Detroit Tigers Winter Meetings 2024: Notable free agency, trade rumors to track

The Winter Meetings — an annual, action-packed gathering of front office members, players, agents, and journalists — kick off in Dallas on Dec. 9. They're usually the epicenter of offseason activity, and fans should expect at least a couple of big deals hammered out there. Some Hall of Fame voting, the Rule 5 draft, and the Draft Lottery all also take place during the event.

The big question of the year is where Juan Soto will sign, a decision he's widely expected to come to before the meetings are over. It'll take up all of the air in the room, and it's certainly not a discussion the Tigers are involved in, but Detroit's front office will still have work to do next week.

2024 MLB Winter Meetings: Dates, schedule, and everything Tigers fans need to know

The event is technically four days long, from Dec. 9-12, but executives will start arriving on Dec. 8 and probably won't stick around throughout all of Thursday. Last year, Soto was also at the center of Winter Meetings news, when the Padres and Yankees hammered out the trade that sent him to New York. Other than that, it was relatively (weirdly) quiet on the moves front.

On Dec. 8, the Classic Baseball Era Committee will meet to decide if any of the eight pre-1980 candidates up this year, including Tommy John and Luis Tiant, will enter the Hall of Fame, and results will be announced on the same day at 6:30 PM CT.

The Draft Lottery will take place on Tuesday, which the Tigers won't have a place in given their entry into the postseason this year. Wednesday will feature the Rule 5 Draft, from which Detroit has already protected three unranked prospects: righty relievers Chase Lee, Tyler Mattison, and Tyler Owens. Five top-30 prospects (all outside of the top 15) will be vulnerable.

While these are the featured events, most of the interesting stuff will be happening behind the scenes as teams work out trades amongst themselves and speak with free agents to bring deals home.

What will the Tigers do at the MLB Winter Meetings this year?

The Tigers still need the starting pitching and the righty bat they've been talking about since they were eliminated from the postseason, and the Winter Meetings should be the place to get them.

Although we shouldn't expect the Tigers to make any huge deals, we could see more exciting activity on the trade market, and it might finally be the time when Spencer Torkelson's fate is decided, if Detroit does end up going in on a first baseman like Yandy Díaz. Casey Mize is another name to watch as a potential trade piece.

There's still the likelihood that the front office leaves Dallas with nothing to show for it, just as they left Nashville last year, but we're hopeful that some of that hinted-at extra budget from Chris Ilitch will actuall show signs of existence next week.