The GM Meetings got underway on Monday in Las Vegas. While not typically a source of major news like signings and trades, the looming CBA negotiations and lockout set to begin on December 1 are putting a little different spin on the annual meet-and-greet as teams look to position themselves for the uncertainty to come. For the most part though, this is still an event that produces quotes more than action. Tigers’ president of baseball operations Scott Harris was asked about the club’s offseason focus and said that they’re prioritizing high leverage relief help that adds swing and miss to the bullpen.
The Tigers really have two possible paths to improving a bullpen that was a disaster in high leverage situations in 2026, despite pretty solid numbers overall. Harris talked a lot in his end of the season press conference about building up a big enough surplus in starting pitching that they’ll have good arms spilling over into relief work. As a result of those quotes, we’ve kept in mind that part of the solution for the Tigers might be to go after starting pitching to allow them to use some of their current starters who aren’t really built up to a major league workload to flex into the bullpen instead.
Of course, Harris was very vague about the timetable for such a surplus emerging, and that’s more of a long term perspective. The Tigers have a good crop of young pitchers brewing in the A-ball levels, but few if any of them are at a point where they could be converted and promoted the major leagues next season.
The other path is obviously to target free agent relievers or to try and trade for them. We’re keeping an open mind, as perhaps the final answer will be help from both pathways.
The quote from Harris comes courtesy of Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic.
“Pitching is going to be the focus for us this winter….We want to add more swing and miss to the back end of our pen. We want to add a stable veteran presence who can get righties out and lefties out and add a little bit more leadership to our clubhouse.“
While Tigers fans can rip him for being a step behind, Harris did try to add more swing and miss last year by bringing in Kenley Jansen and signing Drew Anderson. The duo did strike out a solid amount of hitters, but they failed in the big moments and Anderson seemed much more steady as a starter. Kyle Finnegan was someone they hoped would be a big factor in this regard, but his first year on a two-year guaranteed deal was even worse than Jansen and Anderson’s work. It’s pretty simple to see what the Tigers need. The problem with Harris, now through four seasons running the Tigers, continues to be execution in developing and ungrading the major league roster.
There’s really nothing to do but take him at his word and think about the criteria he lists. He wants right-handed high leverage help, but it’s important to add relievers who can get out lefties and righties both. He wants swing and miss. And he wants a veteran with some leadership qualities. Few of these qualities are present in RHP Jacob Waguespack, the Tigers lone free agent signing for 2027 so far, and that remains an odd decision that crowds the field of right-handed relievers with more mediocrity, but that deal was at least cheap enough to be jettisoned along the way should the Tigers make an upgrade.
Even so, the Tigers have five spots available for right-handed relievers, assuming Drew Sommers, Brant Hurter, and Tyler Holton are all in the pen. Will Vest, Kyle Finnegan, Drew Anderson, Beau Brieske, and Waguespack are already in house, and none of those players have options. We’re not looking too good here in terms of skills, nor in terms of flexibility, folks. Obviously the last two are easily cut, but having zero right-handed relief help with options is a tough starting point.
Based on Harris’ stated desires, we might look to Yankees’ closer David Bednar, who has been a consistent force over the last five years, with only an ugly 2024 campaign for the Pirates marring what has otherwise been an outstanding run for the 32-year-old right-hander. The problem here is that Harris really hates paying top dollar in free agency and that just isn’t compatible with landing good relievers with high strikeout rates. Something is going to have to give, or it will be the Tigers bullpen giving again in 2027.
Bednar is really good, but he’s not Mason Milller or Adrian Morejon either. Even so, Bednar is expected to receive a three-year deal worth around $45M. He also received a qualifying offer from the Yankees, meaning the Tigers would have to surrender their third most valuable draft pick if they signed him. Next year, that pick will be the Competitive Balance Round A selection, expected to be the 43rd overall pick. That’s a pretty valuable pick.
Even when we consider that free agency might look different after the CBA is agreed, giving up that pick while also handing out a fairly pricey contract to a reliever entering his mid-30’s doesn’t feel like a Scott Harris thing to do. Almost certainly, their long term plans center around crushing a draft where they’ll have at worst a top 11 pick in the first round, and possibly as high as the first overall pick if they get extremely lucky in the draft lottery, plus two more picks before the second round and a huge bonus pool.
Harris surprised us with the late signing of Framber Valdez last offseason, by a huge margin the largest free agent deal he’s signed a player to, but that was in response to losing Reese Olson for the season. The need for a killer reliever is great, and I expect Harris to be a little more aggressive in pursuing relief help than usual, but I highly doubt giving up a draft pick is in the plans.
So, that leaves us looking at options like RHP Bryan Abreu and RHP Evan Phillips—I’m pretty intrigued with Phillips in particular—with perhaps someone like 37-year-old RHP Raisel Iglesias as another option. Iglesias doesn’t get quite the strikeout rates as the other two, but his changeup allows him to handle both-handed hitters pretty consistently and he has tons of closing experience. The fear here would be Harris going bargain bin and landing on RHP Emilio Pagan instead. Pagan doesn’t really provide the level of swing and miss that Bednar, Abreu, and Phillips do, but would perhaps thrive in a more neutral ballpark as home runs have been his biggest issue in recent years. If they’re not actually so caught up in swing and miss, a big-time strike thrower and ground ball getter like RHP Jonathan Loásiga would be the better option in my opinion over Pagan.
Of course, there’s also the trade market, but as Harris has rarely made a notable trade that didn’t involve the Tigers selling off assets whose team control was coming to an end, it’s pretty hard to see a big trade for a reliever happening. Mason Miller might be on the block for offers, but would probably cost Max Clark and a quality pitching prospect or something like Bryce Rainer and Cameron Flukey. That’s not Harris-ball.
Looking to top relievers who reach free agency in 2028, whose teams might decide to cash them in before the lockout, the top possibilities would be the Brewers closer, Trevor Megill, or Phillies closer Jhoan Duran. Both would cost a lot, and there’s nothing to suggest either team is interested in trading their ace relievers just yet. Seranthony Dominguez might be obtainable from the Mariners, and he continues to post good strikeout rates, but he’s also coming off a pretty bad year. Still, that does feel like a Harris move, hoping to land the veteran reliever cheap and get more out of him than the Mariners did this year.
Harris noted on Tuesday that Tigers’ closer Will Vest is doing very well in recovering from elbow and hip surgeries, and that they expect him to be ready to go next year. That would certainly help the cause if Vest can get back to his 2024-2025 prime form, but no one wants to depend on that either. Even so, with Drew Sommers emerging as one of the nastier southpaw relievers in the game, the Tigers aren’t really so far from putting together a much better bullpen. Getting one good caliber right-handed reliever and adding some starting depth to allow them to use River Ryan, Keider Montero, or potentially Reese Olson in the pen as well, would put them in much better position to contend in 2027.
