Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Reaction: Tigers sign Justin Verlander, lose Reese Olson for 2026

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Reaction: Tigers sign Justin Verlander, lose Reese Olson for 2026 · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:12
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network. Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Kierri Steckley.
0:15
Speaker 1: With me is always a man who claims that in
0:17
Speaker 1: flight Wi Fi is the greatest invention in the history
0:20
Speaker 1: of mankind. He is Cody Stavenaggan.
0:22
Speaker 2: How you doing, Hey, Well, the in flight Wi Fi
0:25
Speaker 2: was certainly needed today.
0:27
Speaker 3: We're in the emergency pod club. Baby, we are doing this.
0:30
Speaker 2: I've been in this Airbnb in Lakeland, Florida for maybe
0:33
Speaker 2: about twenty minutes. We are finally getting to you guys
0:36
Speaker 2: with the reaction. Obviously, the Tigers signed Justin Verlander today,
0:42
Speaker 2: but as we learned throughout the course of the day,
0:45
Speaker 2: there is a little bit more going on. Resulsen is
0:47
Speaker 2: out for the season. So I think right away I'm
0:50
Speaker 2: kind of posing the question like, well, this is fun, right,
0:52
Speaker 2: this is awesome. I Am not trying to throw cold
0:55
Speaker 2: water on that, but did the Tigers actually get better today?
0:59
Speaker 2: You get forty two going on forty three year old
1:02
Speaker 2: Justin f Erlander, but you lose a really talented young
1:04
Speaker 2: started and Resulson. I think the Tigers got a lot
1:07
Speaker 2: more fun today, but did they get better today?
1:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll answer that no, because like to well, look
1:16
Speaker 1: like this is a weird thing to say, And I'm
1:18
Speaker 1: wearing my old pull out the twenty thirteen postseason T
1:22
Speaker 1: shirt from lower than the drawer here. I'm excited, so
1:25
Speaker 1: I want anything to be counter to that. However, to
1:30
Speaker 1: say that they unequivocally got better today, in my opinion,
1:34
Speaker 1: is a little bit dismissive. I won't say disrespectful, but
1:38
Speaker 1: a little bit dismissive of what Resulson brings to the table.
1:42
Speaker 1: I will remind everybody that Reesulson last year and looking
1:47
Speaker 1: at the numbers, thirteen starts obviously injury shortened.
1:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, a three.
1:51
Speaker 1: Fifteen era, there's a one point seven war pitcher, Like
1:54
Speaker 1: this is a guy that as long as he's healthy,
1:58
Speaker 1: like going into a season, which we thought up until
2:01
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago that was the case. As
2:03
Speaker 1: long as he's healthy going into a season, I'm gonna
2:06
Speaker 1: like pick him to be like a dark horse All Star.
2:10
Speaker 1: Like that's how much I respect the game of rees Oulson.
2:13
Speaker 1: So for him to be out for the year, you
2:15
Speaker 1: just I think he's too talented that you can never
2:18
Speaker 1: almost never at this time get better when he's not
2:23
Speaker 1: gonna be in your rotation. Okay, So so that that
2:27
Speaker 1: would be my opinion on the matter. Now, the thing
2:29
Speaker 1: that you said more fun is definitely more Hollywood.
2:32
Speaker 4: It's definitely. It's definitely something.
2:35
Speaker 1: That that Tigers fans everywhere have been I mean been
2:39
Speaker 1: calling for. I'll say for my speak for myself, I
2:43
Speaker 1: never really thought it would happen. And now we're just
2:46
Speaker 1: in this nostalgic hunky dory time period, which will you know,
2:50
Speaker 1: we can give it twenty four hours before any cold
2:52
Speaker 1: water is poured on their cody. But but it is
2:56
Speaker 1: at least, I will say with the Verlander piece, it's
3:00
Speaker 1: not a retirement tour in and of itself, Like this
3:05
Speaker 1: is somebody that I believe and I do my as
3:09
Speaker 1: myself believe the Tigers think can actually be an impactful
3:13
Speaker 1: player this year. So this wasn't just all right, bring
3:17
Speaker 1: on Verlander and you know we're we all remember the
3:20
Speaker 1: MIGGI tour and it was cool, but like we all
3:23
Speaker 1: kind of understood the bigger picture, there wasn't very exciting.
3:26
Speaker 1: This has the potential, the very rare threading of the
3:29
Speaker 1: needle to have a hometown legend like in terms of
3:33
Speaker 1: his first team, a hometown legend come back and the
3:36
Speaker 1: team is actually competitive and competing for championship championships. You know,
3:43
Speaker 1: with him back in tow and by the way the
3:47
Speaker 1: way he ended the season last year, he would definitely
3:49
Speaker 1: be a contributor. Wouldn't be a charity case.
3:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, to just put the Ulson news outside out of
3:54
Speaker 2: mind for a little bit, like the Verlander The fact
3:57
Speaker 2: Verlander's back is awesome, right, This is what fans have
3:59
Speaker 2: been clamoring for a long time in this offseason.
4:02
Speaker 3: It was actually the first time I was on.
4:04
Speaker 2: Board with it because if the Tigers were going to
4:06
Speaker 2: add another starter, and if they were poking around Chris Bassett,
4:09
Speaker 2: Lucas Giolito, why not just get the guy who's a
4:12
Speaker 2: franchised legend and who happened to have a really good
4:14
Speaker 2: second half last year, a sub three ERA in his
4:18
Speaker 2: final thirteen starts. It seemed like last year when healthy
4:21
Speaker 2: Justin Verlander was really good. I think he still has
4:24
Speaker 2: as much as, if not more upside than those other guys.
4:27
Speaker 2: I say the resultsan thing because like, not out of
4:30
Speaker 2: not to discredit Verlander, but like you, because I think
4:32
Speaker 2: Resultson is very good and also has maybe more upside
4:37
Speaker 2: to be unlocked.
4:39
Speaker 3: But you're going to.
4:40
Speaker 2: Be rounding out your team with a future Hall of Famer.
4:45
Speaker 2: Maybe the Tigers finally listened to me and my pleas
4:47
Speaker 2: to like bring a little edge and a little aura
4:50
Speaker 2: into the clubhouse because they just did it in a
4:52
Speaker 2: big way. That room's going to be different with Justin
4:54
Speaker 2: Erlander in there. But you know, whatever bad might come
4:58
Speaker 2: of it, I think some good is going to come
5:00
Speaker 2: out of it too. The days of the Tigers just
5:02
Speaker 2: being young and you don't want to mess with the chemistry,
5:04
Speaker 2: Like I said, that's over.
5:05
Speaker 3: You're here to win.
5:07
Speaker 2: I think the fact that the Tigers went out and
5:08
Speaker 2: did this signals that they are here and focused in
5:11
Speaker 2: an intent on winning, because they easily just could have
5:14
Speaker 2: rolled out. Kieran, I think you were gonna bring this up.
5:16
Speaker 2: Cater Montero, saw your gibson law Ty Madden. We'll see
5:20
Speaker 2: who emerges in Triple A this year Andrew Sears. Instead
5:23
Speaker 2: of going that route, they said, no, let's go get
5:26
Speaker 2: Justin Verlander. And to announce that on the eve of
5:29
Speaker 2: spring training, right, that's pretty fun. It's pretty poetic.
5:32
Speaker 3: There's going to be a lot of emotion and nostalgia.
5:35
Speaker 2: When Verlander is shown up at camp this week, people
5:38
Speaker 2: are gonna buy jerseys all over again. People are gonna
5:40
Speaker 2: buy tickets to games, and that part of it is
5:43
Speaker 2: truly great.
5:46
Speaker 4: So yeah too.
5:48
Speaker 1: And we'll get to the you know, the other options
5:50
Speaker 1: that were on the table here in a second. But
5:53
Speaker 1: to just kind of tie up some just informational pieces here,
5:57
Speaker 1: so rees Olsen, it's a right shoulder labor and repair,
6:02
Speaker 1: and he had the surgery on February second, all right,
6:06
Speaker 1: and obviously I put him on sixty day IL blah
6:08
Speaker 1: blah blah, all the procedural things. Jackson Job also there
6:11
Speaker 1: on the sixty day IL, which I mean you talk
6:13
Speaker 1: about two guys at this time last year. I mean
6:15
Speaker 1: this is why baseball it can. You know, as as
6:19
Speaker 1: much as you like multi year plans and projecting things out,
6:23
Speaker 1: baseball has other plans for you. Because at this time
6:26
Speaker 1: last year you were looking at Olsen and Job as
6:29
Speaker 1: sort of like young anchors of an up and coming staff.
6:31
Speaker 1: And now we'll see about Joe, but like for the
6:34
Speaker 1: most part this season, you're not going to get anything
6:36
Speaker 1: out of there. And then Verlander, it's a one year deal.
6:40
Speaker 1: I don't remember if we said this one year, dear,
6:42
Speaker 1: thirteen million dollars and eleven of which is the third
6:46
Speaker 1: that and that starts in the year twenty thirty. So
6:49
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about from BER's contract here in a second.
6:52
Speaker 1: But another example of the Tigers kind of going back
6:55
Speaker 1: about things a little bit differently. And look, we had
7:00
Speaker 1: a J. Hinch on our show, Cody Uh. I was
7:04
Speaker 1: gonna say a couple weeks ago. It was just last week.
7:06
Speaker 1: It feels like a couple of weeks ago, actually, but
7:09
Speaker 1: we had.
7:09
Speaker 4: Them on our show.
7:10
Speaker 1: And then since then, the Tigers have just made a
7:13
Speaker 1: series of moves that have been geared to toward winning.
7:16
Speaker 1: Now because I remember that day, there were like stories
7:19
Speaker 1: online it's like, are the Tigers actually trying to win.
7:21
Speaker 4: The Central Well, it's hard to say. They're not.
7:25
Speaker 1: Right now, you could, you could, you could put a
7:27
Speaker 1: pin in in that so the way I would classify
7:31
Speaker 1: it Verlanders the headliner. But I still believe that Reesulson,
7:35
Speaker 1: that piece of it is a quote bigger deal. So
7:38
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about Fromber's contract detail, some interesting stuff
7:43
Speaker 1: in there, but first gotta pay some bills. A word
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8:54
Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, I will say this, you
8:57
Speaker 1: know tie a bone the Verlander thing for second I
9:01
Speaker 1: last episode I mentioned you know text to Cody. Well,
9:05
Speaker 1: I'm gonna add one real quick on this episode, text
9:08
Speaker 1: to Cody will include, so, how is Verlander like the
9:12
Speaker 1: Old Guard and the new you know the the you
9:16
Speaker 1: know the new like Star Schoogle Verlander? How is that dynamic?
9:20
Speaker 1: And how is he fitting in uh with everybody else?
9:22
Speaker 1: And even if you go back to like Casey Myz
9:24
Speaker 1: who at one time, you know, he was obviously drafted
9:26
Speaker 1: to be something like a Justin Verlander for the Tigers
9:29
Speaker 1: number one overall, so we got just how is that
9:32
Speaker 1: all fitting together?
9:33
Speaker 4: The Jake Rogers thing.
9:33
Speaker 1: I'm sure Jake's gonna have funny things to say about
9:36
Speaker 1: that whenever he's available. So, uh, that will also be
9:39
Speaker 1: a text to Cody. A text I don't have to
9:42
Speaker 1: send the Cody is what are the details of the
9:45
Speaker 1: Fromberg contract? Because we were literally just talking about it.
9:48
Speaker 1: It's like, ohay, they said there were deferrals, Like what
9:50
Speaker 1: does that mean? Like, what are the actual numbers? Well,
9:53
Speaker 1: we have it now, So this is coming straight from
9:58
Speaker 1: the Tigers. They have agree to terms on a three
10:01
Speaker 1: year contract one hundred and fifteen million dollars guaranteed. Valdez
10:09
Speaker 1: will earned base salaries of seventeen fifties are trying to
10:11
Speaker 1: read seventeen fifty during the twenty twenty six sees and
10:13
Speaker 1: thirty seven fifty is obviously in the millions during the
10:16
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven season and thirty five million during the
10:20
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight season. He has the right to opt
10:22
Speaker 1: out follow the twenty twenty seven season, and if you
10:25
Speaker 1: guys are.
10:26
Speaker 2: Let me simplify those for you guys. He's going to
10:28
Speaker 2: make one hundred and fifteen million. Twenty million of that
10:32
Speaker 2: is assigning bonus for the first year that has deferred
10:34
Speaker 2: until twenty thirty. Now, obviously you can opt out after
10:38
Speaker 2: the second year, but if he stays for the third year,
10:40
Speaker 2: there's then a mutual option for twenty twenty nine at
10:43
Speaker 2: forty million. There are also a bunch of incentoms throughout
10:46
Speaker 2: the contract, like there are most contracts. He wins the
10:49
Speaker 2: cy youong, He'll get a bonus two million, he wins
10:52
Speaker 2: a World Series MVP two million, fun stuff like that.
10:56
Speaker 2: So those are the details of from Bravaldoz. Twenty million
10:59
Speaker 2: of that hundred and fifteen million contractors deferred.
11:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, how about that? How about that Cody?
11:06
Speaker 1: A couple contract deferrals that the Tigers have opted in.
11:10
Speaker 2: For others have said the Tigers have joined the club
11:12
Speaker 2: of ruining baseball. I'm also going to have to brush
11:17
Speaker 2: up on my labor knowledge and my CBT knowledge. I
11:20
Speaker 2: think the Tigers are just knocking on the door of
11:23
Speaker 2: the collective bargaining the first collective bargaining text threshold. With
11:27
Speaker 2: the Verlanders signing, I think they're going to come in
11:29
Speaker 2: right under. Some of the payroll projections out there are different,
11:32
Speaker 2: so I'm gonna have to do some.
11:33
Speaker 3: Of my own math and see.
11:35
Speaker 2: We know the Tigers have signed a bundle of pitchers
11:37
Speaker 2: on minor league deals and other players on minor league deals.
11:40
Speaker 2: We'll get to that in just a second. With one
11:43
Speaker 2: point five two million plus guaranteed. So it no longer
11:47
Speaker 2: seems unfathomable that the Tigers could exceed the luxury texts threshold.
11:51
Speaker 2: We're not even to the trade deadline. What if they
11:54
Speaker 2: acquire a player there, or could that prohibit.
11:57
Speaker 3: Them from acquiring a player?
11:59
Speaker 2: This is a brave new world, certainly for Scott Harris,
12:02
Speaker 2: but probably even more so for Chris Ilich.
12:05
Speaker 3: The Fromber contract.
12:06
Speaker 2: Look, that's not gonna happen without your owner being willing
12:10
Speaker 2: to put his stamp on it, and then getting Verlander
12:12
Speaker 2: in the door. You know, are those things related? Was
12:15
Speaker 2: that strictly a reaction to losing Reesulson. Maybe we'll get
12:18
Speaker 2: some of the answers to that. Maybe we'll never fully
12:21
Speaker 2: know how all those things went down, but man, things
12:25
Speaker 2: certainly feel a lot different than they did about a
12:28
Speaker 2: week ago when neither from Ervald that was when we're
12:31
Speaker 2: justin Verlander were Detroit Tigers.
12:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is the starting five right now for
12:37
Speaker 1: the Tigers. Harry Skoogle from Bervalde is Jack Flaherty, Casey
12:40
Speaker 1: Maiz justin Verlander, and you know, different is kind of
12:44
Speaker 1: the the the underlining kind of word of the last
12:47
Speaker 1: like week or so for the Tigers. And I did
12:50
Speaker 1: want to come back to this. Scott Harris has made
12:55
Speaker 1: it a point to emphasize development and to not block
13:00
Speaker 1: opportunities for young players. There is a very real world
13:04
Speaker 1: coding and not an unreasonable one. I would say that
13:09
Speaker 1: the Tigers, with the resource and news decided all right,
13:13
Speaker 1: it is Troy Melton time. Uh, you know, we got
13:15
Speaker 1: Drew Anderson that we just you know, brought back into
13:18
Speaker 1: the organization. You know, Cater Martine Montero, Uh, like is
13:24
Speaker 1: obviously somebody that at times had I mean the last
13:26
Speaker 1: time we saw him, he was pitching very well in
13:29
Speaker 1: a pivotal situation. Right, So this is somebody that they
13:32
Speaker 1: obviously believe in and have believed in over the course
13:34
Speaker 1: of several years to be a part of the rotation
13:38
Speaker 1: or at least be on the pitching staff at the
13:40
Speaker 1: major league level. And then Sawyer Gibson Loong another one
13:43
Speaker 1: that I do believe they don't want to give up on. Uh,
13:47
Speaker 1: why not just roll with you know, all right here
13:50
Speaker 1: you go, you know, roll the ball out to the
13:51
Speaker 1: mound and say who wants it? You know, with with
13:54
Speaker 1: this recent news, why not do that because I feel
13:56
Speaker 1: like most of the years they would have done that.
13:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's look for evidence of that. I got the
14:04
Speaker 2: notification that the Tigers had announced this move in the
14:08
Speaker 2: back of Newburgh on the way to the airport on
14:10
Speaker 2: the way to spring training, and I like triple checked it,
14:14
Speaker 2: like hit back hit the tweeted like this is the
14:16
Speaker 2: official Tigers account. Right at that point, I don't think
14:19
Speaker 2: anyone else had reported it. It had not been rumored
14:22
Speaker 2: in any tangible way. It's a reminder that of two things.
14:25
Speaker 2: The Tigers move in silence. They almost never sign the
14:28
Speaker 2: people that sometimes us and a lot more times others
14:32
Speaker 2: say they are quote interested in. And sometimes when they
14:36
Speaker 2: do sign people, no one sees it coming. That mostly
14:38
Speaker 2: happened with from Bervaldez and Justin Ferlander. They also signed
14:41
Speaker 2: people like when I'm traveling, just like clock where Kimny Jansen,
14:45
Speaker 2: I was at an airport at labor.
14:46
Speaker 3: Tour as I was traveling last year.
14:48
Speaker 2: So if I'm at an airport, the odds of the
14:50
Speaker 2: Tigers deals are going up.
14:55
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you the The notion that the Tigers,
15:01
Speaker 1: you know, moving silence is very true and and a
15:05
Speaker 1: little bit not because I feel like this is actually
15:07
Speaker 1: significant enough that we don't want to not to mention it.
15:10
Speaker 1: But Jeff passing through that little last sentence in there
15:14
Speaker 1: in his in his announcement tweet, you know Verlander going
15:18
Speaker 1: back to the team that you know whose cap he
15:21
Speaker 1: will wear in Cooper's town, which is something that Verlanders
15:26
Speaker 1: has kind of, I think correctly from his perspective, like
15:29
Speaker 1: avoided talking about and then something that I was unsure
15:34
Speaker 1: whether that would be the case, but passive.
15:36
Speaker 4: Put it out there. I would assume for a reason.
15:38
Speaker 1: So uh, that kind of get that that it contributed
15:42
Speaker 1: I think to the good feels in tiger Land today, Cody.
15:47
Speaker 2: So many minutes and how much ink will be devoted
15:50
Speaker 2: to what hat will Justin Verlander wear in Cooper's town?
15:55
Speaker 2: It sure seems more likely to be a Tiger's hat
15:57
Speaker 2: now that he's back.
15:58
Speaker 3: We'll see how this goes. And then two point later,
16:00
Speaker 3: like is this a farewell tour?
16:01
Speaker 2: Like I think he said before, he wants to pitch
16:03
Speaker 2: until he's forty five, So maybe it's one more season
16:07
Speaker 2: here and then one more season in Houston, or maybe
16:09
Speaker 2: he you know, I there, there's still plenty to be
16:13
Speaker 2: decided in that front.
16:15
Speaker 1: I think, well, maybe maybe at the end of his
16:18
Speaker 1: career he'll sign like dual one day contracts so he
16:21
Speaker 1: can retire as a as a Houston Tiger or something
16:24
Speaker 1: like that. All Right, anything else on the pitching stuff, Cody,
16:28
Speaker 1: before we move on to the other other moves.
16:31
Speaker 3: There's a lot, right.
16:31
Speaker 2: The one the one criticism I'm gonna have here resols
16:34
Speaker 2: an ad surgery on February second.
16:37
Speaker 3: The Tigers didn't say nothing about that.
16:39
Speaker 2: It's anybody there was kind of that brief inkling out
16:43
Speaker 2: there that he might not be ready for opening Day,
16:45
Speaker 2: and that's about all that anybody knew. And I had
16:47
Speaker 2: talked to people in the Tigers organization over the past
16:50
Speaker 2: week and they.
16:51
Speaker 3: Conveniently did not mention any word of any of that.
16:55
Speaker 2: So like, look, if you're running the team, right, there's
16:59
Speaker 2: a lot to navigate. Eight their MB rules, there's hippa,
17:02
Speaker 2: there's stuff like that.
17:03
Speaker 3: But my one.
17:04
Speaker 2: Criticism, like, was it a little disingenuous that people just
17:07
Speaker 2: got to get excited and riled up and buy tickets
17:10
Speaker 2: and then we're gonna save Oh yeah, by the way,
17:12
Speaker 2: resouls and had surgery eight days ago and isn't gonna
17:15
Speaker 2: pitch until the end.
17:17
Speaker 3: Like maybe that's just how it has to go.
17:19
Speaker 2: Down when you're dealing with the league office and hippa
17:21
Speaker 2: and stuff. But as a journalist, I don't I don't
17:25
Speaker 2: like how that unfold is.
17:28
Speaker 1: Well, again, chronologically, it was very fascinating Verlander announced it,
17:32
Speaker 1: and then the deal with the Fromber and then the
17:34
Speaker 1: Resouls the news. Because we've been able to do a
17:37
Speaker 1: podcast immediately after the Verlander news, it had been outdated
17:40
Speaker 1: three hours later. So sometimes sometimes there's.
17:44
Speaker 2: Use phone calls the ticket office, you know, they Oh man,
17:51
Speaker 2: I will say though when one my first thought when
17:54
Speaker 2: the Verlander thing came up was like, oh, that's probably
17:57
Speaker 2: not good for results, and like, given the thing that
18:00
Speaker 2: was out there, is like, okay, this probably answers that question.
18:03
Speaker 2: We don't know for sure, but that immediately jumped in
18:06
Speaker 2: my mind.
18:07
Speaker 1: And again I think I say this out of respect
18:11
Speaker 1: for what Reese can do, like this is part of this,
18:15
Speaker 1: This is part of the story of the day. The
18:17
Speaker 1: Verlander things awesome for all the right reasons. This sucks
18:21
Speaker 1: for all the you know, all the same reasons, you know,
18:24
Speaker 1: just on the other side. So hopefully Reese has a
18:27
Speaker 1: good rehabit he can come back in twenty twenty seven
18:29
Speaker 1: and be the picture that you and I believe him
18:31
Speaker 1: to be. But for now, it's uh, it's the Verlander
18:34
Speaker 1: show at the end of that rotation.
18:36
Speaker 3: More intimidating justin Erland or Resolson.
18:41
Speaker 1: Well, they got they got quite different auras. That's what
18:45
Speaker 1: the kids say, right, they got they got quite different auras.
18:48
Speaker 1: So I'll have to well we'll have to monitor that
18:51
Speaker 1: throughout the year. All right, let's uh, let's go to
18:56
Speaker 1: another move that look it's not sexy compared to these
18:59
Speaker 1: other things that we talked about. That, but the Tigers
19:01
Speaker 1: did make an addition to their organization in the form
19:05
Speaker 1: of one Austin Slater. It's a minor league deal, but
19:09
Speaker 1: if he gets to the majors, there's you know, there's
19:11
Speaker 1: some there's some financial incentives. The financial capital, I should say,
19:15
Speaker 1: involved two million dollars. If he's a major league player
19:19
Speaker 1: and he's a right handed hitter, he's a you know,
19:21
Speaker 1: right handed outfielder. There's metrics there that I feel like
19:26
Speaker 1: the Tigers.
19:27
Speaker 4: Are gonna like.
19:29
Speaker 1: And I would say, if there's a level between expected
19:35
Speaker 1: solid contributor and insurance, I think I would put him
19:40
Speaker 1: in between that. I don't know what that term is,
19:42
Speaker 1: but that's kind of I think he's just his skill
19:45
Speaker 1: sets are just enough there that maybe a couple of
19:48
Speaker 1: people might have a like, oh, Slater's behind me there,
19:52
Speaker 1: I probably should get my end gear so that that's.
19:56
Speaker 2: My I don't know if he's going to be like
19:58
Speaker 2: pushing for a job if everyone's healthy, but he's certainly
20:01
Speaker 2: depth and pretty quality depth.
20:03
Speaker 3: Right.
20:03
Speaker 2: Austin Slater not a great player. Actually, when this news broke,
20:07
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, Wow, is this going to be
20:09
Speaker 2: a major league deal? I quickly found out it was
20:11
Speaker 2: going to be a minor league deal and then looked
20:12
Speaker 2: and was like, oh, he's not as good as I
20:14
Speaker 2: thought he was. I think he'd been negative war maybe
20:17
Speaker 2: each of the past two years. But he does feel
20:21
Speaker 2: like a Tiger in a lot of ways. I think
20:23
Speaker 2: two years ago, actually, I pegged him as someone who
20:26
Speaker 2: might make sense for the Tigers. Versatile outfielder like moves
20:30
Speaker 2: well and happens to hit lefties. So again, I think
20:35
Speaker 2: there are a lot of candidates if they're injuries in
20:37
Speaker 2: the outfield or if Jami Jones can't replicate what he
20:39
Speaker 2: did a year ago. We never got around to talking about.
20:41
Speaker 2: Corey Jolks also signed on a minor league deal. Very
20:45
Speaker 2: similar player, right, very good against left handed pitching, some
20:48
Speaker 2: similarities to Jami Jones. So yeah, these are guys right
20:53
Speaker 2: now that don't feel flashy, that aren't getting people to
20:57
Speaker 2: call the season ticket office. But I wouldn't be shocked
20:59
Speaker 2: if we see at least one of those dudes at
21:01
Speaker 2: some point throughout the season. Just look at what happened
21:04
Speaker 2: last year. You signed Manuel Margo and Ryan Kreidler. What's
21:07
Speaker 2: your opening day centerfielder, because injury hit you.
21:09
Speaker 3: So hard, so you never know.
21:11
Speaker 2: You're getting some guys who can hit lefties and have
21:13
Speaker 2: some memob experience, they're they're worse things than that.
21:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you say hit lefties, what we mean is
21:20
Speaker 1: in his career two sixty seven batting average with a
21:23
Speaker 1: seven eighty seven OPS against left l.
21:26
Speaker 3: That'll play it. Just don't have a lot else and
21:28
Speaker 3: that can play.
21:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, And look, I'm not going to pretend to have
21:32
Speaker 1: like a huge scouting report on him, but he does
21:34
Speaker 1: profile as somebody who would be more trusted in the
21:37
Speaker 1: field than one Jami Jones, Right, So that's that's something
21:41
Speaker 1: that is I would say a factor. And then again,
21:45
Speaker 1: if you look at the construction of the Tigers outfield
21:48
Speaker 1: as much as we say, like you know Parker the
21:52
Speaker 1: potential what he can do, carry Carpenter with the bat, right, Like,
21:58
Speaker 1: each one has their own kind of level of concern.
22:01
Speaker 4: That something things could change pretty quickly out there.
22:05
Speaker 1: Again, Green injury, Carpenter, injury, meadows like can you.
22:09
Speaker 4: Figure it out barely?
22:10
Speaker 1: And we don't know, Like there's a lot of stuff
22:12
Speaker 1: that like could be good to be uneasy. So these
22:15
Speaker 1: kind of signings are could prove very important.
22:17
Speaker 4: That's all I'm saying.
22:19
Speaker 2: Maybe something we should actually be talking a little more about,
22:21
Speaker 2: what does the outfield actually look like?
22:23
Speaker 3: What happens if.
22:24
Speaker 2: One of those scenarios you've just laid out comes to fruition,
22:27
Speaker 2: the kind of the makeup construct, Like, there could just
22:29
Speaker 2: be a lot of dominoes that fall if there's one
22:32
Speaker 2: injury or if Parker Meadow's struggles. Yeah, I think that's
22:37
Speaker 2: something that the guys upstairs and aj Hinch are thinking about,
22:40
Speaker 2: probably more than has been discussed amongst us or amongst
22:43
Speaker 2: really anyone in kind of the Tigers universe.
22:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great video game outfield, but humans aren't
22:52
Speaker 1: video game players, man, Like, There's some stuff that could happen,
22:55
Speaker 1: you know, that negatively affect your season and potentially tank
22:59
Speaker 1: if if it's the wrong thing.
23:00
Speaker 4: So, all right, Cody, anything else before we jet out
23:04
Speaker 4: of here on this Tuesday night.
23:07
Speaker 2: I'm tired of breaking news for the day, and we
23:10
Speaker 2: got a couple busy couple days ahead in Lakeland. Spring
23:12
Speaker 2: training is here. We made it to the finish line.
23:15
Speaker 2: We even got some fun stuff to talk about. Right
23:17
Speaker 2: as we neared the finish line, So happy baseball seasons.
23:21
Speaker 2: Everybody thinks for those who followed along all winter, and
23:23
Speaker 2: thanks for those who maybe just now had their interest
23:27
Speaker 2: piqued in coming aboard. We will be with you guys
23:29
Speaker 2: all year long, so thanks again for listening.
23:34
Speaker 4: Quite literally, we are just getting started.
23:36
Speaker 1: So you can go to Tiger Territory shop dot com,
23:39
Speaker 1: get your merch, YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify. You can find
23:43
Speaker 1: us there. Please like subscribe to our content. It helps
23:46
Speaker 1: us grow the show. We appreciate everybody at Cody Savenhagen,
23:48
Speaker 1: IM at Quen Underscore, s Dectlee pod page at Tiger
23:51
Speaker 1: Territory Underscore. So for a very very very tired but
23:55
Speaker 1: still gearing up Cody Sapanhagen, I am Kieran Steckley.
23:58
Speaker 4: Everybody have yep