Alex Bregman ending up in Detroit would be insulting to Tigers fans at this point

Tigers fans don't want to hear Alex Bregman's name ever again.

The guy dragged us through one long offseason ahead of the 2025 campaign — took Detroit all the way down to the wire, even — only to go to the Red Sox, and only to opt out after a single season in which he missed two months. The rumors around him this offseason have, unsurprisingly, included the Tigers, but they've become more and more muddied the longer he's stayed on the market.

Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press wrote on Saturday that the Tigers are not involved in his market, but he continued to dangle the carrot, adding that if a whole bunch of other things go a certain way for other rumored Bregman suitors, he could end up in Detroit. Specifically: "The Tigers could be his only option."

Despite basically saying that the Tigers were a long (long) shot, he followed up to opine that Detroit missed once, but they can't miss again.

That said, Bregman settling for Detroit would fly in the face of everything Scott Harris insisted when they lost that initial chase. He wants players who want to be Tigers. Tigers fans want players who want to be Tigers. Why should they break their backs for a guy who clearly doesn't?

Tigers fans are getting increasingly more frustrated as Alex Bregman rumors refuse to die

Bregman would make the Tigers' lineup better. That has never been in doubt. It puts Tigers fans in a tough position, because we've been begging the front office to add a veteran bat with some pop for years. Even if Bregman's market craters and the Tigers can get him at a discount, that kind of free agent spending would send a message about their seriousness as contenders.

But Bregman has already established that he doesn't want to be here. Harris has already insisted that the Tigers can win without him (and they did). No one wants a guy who is clearly just on the team because he ran out of options and needed to cash a check.

It's not Bregman or bust for the Tigers, and pundits need to stop acting like it is. They can (and probably should) still spend money on a different position player; Bo Bichette, Cody Bellinger, and Kazuma Okamoto are still out there. If not, then we'd rather Harris end up being right about "internal improvements" to the existing core than land a guy who would view the Tigers as a consolation prize.