting because the vast majority of
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Spencer Torkelson's power this year actually came against right-handed pitching.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: And Cole Keith, although he's pretty good against righties, isn't
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: like lights out against righties. So the math of the
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: platoon sort of makes sense, except not totally. 23 of
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: Torkelson's 26 homers were against righties. He had a higher
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: OPS against righties than he did lefties. But I could
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: still see a world where you get sort of a
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: platoon at first, and depending on what you do at second,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: maybe Keith goes back to playing a little second. I
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: think he's a double just because of the contract, but, man,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: they've got to figure out a way to use him.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Riley Green.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Riley Green, triple, all-star caliber player. Does that mean contract extension?
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know. I think you'd feel
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: better about it if there weren't just this risk of
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: him being a DH at some point down the line,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: maybe some point sooner rather than later down the line.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: So for now, I'll just go triple, and I mean
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: that as no disrespect. I think Riley is a really
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: talented player, a really good header, a staple in the
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: middle of the Tigers' order for sure.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: All right, someone we haven't talked about in a while,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Matt Bierling.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Ooh.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Love Matty V, but might be nearing strikeout territory. Unfortunately,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: just injured back-to-back years. He's no longer available. so cheap
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: in arbitration. He's just missed a lot of time. It's
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: kind of getting tough to see where he fits. I
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: hate to say it, but he seems like maybe the
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: strongest candidate to be non-tendered this offseason. I still don't
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: know for sure if that will happen. Scott Harris trade
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: acquisition that works in his favor still, but unfortunately it's
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: kind of tough to see where he fits.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Zach McKinstry.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Single? Pinch hit? Pinch hit? I think there's a strong
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: chance he's on the team next year. I also don't
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: know that for a fact. There's been many other times
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: where it seemed like maybe it's time to move on
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: from Zach McKinstry. The Tigers didn't do it. In a
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: lot of those cases, they were rewarded for it. The
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: weird thing about McKinstry, it's like Torkelson. If you're going
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: to move on from McKinstry, you're probably just going to
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: be a for another left-handed hitter who can play a
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: bundle of different positions. McKinstry's a good defender. He was
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: really good in right field this year. You'd like to
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: see more out of the bat, but I don't. I'm
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: going to go pinch hit. That's one of the tough
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: decisions the Tigers have on their hands this year, but
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: I almost actually lean toward him returning.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: All right. How you Lee?
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: How you Lee?
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Double. Double.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: He's a big part of the Tigers' future. I think
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: he's going to be on the roster next year. It's
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: a matter of what is the role. Is he your
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: starting second baseman? Is he going to play second and third?
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: How much is he going to play against right-hand pitching?
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: Is the defense going to improve? All that good stuff.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: But really a pretty big and important year for how
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: you Lee. Almost neither one of us mentioned him as
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: a rookie of the year, non-Kevin McGonigal candidate on our
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: last episode, but Howie Lee is going to be on
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: the bus next year, I think, and that's good.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Another one of the guys that's a little bit in
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the more forgotten category, Kerry Carpenter.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Ooh, Kerry, Kerry, Kerry. I think single, I mean, I
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: think it's interesting that A.J. Hinch was pretty forthright that
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: this is a big offseason for Carpenter. He still has
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: just massive pop from the left side. So I don't
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: think they're getting rid of him. But it's like, how
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: much can you afford to play him in the outfield?
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Can he stay healthy if he's playing in the outfield?
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: If he's mostly just playing DH, how much.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Value does he have?
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: I think he's still such a chess piece, a weapon,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: that A.J. overall likes having him. It's a pretty big
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: year for Carey to prove His worth, the injuries aren't
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: really his fault, but to prove he can stay healthy
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: and even to hit better. As much as I love
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: his power, he chased, he didn't walk, he really did
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: not hit well when he was on the field this year.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: So going single, but he might be down in the
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: count a little bit trying to battle back.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: That's a good analogy. We're taking this analogy to the
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: furthest it will go.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Max Clark.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Max Clark, he's a triple. Massive, massive part of the future.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Can he get that contract extension? Does he want a
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: contract extension? I don't know the answer to those. If
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: I were the Tigers, I'd certainly be having those discussions.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: And then it's just like, what is the right value?
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: What is the right price? Not sure, but Max, really impressive.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: First taste of the big leagues and huge part of
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: everything the Tigers are doing.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with everything there.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Another kind of interesting one, Javi Baez.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: I guess pinch hit. I mean, Javi's got one more
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: year on his deal. Now that it's down to one year,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: could you eat most of that and try to trade
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: him now that he's versatile? Is there another team who
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: would like him? Do you just accept, hey, this is
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: what it is, try not to play him a lot?
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: I think he starts the year on the team. I
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: think there's a world where if he's not hitting and
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: he's not playing and things aren't going well, it's more
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: palatable than ever for them to just say, all right, well,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: we can kind of wash our hands of this thing now.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: And to Javi's credit, he's done his best to kind
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: of stay viable and done it by playing other positions.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: But there's still a world where he's the starting shortstop
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: next year. I don't know. I think the best version
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: of the Tigers team probably finds another solution there, but
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: it's not out of the question. So I'm going to
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: go pinch hit. I think he's a little bit of
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: a weird– I think he's probably on the team, but
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: it's like just because you're paying him $ 22- plus million. So
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: then you've got to figure out what to do with him.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I anticipate him being like the opening day, starting
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: shortstop and then kind of like eventually sort of like
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: being like phased out to more like the super utility.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: But you start out kind of using as much as
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you can of them and then kind of things filter
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: there where they naturally will be.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Wenzel Perez.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Penchette, I think he's, you know. still relatively young, at
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: least in terms of big league experience, switch hitter, that
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: always bodes in his favor, unfortunate injury this year, man,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: really sucked, the fractured orbital bone, and the freak weight
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: room accident, not his fault at all, but, you know,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: he was, for as much as we've kind of liked Winslow,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: and he's come through in a lot of big moments,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: his overall statistical production was pretty replacement level, maybe slightly
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: above replacement level, so, As the team gets older, as
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: you have other guys knocking on the door of the
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: 40-man roster, as there's competition in the outfield, it becomes
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: a prove-it year for Wenzel for sure. I think he's
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: kind of in the pinch-hit category of like, well, you
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: like this guy, but what does that actually mean? I'm
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: not sure. Wenzel's going to have to come to spring training,
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: and he'll certainly be competing for a job. Yeah.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Ben Malgeri.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: Ooh, I'm going to go single. I think he just,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: he's coming off a lot of positive momentum, right? He's
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: kind of part of this next wave, even though he's
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: not as young as some of the other prospects. But
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: I think what he did left an impression, both defensively
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: on the bases, a little bit at the plate. I
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: think he still has to come compete for a job,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: but um I think right now he kind of has
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a leg up on a guy
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: like Wenzel or certainly a guy like Matt Vierling just
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: because he's coming off a positive.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Season Eduardo Valencia.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Oh double I think I think the Tigers really like
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Mal Jerry does not speak badly of Mal Jerry but
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: overall talk to Scouts, whatever, still a little unsure what
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: the bat is going to do at the big league level.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Whereas Valencia, I've already kind of seen what upside the
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: bat has at the big league level. This is a
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: dude they're going to want to get a lot more
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: at bats. It seems like they feel fine enough about
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: him behind the plate. We'll see what that ultimately looks like.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: But a guy who potentially could be a very big
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: part of this team's future, I'll go double.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Brett Callahan.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Brett Callahan. Is he single or is he pinch hit?
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: I think there were some good vibes around Callahan, but
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: ultimately I don't think he was as good as Maljiri.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: I think he doesn't have quite as good of a
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: roster case as Maljiri. Maljiri's a right-handed hitter, which the
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Tigers could use. I'll go pinch hit. It was still
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: a great year for Brett Callahan just to put himself
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: on the map and get to the major leagues. Now
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: once in the major leagues, Man, he had that home
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: run early on. That was his only home run. Chased 40%
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: of the time, whiffed 29% of the time, 33% strikeout rate.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: For those reasons, I'm going to go pinch hitter. Come
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: to camp with a chance to win a job, but
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: certainly has some pretty clear, tangible things to improve on
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: at the plate.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Another tough one, Parker Meadows.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Man. I think he's a pinch hit, but it's Parker Meadows.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: You put him in there, he could always surprise you.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I think this guy's too talented. His
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: skill set is too valuable for the Tigers to give
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: up before they have to, is my opinion. Now, he's
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: been injured when he has been on the field the
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: last couple years. The production with the bat has not
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: been good. I don't know what they do with that.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: It seems like Max Clark has kind of usurped him
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: as he's going to be the center fielder. But is
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: there a Jake Marisnyk type role for Parker Meadows where
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: he's a fourth outfielder who's just a plus to plus
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: plus level defensive outfielder and maybe still more upside than
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Jake Marisnyk out of the plate? That world exists. I
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: don't know what next year looks like for Parker Meadows.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: It could be Toledo. It could be a fourth outfielder.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: It could be somewhere else, but this guy's pretty good. Ultimately,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: I gave him a pinch hit because of just the uncertainty.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: And then if you're going to have Riley, Max, Parker, Carey,
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: it's a lot of left-handed outfielders. So I don't know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: but his skill set still has a lot of value.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: What about Fromber Valdez?
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Fromber, well, you're paying him. You're paying him. You get
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: a triple at the least in my book now. Big
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: year for Fromber because I'm sure when Fromber initially signed
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: that deal, three years, $ 115 million with an opt-out after two.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: You put the opt-out after two because you're hoping to
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: opt out and get another big deal. Fromber is not
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: on track to do that after posting an ERA above
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: four in his first year with the Tigers. But if
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: he gets back on track, he could certainly make a
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: case for himself to opt out. We'll see. It's going
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: to be tough to match the, what, almost $ 38 million
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: he's getting in the AAV right now. But I don't know.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Get someone else to give you a four- or five-year deal.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: there's a chance. Whatever it is, Fran Bervaldez is going
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: to show up next year. He's going to make $ 38 million.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: He's probably going to be your opening day starter. So
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: go in triple.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Troy Melton.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Troy Melton. Triple. I wish we knew the status of
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: his arm. But regardless, the Tigers think he's a massive
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: part of their future. I think they'd like him to
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: be a front-line type guy for this rotation for years
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: to come.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll go ahead and put Jack Flaherty in
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the walk category.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: What about Drew Anderson?
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I expect him to pick up that option, be the
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: last year on his deal, rolls unclear, single. Speed around
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: with the pitchers here.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Speed round. All right.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Jackson, Job, Jackson, Job, triple. They'd like him to be
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: their next ace. They haven't paid him yet. Uh, it
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: was encouraging that he, he started to look a lot better.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: His final few outings, huge year for Job to see
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: if he can stay healthy and live up to the potential,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: but triple Tyler Holton, Tyler Holton, single tight. Tyler Holton
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: had a better year than, than he gets, uh, than
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: he gets credit for. There's no doubt about that. Um,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: I think he's back, but I think he's a single.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: River Ryan.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Triple. Remember the Scooble trade? I mean, really, if there's
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: one player who could define the Scott Harris tenure, it's
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: River Ryan. They got to get it right on this guy.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: They think he can be an ace. He could end
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: up a closer. He could end up an injured mess
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: who never pitches. The array of outcomes is so wide,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: but he is a massively important player for the Tigers.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Let's go with... Emmanuel DeJesus.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Hmm. That's a weird one. Single, I guess. I don't know. Single?
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Single, all right.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Versatile. Has some length. Could do a lot worse.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Grant Herter.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Herter? Herter? I mean, is it bad if I just
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: give all the bullpen guys singles? You know, they're not good.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: It's just like, you know how, unfortunately all relievers are
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: ultimately somewhat disposable. I'm giving them all singles, except I'll give,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: I'll give Drew Summers a double because the Tigers are
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: super high on him and his upside is, is really,
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: really high.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: All right. Best still a single.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure how much time he's going to miss.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, It's certainly a guy you would like to
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: get healthy, but he's also, well, he's also hurt. He's ARB,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: is he ARB 3? I don't know what I'm doing
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: with Will Vest. I'd like to know more about how
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: much time he's going to miss.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Finnegan.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: 4.4 million for a hurt pitcher. I think it depends
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: how much time you expect him to miss last year.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know what to make of that one. Kyle Finnegan,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: he's under contract. Really needs to have a better year,
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: but he's going to come back, get paid, be a
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: member of your bullpen, so he's a single.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: What about Wegesbeck?
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: I guess he doesn't have that much service time, right?
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Doing this on the fly here.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: He is.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Doesn't have much service time, so he's coming back. He's
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: under control. Yeah, pinch hit. I think he did really good.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: He was very effective at times for the Tigers, but
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: will ultimately have to earn his roster spot next spring.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: He finished with a 2-4-9 ERA. He only struck out
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: 6.7 guys per nine innings. Don't love that.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Bo Briski?
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Pinch hit. Really like Bo. Had a couple outings where
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: you thought maybe you started to see the old bow
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: and had some other outings where he just didn't look comfortable.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: Finished with a. 497 ERA. Stuff was completely up and down.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: I think you've got to keep kind of trying it,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: but man, no guarantee at all.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to bring in one more hitter just
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: because I feel like it should be talked about a
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: little bit more. Jace Young, the guy that just has
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: been like, he's 40, man, and he doesn't get that
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: many opportunities.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: You know, I think both of us have kind of
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: historically defended like the Jace Youngs and Max Andersons. Like,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: why aren't these guys getting opportunities? And I do think
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: Jace Young can be a big league caliber hitter. It's
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: hard for me to, like, it seems like the Tigers
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: have made it very clear what they think of Jace Young.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: They don't think he's part of what they're doing. That's okay.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: I think he could be elsewhere. I think as 40
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: men get spots, get tight, he could certainly be a
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: guy who is let go or cut or traded or
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: whatever it might be. So I almost lean toward Wok.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: I kind of hope he walks. I'd like to see
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: what happens if he gets a shot in another organization.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair. Teams tell you what they think. You've
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: got to believe them.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: All right, so to recap this very unscientific experiment, you
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: have the home run with McGonagall, seven triples, five doubles.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: There's no way I gave out seven triples. Riley Green,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: Dylan Dingler, Max Clark, I guess Melton, Ryan Jobe. No,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: I gave him a double. Counting the pitchers, maybe six.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Five doubles, an infinite number of singles because of the pitchers,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: and you really like the pinch hit choice because it
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: felt fitting.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: So basically what this exercise.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: Can we go back to this arbitration list? We'll talk
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: about this a little more deeper in the offseason. Yeah.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: You got some tough decisions here, man. When you look
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: at the salaries, Will Vest projects to make 4.4. Zach McKinstry, 5.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: Matt Vierling, 3.7. Tyler Holton, I think he's good at
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: two points. Even Kerry Carpenter, 4.1 million. Bo Briski, 1.5.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Winslow Perez, 1.4. It's a reminder that these guys are
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: getting older. They're not all as cheap as they once were.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: The guys who used to cost you one to two
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: are now costing you four to five million. And although
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: in the grand scheme of things, that's cheap, but then
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: suddenly you keep five of these guys and there's 25
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: million of your payroll. I think I lean toward most
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: of these guys coming back, but I'm not sure you
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: can bring them all back. There might be one or
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: two more in here who's not returning.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, that's part of it. I think one
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of the lessons of 2026 is holding on to guys
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: perhaps maybe a little bit too long. And this perfectly
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: sets up what we're going to talk about next week,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: is that some of these guys are not going to be–
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: brought back or at least holding 40-man spots. And we're
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: going to try to project that out here pretty soon.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: But I think what this teaches us is there's a
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: lot of variance on this roster. You have some high end,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: but still a lot of variance. And they could easily
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: bring a lot of these guys back to just kind
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of keep the mix going and see kind of where
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the dust settles. Or there could be a case where
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: people look more expendable than at this time last year.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: What the Tigers need, Kieran, is more doubles. They have
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: the high end, the homer, the triples. Every team is
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: going to have a bunch of singles and pinch hits.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: It's kind of the doubles who get you there and
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: get you to the playoffs. Those guys who are solid
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: major league players that you really like and you really trust,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: even if they're not quite superstars. So something to keep
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: in mind there.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: So, Hope you guys enjoyed that little exercise in roster
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: construction and analysis. Tried to do things a little bit
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: different here on Tiger Territory. So if you like what
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: we had to say or think we're idiots, you guys
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: can tell us. You can follow us on X, formerly
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: known as Twitter, at Cody Stabenhagen. I am at Kieran
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: underscore Steklia. Pod page is at Tiger Territory underscore YouTube, Apple, Spotify.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: You guys know what to do. We appreciate all of
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: you so far. Cody Stabenhagen. I'm Kieran Steckley. Everybody have
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: a great day.