2 players from last year's Tigers team who will be missed, and 2 who won't be

Fresh off of an 86-win campaign that earned them a spot in the playoffs last year, the Detroit Tigers are an exciting team looking to take advantage of a wide open AL Central in 2025. The club is going to look largely the same as it did last year, as only a single player became an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

One of the players from last year's roster who departed at the trade deadline, Jack Flaherty, would've found himself squarely in a conversation like this one if the Tigers hadn't turned around and re-signed him in free agency this winter. He put together an outstanding season in 2024 and will be welcomed back with open arms to the 2025 squad.

But who else are Tigers fans going to remember fondly (or unfavorably) after their departures this offseason?

2 players from last year's Tigers team who will be missed, and 2 who won't be

Gio Urshela will not be missed

It's pretty easy to see why the Tigers brought Urshela aboard on a single-year pact heading into 2024. The club needed a warm body to hold down third base while Jace Jung neared his first look in the big leagues.

Urshela didn't perform the way the Tigers needed him to on either side of the ball. He wound up logging just 92 games for Detroit, hitting five home runs with 37 RBI and a measly .619 OPS. He also was worth just -0.3 dWAR at third base, making him a below-average defender at the hot corner for the first time since 2021.

All told, the nine-year veteran was worth -0.3 bWAR in a Tigers uniform. That's the first time he was a negative-value player since all the way back in 2018 when he played in just 19 games for the Blue Jays. He was designated for assignment and later released in August before latching on with the Braves a few days later. Naturally, he was worth 1.0 bWAR and had a 95 OPS+ through 36 games on the Braves.

The Tigers have a long list of players capable taking over at third base on their current roster. There's no room for Urshela. Even if there was, it'd be hard to see him as a fit after what he showed for them last year. His one-year deal with the Athletics that he signed earlier this offseason feels like a much better fit for him at this point in his career.

Mark Canha will be missed

In every single year since 2017, Canha has been an above-average player who regularly hits anywhere between 10 and 20 home runs and absolutely torches left-handed pitching. For the first time in years, he scuffled and was "just okay" in 93 games on the Tigers.

Canha wasn't awful in Detroit, as a 97 OPS+ put him just three percent below league-average at the dish, but he also wasn't really an impact player. Similarly to Urshela, he turned on the jets in the second half of the season on a new team, but he didn't knock anybody's socks off on the Tigers.

Yet, Canha feels like a player that will be missed on the 2025 Tigers. Once again, he demolished southpaws, hitting .275/.380/.395 with a .774 OPS against them. Compared to the .229/.330/.328 line and .658 OPS against righties, it's clear that he serves a very specific purpose at this point in his career.

The Tigers' 2025 bench is projected to consist of four players that won't scratch league-average at the plate: Dillon Dingler, Javier Baez, Andy Ibanez, and Zach McKinstry. The latter two can fake it in the outfield, but Canha's a corner outfielder/first baseman who has a logical fit on this team. Fortunately, he's still available on the open market, so it's not too late to have a deal come together.

Shelby Miller will not be missed

Miller, 34, was the only 2024 Tiger to hit unrestricted free agency. When Detroit first brought him on, he was coming off an insanely impressive 36-game showing out of the Dodgers' bullpen in 2023. In that time, he went 3-0 with a sparkling 1.71 ERA and 253 ERA+. He's never been much of a strikeout artist, but he had elevated his K/9 on the Dodgers and had higher value than he'd had in almost a decade when the Tigers signed him.

While Miller was able to make a career-high 51 appearances for the Tigers, he didn't look particularly impressive at any point during this past season. He finished with a 4.53 ERA, 4.48 FIP and 90 ERA+ through 55 2/3 innings, the most he's had in a season since he was a full-time starter back in 2016.

Miller also remains on the open market, but the Tigers have likely seen all they needed to from him this past year. They know exactly what they'd be getting from him if they brought him back for another go-round, and there's not really room for a below-average arm in this bullpen.

Andrew Chafin will be missed

At this point, the Tigers are intimately familiar with Chafin's game, as he's already had two separate tours through Detroit. The first time around in 2022, he posted a 2.83 ERA through 64 appearances. Last year, he made 41 appearances and logged a 3.16 ERA before he was flipped to the Rangers at the trade deadline.

Chafin, like most of the others on this list, is still a free agent. The Tigers already have two rock-solid lefties in their 2025 bullpen in Tyler Holton and Sean Guenther, but there's an old saying that teams can never have enough pitching. As currently assembled, the upcoming season's bullpen is looking good, but Chafin would make the unit so much more solid.

All throughout his 11-year career, Chafin has been durable and consistent. He's a high-strikeout arm who is capable of making 60 or more appearances in any given year. In fact, he's done so eight times in his career, which says a lot about his availability and his managers' preferred usage of him. Chafin is a well-respected arm and it's frankly a surprise to see him still jobless on the open market.