Key takeaways from from the Tigers season ending press conference

Scott Harris and A.J. Hinch’s press conference offered few surprises and muted expectations.

Detroit Tigers’ President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris, and manager A.J. Hinch held their end of the season press conference on Monday. As you’d expect, there was a lot of talk about the Tigers thrilling run to the ALDS as confirmation of the organization’s work to develop their homegrown talent over the past two years. The self congratulations didn’t come with any bold promises for the offseason, however. The overall impression was that they’ll add pitching and see if anyone if available who can both help them on the field and fit into a clubhouse that really gelled this season. In other words, they kept expectations low overall.

That’s not particularly surprising. Whatever they decide to do this offseason, and Harris didn’t rule out signing free agents or making trades to upgrade the roster, he isn’t Lions GM Brad Holmes. This isn’t the Mike Ilitch-Dave Dombrowski era either, with the World Series as the only goal that matters. There wasn’t a ton of obvious, table pounding passion to win a title on display. Instead it was very much a “stay the course” sort of vibe.

That’s just Scott Harris’ style and bold statements and big promises would probably just feel forced coming from him.

This isn’t exactly stirring stuff for the fanbase, but Harris did respond with a flat “Yes,” when asked if he’d have the funds to go get whoever he wants. He also mentioned that he would pursue any player that he feels fits the Tigers, whether the cost is monetary or in prospects. Both Harris and Hinch mentioned the Tigers success in helping to sell free agents on coming to Detroit as well.

The few specifics that came out were pretty obvious. A.J. Hinch expects his entire coaching staff will return and hopes big market teams don’t poach them. That’s good news for those worried about head pitching coach Chris Fetter being the target of big money teams. Still, there has to be serious interest in both Fetter and more likely, in bench coach George Lombard as a managerial candidate, so we’ll have to see how that plays out to be sure.

Harris did mention needing a right-handed bat to balance out the infield. That’s also a pretty obvious one that we’ve been harping on for months as the number one goal this offseason. The Tigers had one of the lowest payrolls in the league in 2024. They’re projected to be among the lowest again next season. Add a really good right-handed hitter to the infield and the offense would be significantly improved in 2025.

On the other hand, Harris later tied that need to the return of Javier Báez. Now, at this point, with the season just ended, there’s no way they’d be talking about cutting Báez anyway. Even if they had already decided to move on, that kind of thing wouldn’t be discussed until they signed a replacement. To his credit, Harris keeps those cards close to his vest. Even so, it’s easy to feel like they will probably never sign another big free agent contract ever again under Ilitch family ownership. We’ll just have to see if the right player is available and how hard they pursue such a player.

Harris does seem convinced that Báez’s issues are largely physical and that he still has a role on the team if he can get healthy. That seems a bit naive to me. After three seasons of ongoing back trouble culminating in surgery to the labrum in his right hip in August of this year, the notion that he’s ever going to get back to being “healthy” as he was at age 29, when they signed him, is a bit much.

“There’s no reason to suggest that (Báez) won’t have a role on this team if he comes out of this surgery feeling like he can rotate it the way he used to, when he was performing among the best players in the game. And he certainly fits the framework of our infield right now.”

For the shortstop’s long-term quality of life, we certainly hope the surgery is a success and puts these systemic physical issues behind him. But even a healthy Báez in his age 32 season is still a player who relies heavily on hand-eye coordination, batspeed, and overall athleticism to a degree that never holds up well into a players’ 30’s.

Hopefully he gets healthy from a physical standpoint, but those skills do not keep well. Without plate discipline and pitch recognition, two skills that Báez has never had much of to begin with, the notion that just getting his back and hips healthy is going to turn the clock back a few years is pretty hard to believe.

Get a good bat at third or first base, and a Trey Sweeney/Báez platoon might be okay if the latter is healthy and still has the hand-eye coordination he had three years ago when they signed him. The weak side of that platoon may only get 150 PA on the year. But that’s an enormous amount of “ifs” and expecting that without a solid contingency plan for the likelihood that this isn’t going to work would be real malpractice on Harris’ part. Sticking with Báez also ties up a roster spot that a team that shows no sign of going after a major upgrade, and has some serious 40-man roster decisions to make this offseason, can ill afford to waste.

The Tigers do not have a right-handed hitting shortstop option anywhere in their system. Ryan Kreidler has done nothing to establish himself as even a remote possibility. If they think Andrew Navigato can do the job you have to ask what the heck they were thinking this season in leaving him in Toledo all year. So, we’ll be watching to see if they add a player with that in mind.

Kenta Maeda will also be in camp next spring. The right-hander is still owed $12 million in 2025. The Tigers did cut bait and buy out Shelby Miller in favor of promoting Jackson Jobe in late September, but Maeda’s contact for 2025 is three times Miller’s $4 million owed. That’s all guaranteed money already spent, but the veteran right-hander did post a 3.86 ERA/3.79 FIP in a relief role. Bringing him to camp to see if they can get him sorted out is no surprise.

Per Harris , the Tigers have some changes in mind for Maeda’s offseason program that they think will help him come to camp ready to go. Harris admitted he believes they failed Maeda to a degree last offseason in terms of preparing him for the season. He’ll turn 37 next April, and seemed behind the curve from the start in spring camp this season.

With relationships now developed between Maeda and the Tigers coaching staff, it’s possible that works out and better offseason plans and improved communication can help him hold his peak fastball velocity more in that 93-94 mph range and come to came more prepared to gel with the Tigers coaching style. If so, the splitter and slider will play better. If not, his money owed is an easier pill to swallow.

Still, keeping Maeda means another roster spot locked up, and we’ll have a piece shortly on some of the difficult decisions facing the Tigers regarding their 40-man roster this offseason. Rogelio Castillo of Tigers Minor League Report did ask about the 40-man roster decisions coming up, but Harris would only say that he hopes those decisions continue to be difficult ones, for obvious reasons.

Finally, in regard to payroll, Harris said that Chris Ilitch had invested tens of millions of dollars in non-payroll areas. That includes the facilities and technology, and as Harris joked, “a very expensive manager.”

It is well worth remembering that expenses to run a good, modern MLB operation are different than they were 10 years ago. The front office, the scouting, coaching, and medical departments are all vastly more expensive than they used to be. There is plenty of spending now that doesn’t show up on the team payroll. Keeping Hinch, Fetter, and other key personnel in place is a different proposition than for the 2011-2014 Tigers, where just about all the money was on the field, and the minor league system was stripped to the bones.

That’s all a fair point that we’ve made as well, but they quite obviously have a ton of payroll room too. They’re hardly alone in expanding investments in those non-payroll areas.

The one area where it’s easier to see them spending on players is in terms of extensions to players like Tarik Skubal and Riley Greene. The Tigers payroll is really low, and most of their key players aren’t going to be arbitration eligible for a while, so it’s not as though internal costs of keeping the band together are going to rapidly go through the roof. Still, exploring extensions for Skubal, who has two years left until free agency, or Greene, who won’t reach arbitration for another year and isn’t a free agent until 2029, will presumably be on Harris’ mind this offseason.

He wouldn’t comment on extension possibilities, which is perfectly sensible, but they didn’t comment on an extended contract of second baseman Colt Keith until that was a done deal. So we’ll just have to see if they can come to a reasonable agreement with either player this offseason. One would expect them to explore the possibility at very least.

Other notes from the presser emphasized that the Tigers would be looking to build a five-man rotation again this offseason, and would be adding pitching. The “bulk innings” plan is a nice contingency to know that they can make work, but they still intend to start 2025 with a standard five-man rotation.

There were some light-hearted moments along the way as well. Asked about Parker Meadows, Harris said, “I don’t know how he can get better, I guess get better against lefties, but he needs more plate appearances.”

Hinch replied that “He can get better by properly calling off Wenceel Pérez in right center field,” which drew some chuckles.

Hinch and Harris both thanked the fanbase repeatedly for supporting the team when they were struggling, and for packing the park with enthusiasm down the stretch and into the postseason.

All in all, it’s pretty easy to feel like the Tigers are in capable hands. I feel like Scott Harris is likely to avoid the big mistakes that can short circuit a team reaching a period of contention. The old days of free agents and a brash owner explicitly pursuing a World Series title at nearly all costs are gone. That strategy should’ve worked out, but it didn’t, and it left the organization in a very bad place starting in 2015.

However, one big mistake they still have to avoid on the other side of things is squandering a year in which they should be capable of making a deeper push toward a title. They have plenty of young talented players who learned a lot this season and can get significantly better. Internal development is good, but they still need to add some serious help too. Reconciling that with their general posture toward spending is going to be difficult. Hopefully they can find that middle ground.

Here’s the full press conference.