With the first weekend of the 2025 MLB season in the books, the Detroit Tigers have yet to win a game. While it’s true that they have had tp face the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium â and that they lost their opener by one run and the next game on a 10th-inning walkout home run â the fact remains that after a promising run to the American League Division Series in 2024, the Tigers have opened this year 0-3.
Perhaps more important even than losing games, the Tigers are losing players. A series of injuries in Spring Training continuing into the first weekend of the season has left the Bengals scrambling.
Of course, even a team that opens the season on such a discouraging note cannot be expected to make any panic moves with its roster. But if the Tigers do not turn things around soon, they will feel pressure to find a way to upgrade at positions that have been deficient. And so far, no position has started slower that shortstop, where rookie Troy Sweeney â the Tigers 2021 first-round draft pick, 20th overall, out of Eastern Illinois â has managed just one base hit in nine at-bats, after just 24 hits in 110 at-bats during his brief 2024 stint with the Major League club.
Bold Prediction for Big Tigers Trade
So what can the Tigers do? The team’s correspondent for The Athletic, Cory Stavenhagen, offered his “bold” prediction earlier this week.
“The Tigers will hover around the .500 mark for most of the first half,” Stavenhagen wrote. If they can remain within striking distance in the AL Central race, they will be aggressive buyers at the trade deadline, making a serious run at an infielder such as Bo Bichette from the Blue Jays.”
Bichette, 27 and the son of former Major Leaguer Dante Bichette , is now in the final season of the three-year, $33.6 million contract he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, the team that made him a second-round draft pick in 2016.
Like his higher-profile teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is also one of Bichette’s closest friends, Bichette has been the subject of trade speculation since it was reported that the Blue Jays have not so much as begun talks with the seventh-year shortstop on a contract extension.
Despite an off year in 2024, as he dealt with a persistent calf injury that restricted him to just 81 games, Bichette throughout most of his career has been, along with Guerrero, one of the two faces of the Toronto franchise. He has posted OPS numbers over .800 in every previous season, and been named an AL All-Star in 2021 and 2023.
What would the Blue Jays want in trade for Bichette? The fact that he would be, in effect, a partial-season rental is likely to bring his price down, meaning that â despite already placing free agent signing Max Scherzer, a future Hall of Fame righty starter, on the injured list â the Blue Jays are unlikely to get their hands on Detroit’s top pitching prospect, 22-year-old Jackson Jobe.
Former No. 1 Draft Pick May Top Trade Package
On the offensive side, the Blue Jays would need a bat to fill in for the loss of Bichette. The Tigers have made clear that they have an odd man out in outfielder/first baseman Spencer Torkelson. The No. 1 overall pick in 2021, the 25-year-old Torkelson has never lived up to his early billing, posting a career OPS of just .699 over three seasons.
But the former Arizona State Sun Devil may be showing signs of finally hitting his stride, serving as a bright spot in the Tigers’ otherwise disappointing opening weekend. Torkelson already has four hits including a home run and even a stolen base â just the fourth of his career â and a league-leading five walks in 14 plate appearances.
Would the Blue Jays accept Torkelson and a lower-ranked pitching prospect in exchange for Bichette? As the season plays out, they may find that they have little choice.
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