Detroit Tigers 2022 off-season grades have been passed out

Chris Brown’s thoughts on the Detroit Tigers off-season.

Chris: I have to give the Tigers a solid B for their off-season. They addressed their biggest needs and got a lot more talented at the big-league level. Tucker Barnhart isn’t a game changer at catcher, but the backstop options this off-season weren’t great, and for once the Tigers used a little creativity in a deal, taking on a bit of salary to get a big leaguer without sacrificing a premium prospect. Eduardo Rodriguez was one of my favorite free agent pitchers and I think the Tigers got him for a relative bargain.

Middle relievers aren’t sexy, but Andrew Chafin is dependable and absolutely makes this bullpen better, and Michael Pineda is fine as veteran starting pitching depth. At the very least he buys more development time for some of the younger arms like Beau Brieske, Joey Wentz, Reese Olson, and Wilmer Flores.

I like Javier Báez, and this is absolutely revisionist history, but in hindsight it feels a bit like the Tigers panicked a bit when they couldn’t get Carlos Correa to sign. Báez may well work out, but he also feels like the riskiest of the five big shortstops this off-season. They had to get one of the five, so I understand the aggression, but it sure seems like waiting out the market could’ve resulted in Correa and an A+ off-season.