3 realistic Tigers targets who satisfy Scott Harris' 'supplement not replace' requirement

Tigers fans might be in for a quiet, if not altogether silent, offseason. We at least shouldn't expect to see the spending the front office did last season replicated in 2027 — not even close. If anything, the collective overall failure of the free agents who came to Detroit might've put Scott Harris off of spending even more.

When it comes to the bullpen, the part of the Tigers' roster most hurting for improvement, a number of minor league starters including top prospects Owen Hall and Lucas Elissalt were named as possible bullpen projects. The front office has a decision to make on Kenley Jansen's club option, but they should also be thinking about eating the rest of the money on Kyle Finnegan's guaranteed year left, too.

So big money probably won't be spend, but the Tigers could still open up a few spots for reclamation projects. As much as fans tend to hate those, there are some who might be gettable via trade or free agency who wouldn't need as much work as usual.

Cade Gibson, Marlins

Gibson was great for the Marlins in 2025, and then less so in 2026. He posted a 2.63 ERA in 54 2/3 innings last season but regressed significantly to a 5.36 ERA in 50 1/3 innings and spent a lot of the year going up and down between the majors and minors. But his 3.47 xERA this year was even better than last's, and he has a lot of what the Tigers tend to gravitate toward in their relief pitchers.

He has an unusually wide-ranging arsenal for a reliever but is overwhelmingly a breaking-ball pitcher, throwing a sweeper, sinker, curveball, and slider 86.7% of the time. He misses barrels exceptionally well, with a meager 3.3 rate, and is mostly a ground ball pitcher. The Tigers have to prioritize shoring up their defense in the offseason to compliment fellow ground baller Framber Valdez, so there could be less danger in taking more on.

Enyel De Los Santos, Astros

De Los Santos, too, had a far better expected ERA than actual ERA: 3.42 expected versus 4.79 actual. He fits more into the picture of a typical reliever, with just three pitches — a fastball, a slider, and a changeup. The fastball has generally been hit well by batters since 2024, but his changeup has leveled off as his most effective pitch, with a .181 average and .341 slugging percentage against.

He's a free agent now that the Astros have been eliminated from the postseason, and he should come on the cheap after making just $1.6 million in his last year of arbitration and going onto the IL with knee tendinitis to end his year. The best two years of his career were spent with the Guardians in 2022 and 2023, so maybe he just needs to come back to the AL Central.

Kyle Hart, Padres

Hart is another who might've been better than his actual stats suggest (you may be sensing a theme here). He pitched to a 4.92 ERA in the regular season and struggled heavily in September, allowing 11 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. He was left off of the Padres' postseason roster accordingly. Once again, though, the 3.65 xERA suggests that he ran into some bad luck.

Like Gibson, Hart is a soft-contact inducing ground ball pitcher who also relies more heavily on his breaking pitches, usually going to a sinker with just a .167 average and .181 slugging percentage against, which accounted for the largest percentage of his strikeouts.

It seems that he's had something of an identity crisis over the last few years; in 2025, his best stuff overall were his breaking pitches, but in 2026, the fastball took a bigger step forward. It would be an interesting puzzle for Chris Fetter to figure out, with the Tigers being as interested in breaking and offspeed-heavy arsenals as they are.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow