Tigers GM: 'We're going to prioritize pitching'

The Detroit Tigers have reached the postseason in consecutive seasons but still have plenty of work to do this offseason, with several key free agents reaching the open market. General manager Jeff Greenberg said at this week’s GM Meetings that the Tigers “are going to prioritize pitching” in the months ahead, even after Jack Flaherty’s decision to exercise his $20M player option filled one rotation spot next season (link via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). Greenberg added that the Tigers are open to further rotation additions and “certainly” need to address their bullpen.

As things stand, Detroit’s rotation lines up with Flaherty joining two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and righties Casey Mize and Reese Olson. Options for the fifth spot that are already on the 40-man roster include Troy Melton, Keider Montero, Sawyer Gipson-Long and Ty Madden. Righty Jaden Hamm, one of the organization’s top prospects, started 20 games in Double-A last year during his age-22 season and could push his way into the big league mix with a strong 2026 showing. Ballyhooed young righty Jackson Jobe could factor into the mix late in the season, but he underwent Tommy John surgery in mid-June and thus can’t be counted upon for any meaningful innings next year.

It’s a talented group overall, but there are question marks throughout. Mize and Flaherty both struggled down the stretch in 2025. Olson’s season ended in late July after just 13 (excellent) starts, as a shoulder strain sent him to the shelf for the remainder of the season. If each of Skubal, Flaherty, Olson and Mize is healthy and in peak form, the Detroit rotation would be among the best in the sport, but a World Series hopeful can’t necessarily afford to bank on that — particularly not as Skubal enters his final season of club control.

In the bullpen, Detroit’s need is more acute. Deadline pickup Kyle Finnegan was brilliant during his two-plus months as a Tiger but is now a free agent. Relievers Tommy Kahnle, Rafael Montero and Paul Sewald are free agents as well. Meanwhile, 2024 bullpen standouts like Beau Brieske and Jason Foley dealt with significant injuries. Brieske’s ERA nearly doubled, from 3.59 in 2024 to 6.55 in 2025. He was limited to 22 MLB frames and another 10 in the minors, and he ended the season on the 60-day IL owing to a forearm strain. Foley didn’t pitch at all in the majors and only logged 6 2/3 (scoreless) innings in Triple-A before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in May.

Detroit still has some quality arms in the relief corps. Will Vest posted a third consecutive strong season. Brennan Hanifee doesn’t miss many bats but is a hard-throwing grounder specialist with plus command. Southpaw Tyler Holton was effective again, albeit not to the same extent as in 2024. Fellow lefty Brant Hurter excelled in a multi-inning role. They’ll all be back, as will Foley and Brieske, and all six of those arms have minor league options remaining, too.

As with the rotation, it’s not necessarily that the Tigers are lacking in raw talent — just that the incumbent names have question marks stemming from a combination of health issues and lesser results in 2025 (relative to their strong 2024 showings, anyhow). Given that Detroit liked Finnegan enough to acquire him at the deadline and then saw him exceed even the most optimistic expectations following his change of scenery (1.50 ERA, 34.8 K%, 6.1 BB%), it stands to reason that they’ll have interest in retaining him at the very least. Other prominent names on the relief market include Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams, Robert Suarez, Brad Keller, Raisel Iglesias and Ryan Helsley.

Detroit clearly has other needs, though one such need would be answered if Gleyber Torres accepts their $22.025M qualifying offer. That’d lock a quality option in at second base. Shortstop, third base and at least one outfield spot still stand as fair questions even in that scenario, however, and president of baseball operations Scott Harris spoke openly at his end-of-season press conference about wanting to cut down on his team’s swing-and-miss and improve the team’s contact. That has and will continue to fuel speculation about the Tigers revisiting last offseason’s pursuit of Alex Bregman, though there are myriad ways to achieve that goal if the team prefers to dedicate more resources to the pitching staff.

Currently, RosterResource projects the Tigers' payroll at just under $125M. That’d jump to $147M if Torres accepts his qualifying offer. That’s already higher than last year’s Opening Day mark, although by season’s end, after including deadline pickups, the Tigers had invested $155-160M in the roster. They’ve also run payroll up to the $200M range in the past, though that was back in 2016-17 under late owner Mike Ilitch. The Tigers haven’t returned to that level of spending under new owner Chris Ilitch (Mike’s son), though that’s at least partially due to the fact that much of his tenure as the team’s chairman has come during a rebuild. This offseason will serve as a good litmus test as to whether Chris Ilitch is comfortable investing as much into the team as his father was.

Of course, the source of intrigue surrounding Detroit’s pitching staff is Skubal’s future. It still seems overwhelmingly unlikely that he’ll be traded this offseason. Greenberg, as Harris has done previously, declined to speak about the possibility of a Skubal trade or extension when asked at this week’s meetings (link via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press). Skubal, Petzold writes, acknowledged that he “loves the city of Detroit” and “wants to be a Tiger for a long time,” while in the same breath noting that any trade possibility is out of his control.

Meanwhile, agent Scott Boras held court with reporters yesterday for his annual GM Meetings media scrum. Asked about Skubal’s contract status, Boras merely stated: “Our point of view is we always listen. We’re prepared to listen to about anything that Chris or really Scott has to say. We’ll just see how it goes.”