Tigers DFA Akil Baddoo and other news from the Winter Meetings

Alex Cobb’s signing pushed the 26-year-old outfielder off the roster.

While there wasn’t any major news out from the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday at the Winter Meetings, there were plenty of small items to report as Scott Harris, GM Jeff Greenberg, and manager A.J. Hinch all made the rounds with the baseball media assembled in Dallas.

The only move that actually affects the roster was the official signing of right-handed starting pitcher Alex Cobb. The 37-year-old veteran of the Rays, Orioles, and Giants will earn $15 million with an additional million in incentives if he reaches 140 and 150 innings thrown in 2025. You’ll note that he was paid the same as Jack Flaherty was in 2024, despite the fact that Cobb was unable to return from his 2023 hip surgery due to shoulder inflammation, and barely threw at all for the Guardians after getting flipped there at the deadline.

Clearly the cost of starting pitching is up. I don’t think anyone in the game thinks Cobb has a chance of being as good as Flaherty was last year. Greenberg made it sound as though they’re done looking for pitching, so perhaps this is it, but the Tigers may also wait out the market this year and grab another arm for depth late in the offseason. It certainly doesn’t sound like they’re pursuing Walker Buehler, talking with Justin Verlander, and currently pursuing any of the other pitchers still available in free agency. It’s a long way to Opening Day, however.

Akil Baddoo

The casualty of the Cobb signing is veteran outfielder Akil Baddoo. His rookie campaign in 2021 was a lot of fun, but Baddoo has never been able to take a step forward with his hitting in the years since. He hasn’t done much to improve his swing and his batspeed to the point where he can handle major league fastballs, and so that tantalizing speed and power combo rarely is in evidence, even at the Triple-A level.

We wish him well, and maybe this will spark him to make some changes with another club. Maybe the Tigers get him back on a minor league deal, but it really feels like it’s time for a change of scenery and presumably a few clubs will have interest.

Colt Keith and Justyn-Henry Malloy to work at first base

Scott Harris has made it pretty clear this week that the Tigers are sticking with first baseman Spencer Torkelson, while continuing to insist that Torkelson has to improve and earn his spot on the Opening Day roster. That doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to be the starting first baseman, but it sure doesn’t sound like the Tigers are planning on going after another first baseman this offseason and moving on either.

Harris did say that the “performance has to get better. And it’s not just offensive performance. It’s defensive performance too.”

However, Harris also told MLB Network on Monday that, “Torkelson was the No. 1 overall pick. He’s immensely talented. Just like these young guys, we have to stick with him.”

While they’re walking a tightrope here and clearly know it, there’s nothing to suggest they’re willing to do anything about it either.

Just as telling is the fact that the Tigers will have Colt Keith and Justyn-Henry Malloy taking some ground balls at first this offseason and in the spring. They know they need a backup plan, like Mark Canha was last year, but they’re really only going to look internally for solutions if Torkelson stumbles yet again. Malloy lacks a defensive home and hit pretty well for the Tigers down the stretch and in the postseason, so we’re pleased to see that news. Jung getting reps at first base would make a lot of sense too.

“We are not giving up on corner outfield and second base, respectively, for those two players,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said of Malloy and Keith on Monday at the Winter Meetings, located at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, “and we’re also not giving up on Spencer Torkelson.”

The first baseman was barely above replacement level yet again in 2024, and while his defense looked somewhat improved after a long stint at Triple-A in June and July, his hot couple of weeks at the plate in August quickly saw him fade right back to mediocre production for a first baseman and he was a non-factor in the postseason.

There probably isn’t enough trade interest to bother trying to flip Torkelson at this point. He does have an option remaining along with four more years of team control. It’s just been a while since there appeared to be upside beyond an average first baseman here, and it’s hard for a young team with few big hitters to squander the first base position on someone who doesn’t at least produce at the plate. He is only 25 years old, so we’re left to hope that he’s a late bloomer.

Jace Jung is recovering from wrist surgery

One bit of new news that emerged from the Winter Meetings is that infielder Jace Jung underwent surgery on his right wrist after the season ended. Described as “minimally invasive surgery” by Evan Petzold of the Free Press, it was to resolve inflammation issues that bothered Jung late in the season.

Jung did post a 102 wRC+ in 94 plate appearances in his debut. Almost all of that production came from his extremely high 16 percent walk rate, but that’s not a bad foundation considering that Jung hit 14 homers in 91 Triple-A games this season. He’s always had extremely good marks for plate discipline, though his batspeed and contact ability aren’t particularly impressive. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he could sustain average production for a full season in 2025 and if he can settle in and handle the consistent velo better the Tigers could have a low average, high OBP hitter who lifts 20-25 homers out to right field each year. The question is where to play him.

Jung looked pretty overmatched at third base, particularly in terms of throwing those distances while on the move. It’s hard to imagine that changing much, but getting more comfortable with his footwork could improve matters somewhat. Harris did mention that Jung would probably be asked to work all around the infield at first and at second base, to help him find playing time to crack the major league roster.

While he’s a popular guy to trade because he’s a bit redundant on the current roster, he might be worth holding onto just to see if he can take a step up at the big league level. If he can establish himself at the plate more effectively next season, his value will certainly improve and maybe he finds a path to more playing time either with the Tigers or elsewhere in a trade.

AJ Hinch provides a Javy Báez update

Manager A.J. Hinch spoke about his shortstop’s future at the Winter Meetings as well. The Tigers have not even considered cutting bait and just paying off the contract, per a Harris interview with 97.1 The Ticket back in August, and it sounds as though nothing has changed. Hinch and Harris both spoke about Báez’s ongoing back issues over the past two years, and the hope that his hip labrum surgery will help get him back to full health.

Hinch then provided this update .

“Javy is doing well. He’s in between Puerto Rico and Tampa with his rehab. We go back and forth. Our people have been down to Puerto Rico and seen him. He’s going step by step. It’s a long rehab process, and that’s why we’re all anxious to see how he comes out of it physically with the hip and hopefully alleviates the back issues that he’s talked a lot about.”

Scott Harris says the Tigers are interested in Roki Sasaki

Obviously. The way Harris spoke about going after Sasaki made it sound as though the Tigers were actually in pursuit of a free agent or a trade, which annoyed me a bit on Tuesday. Still, with minimal action from the Tigers going on, any mention of Sasaki understandably sounded like news. Sasaki is only going to cost international bonus pool money and he’s likely to be a top ten pitcher in the league from the jump. Being interested in him and making your best pitch is mandatory. Success is highly unlikely for the Tigers, but we can dream.

The Tigers will to make their pitch to the 23-year-old NPB ace, and have one of the top tier IFA bonus pools to work with, this probably has little to do with bonus pool money. If Sasaki is going to go the Ohtani route, and never sign an extension, then he seems likely to just pick whatever team he likes best. If he’s instead expecting a large extension after a year in the league, then he and his representatives already know which teams make the best landing place, and the Tigers ain’t one of them.

Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, did say on Tuesday that a mid-market team that is a good fit for him may be the way to go, but one way or another, but one has to assume that’s just Wolfe being careful not to suggest anything about a team’s ability to pay Sasaki down the road as a factor.

Skubal, Sasaki, Olson, Jobe, and Cobb would be a beautiful sight. I fear this dream leads only to a painful end.

The Tigers are still expected to sign the fourth ranked international prospect in the 2025 signing period in outfielder Cris Rodriguez. Early reports say he’ll earn more than $3 million of the Tigers’ $7,555,500 in pool money.

Andrés Giménez

One team that did make a bold and complicated set of trades on Tuesday was the Cleveland Guardians . They sent elite defender, but light-hitting second baseman Andrés Giménez along with RHP Nick Sandlin, to the Toronto Blue Jays . In exchange, the Guardians got infielder Spencer Horowitz and outfield prospect Nick Mitchell.

The move cleared the final five years of Giménez’s seven-year, $106.5 million extension off the Guardians books. They inked him to that deal, the second largest in team history, after his breakout season in 2022. However, Giménez has never approached that offensive production again, and his value lies almost entirely in his ability to play some of the best second base in the game.

The Guardians then turned around and dealt Horwitz to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a package of young pitchers. They’ll get RHP Luis Ortiz, LHP Michael Kennedy, and LHP Josh Hartle back in that deal, and you can expect that the Guardians have plans for all three already. Hard to be on the Pirates out-evaluating the Guardians where pitchers are concerned.

Ortiz has pitched parts of three seasons in a starting role, producing a 3.93 ERA in 34 total starts, though his 2024 work was far and away his best work. Kenney is a 20-year-old lefty with a mediocre fastball but a really good slider and developing command. Hartle is a year older and packs a quality slider-changeup combination, though he too is weak in the fastball department according to FanGraphs.

Pretty slick trading if you ask me. The Guardians freed up a lot of payroll and got a decent package of pitchers for a weak hitting second baseman who hasn’t lived up to expectations other than being a defensive wizard.

Nats win Draft lottery

The Washington Nationals won the first overall pick in the 2025 amateur draft on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Angels ended up in the two spot, while the Seattle Mariners hit it big, moving all the up to the third pick despite winning 85 games. The Colorado Rockies got the fourth pick, while an 83 win season for the Cardinals resulted in landing the fifth overall pick in the lottery, so they did pretty well too.

The Rockies and the Miami Marlins had the best odds of landing the top pick, so the Marlins did worst of all here, falling to the seventh overall pick.

The Tigers weren’t involved in the lottery of course. They’ll pick 24th in the 2025 draft.

The Rule 5 draft is set for Wednesday starting at 2:00 p.m. ET, and concludes the Winter Meetings.

Jake Burger to the Rangers

There was one more late night trade on Tuesday, as the Miami Marlins sent third baseman Jake Burger to Texas for three prospects who aren’t on the Rangers’ top ten list. Burger has hit 63 homers over the past two seasons, and has four more years of team control attached, so the price was pretty light, but Burger is a free swinger and a subpar defender at third base too, so he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. On the other hand, he’s got back to back years with 29 and 34 home runs, has pretty balanced splits, isn’t a disaster at third, and plays first base acceptably well.

The Rangers gave up their 14th ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, SS Echedry Vargas, a light-hitting 19-year-old with really good defensive chops and speed on the bases. He’s young, but isn’t projected to develop much power and is likely a future utilityman. That was the centerpiece of the deal, though the other two prospects, while not ranked via Pipeline really should be. LHP Brayan Mendoza is a pretty interesting southpaw pitching prospect, and Max Acosta a decent young hitter who doesn’t have a lot of pop either, but gets on base well and plays a decent shortstop and a better second base.

So the return isn’t nothing, but the Tigers could match this trade without trading anyone higher than 20th on their list, speaking generally. And let’s say delicately that the Marlins front office are not the shrewdest bunch in the game. The lack of disciplined, long at-bats and walks drawn no doubt turns the Tigers’ front office off, so perhaps they didn’t bother to inquire. Burger is the type of guy whose consistent power production adds up and helps a team win games over the course of a season, but is unlikely to show up against the top competition, in my opinion. So he probably was at best a marginal upgrade over some kind of Matt Vierling/Jace Jung combo. They need better than that.

The Rangers may have been squeezed a bit by Josh Jung’s ongoing wrist issues . Their everyday third baseman dealt with a wrist fracture after getting hit by a pitch four days into the season. Jung had surgery to repair it, but issues lingered all year long and he had a second surgery to try and finally get it right back in October. Perhaps there’s concern about his ability to be ready for Opening Day, although the procedure didn’t sound likely to keep him out that long.