Don't count on the Tigers solving massive offensive problems with signings or trades

If you listened closely to Scott Harris at the Winter Meetings, you probably heard what Detroit Tigers fans have been hearing — and dreading — for two offseasons now:

The cavalry is not coming.

Not via a big bat. Not via a surprise trade. Not via that shiny, middle-of-the-order threat fans keep hoping will walk through the door with a press conference and a jersey number. Harris all but spelled it out: Detroit’s offense is going to rise — or flatline — based almost entirely on its own kids.

And look, it’s not that he’s wrong about the talent. Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter are legitimate building blocks who should get better. Colt Keith, Parker Meadows, Wenceel Pérez and Dillon Dingler all flashed something real in 2025. And behind them sits the prospect wave Harris loves to reference like it’s a mythical prophecy. No one doubts the upside.

But when your offense ranked among the worst in baseball during the second-half collapse in 2025, when you went entire weeks looking allergic to run-scoring opportunities, hearing the words “majority of our growth is going to come from within” feels less like a strategy and more like a gamble disguised as optimism.

This is the part where other teams aggressively add talent. Detroit is instead aggressively … trusting the process.

Scott Harris makes it clear that Tigers' offense isn't being saved by outsiders

Harris even went out of his way to defend the Gleyber Torres qualifying offer decision by reminding everyone that even though it isn’t “sexy,” it fits the profile: right-handed, contact skills, on-base ability, familiarity with the coaching staff. And honestly? He’s right. Torres is a good player, a stabilizer, a professional bat.

But Torres is just one bat on a team that needed three or four. And the fact that Harris called him an “important addition” while simultaneously saying he doesn’t want to block anyone tells you everything you need to know about Detroit’s offseason identity –– that this front office is prioritizing runway over reinforcements.

They’re betting on “positive regression,” on better health, on more spring training reps, on internal growth curves correcting themselves. Matt Vierling didn’t have a spring. Parker Meadows didn’t have a spring. Wenceel Pérez didn’t have a spring. These things matter. They really do.

But so does adding established impact talent when you’re in your competitive window — especially when you have an ace who might not be here forever, a fanbase dying for actual momentum, and a division that refuses to run away from you.

What fans want is simple: a sign that the Tigers are pushing chips in. What the Tigers keep signaling is: “We like our chips right where they are.”

Harris left the door cracked — “I wouldn’t rule out an external addition” — but let’s be honest: that quote had the same energy as “You never know!” when the answer is almost certainly “Probably not.”

So Tigers fans shouldn’t count on the splash. Don’t sit by your phone waiting for a surprise trade for a middle-of-the-order masher. Don’t expect a free-agent bat that makes the rest of the AL Central nervous. Don’t expect Detroit to force improvement from the outside. Because everything Harris said points to one truth –– that the Tigers’ 2026 offense will sink or swim with what they already have.

Maybe that’s the right call long-term. Maybe the young core really does explode. Maybe this becomes the year it all clicks. But for fans? After so many years of “trusting the internal growth,” it’s fair to crave more than trust. It’s fair to want a push. It’s fair to want an actual offensive upgrade that doesn’t require squinting.

Until then, buckle up. Because unless something changes, the Tigers are going to try to score their way to October the slow, internal, developmental way — not the blockbuster route.