Detroit Tigers: An early look at some possible free agent targets

The Detroit Tigers are due for a roster overhaul this offseason

The Detroit Tigers 2022 season is virtually over. They’re out of contention again, and at this point some guys are playing for their jobs. Once again, Tigers fans are left to look forward to the offseason.

It’s not yet known how active the Detroit Tigers will be on the free agent market. It depends on a lot of things, like who the next GM is, and whether chairman Chris Ilitch will open up his wallet again after seeing the the club regress after spending money last offseason.

One thing’s for sure: the Tigers will be cutting a lot of players. This roster will be torn to shreds by the new GM, especially if they come from outside the organization. The Tigers will have to replace those players somehow, and they can’t fill all those holes internally. They’re going to have to get creative.

Don’t expect this team to be in on big fish like Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa (assuming he opts out), or Justin Verlander (opt-out). I wouldn’t completely rule it out, but it just doesn’t seem like this team’s MO under Chris Ilitch’s watch. But there are some solid mid-tier options that the Tigers should be in on come wintertime.

So with all that being said, here’s an early look at some possible free agent targets for the Detroit Tigers this offseason:

IF Wilmer Flores

No, the other one. It seems more and more likely that the Tigers will move on from 3B Jeimer Candelario this offseason. He’ll probably be due around $7 million in arbitration and they probably don’t want to pay that much for a guy that currently boasts a 0.3 bWAR.

So in steps Wilmer Flores, the brother of the Tigers pitching prospect with the same name. The 31-year-old is currently having a solid season with the San Francisco Giants, slashing .249/.331/.432 with 16 homers and a bWAR of 1.5. He’s been a low strikeout/low walk guy throughout his career.

Defensively, he’s played all around the infield throughout his career, mostly 2B and 3B. Basically, wherever a team needs him, he’ll play, though he’s never been great at any particular position.

With nobody in the farm system ready to step in and take the reigns at third base next year, Flores could be a nice one-year stopgap. He could split time between second and third with Jonathan Schoop, who seems destined for a utility role next season.

Flores would be pretty cheap as well. He’s making $3.5 million this season, so a raise to about $4 or $5 million would make sense on a one-year deal. Hopefully Colt Keith is ready by 2024.

OF Joc Pederson

I’ve been pounding the table for the Tigers to sign Pederson for a couple of years now. He’s always a prime one-year deal candidate who can hit hide out in left field and he’ll slug over .500.

Pederson will turn 31 early next season, and he’s not quite the slugger he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was hitting 25-30 homers a year, but he’s a fantastic platoon option, and the Detroit Tigers desperately need some more production against right-handed pitchers.

Pederson is slashing .257/.333/.502 with 19 home runs this season while playing half his games at Oracle Park in San Francisco. That should squash up any concerns about him not hitting for power at Comerica Park.

Defensively, he’s never been very good. If the Tigers signed him, that would theoretically move Austin Meadows to right field, which would not make for an ideal outfield defense situation. He might even have to platoon with Miguel Cabrera at DH.

Pederson is signed to a one-year, $7 million deal with the Giants this season. Something like that, maybe a little more should get a deal done.

OF Mitch Haniger

If the Detroit Tigers decide to go the cheap route (heaven forbid), Haniger is a very intriguing option. When healthy, he’s one of the most underrated hitters in the league.

In 2021, Haniger slashed .253/.318/.485 with 39 home runs for the Seattle Mariners. He finished 20th in AL MVP voting. He was an All-Star in 2018 when he slashed .285/.366/.493 with 26 homers. He received AL MVP votes that season as well, finishing 11th. Again, when healthy, he’s a force to be reckoned with.

But that’s just it. Much like Nimmo before him, Haniger has struggled to stay on the field throughout his career, and that includes this season when he missed time with a right ankle sprain. Some of his injuries have been freakish, like when he suffered a ruptured testicle in 2019 after fouling a pitch off his groin.

Because of his injury history, this season included, the 31-year-old will probably have to settle for a one-year prove-it deal this offseason. For a team like the Tigers, it’s a potential low-risk, high reward signing.

Haniger bats right-handed, unlike the first two outfielders on this list, who are both lefties. His career platoon splits are fairly even, although he is slightly better vs. LHP (.803 OPS vs. RHP, .857 vs. LHP). But because of his power potential, he would make for a very nice addition to Detroit’s outfield.

SP Jameson Taillon

I knew I wanted to put a starter on here, and I struggled between Taillon and Sean Manaea. But in the end, I went with the former No. 2 overall pick due to his consistency.

You pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get from Taillon from year to year: an ERA in the high 3s to low 4s, low walks, low strikeouts. He won’t miss a ton of bats. His career ERA of 3.83 is pretty much right on par with his career 3.81 FIP, again speaking to his consistency.

The big thing with Taillon has always been his health. The 30-year-old has had both Tommy John surgery and flexor tendon surgery, and has even survived testicular cancer. But the last two years he’s been fully healthy, so hopefully the injury woes are behind him, for his sake.

Taillon used to be able to dial it up close to triple digits, but nowadays he’s hovering around 95 mph with his fastball. His four-seamer is part of a vast repertoire that include six pitches. The other five are as follows: slider, curveball, cutter, sinker, and a changeup. He has upped his cutter and sinker usage this year according to Baseball Savant.

Spotrac projects that Taillon would have an AAV of about $11 million over his next contract. They predict he’ll get a three-year, $33 million deal. For the Tigers, who are going to need starting pitching help with both Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize out long term, this seems like a good deal to make.

Taillon is dependable when healthy. If the Tigers can improve their injury prevention, he would be a nice fit in Detroit. Chris Fetter could always work on some stuff with him too to make him even better.

SS Xander Bogaerts

This is more of a pipe dream. Bogaerts is currently in year three of a six-year, $120 million deal. He can opt out of that contract after this season, and rumor has it he is strongly considering it. With a move to second base potentially in Javier Baez’s very near future, the Tigers could atone for last offseason’s sins and sign a bona fide star at shortstop.

Bogaerts has always raked. The four-time All-Star is currently slashing .305/.373/.448 with 11 homers. His best season came in 2019 when he hit 33 home runs with a .939 OPS and finished fifth in AL MVP voting.

The knock on him has always been his defense, and to be fair, it was pretty bad for a while. The 30-year-old had 17 errors in 2017, and had a negative outs above average every year from 2019-21. This year, he seems to have cleaned things up significantly, as he’s currently in the 88th percentile with an OAA of 4.

As I stated way back at the beginning of this article, the likelihood of Ilitch splurging for a shortstop again seems highly unlikely. One would imagine that Bogaerts will likely command an AAV of $30 million or more, and that’s way out of Chris’ price range.

But man, it would sure be nice have Bogaerts and Baez in the middle infield. With nobody immediately ready to take over shortstop internally, the Detroit Tigers would have to spend again if they really want to move Baez to 2B.