Grading Detroit Tigers' 2025 trade deadline: Scott Harris opens himself to criticism

After a bit of a rocky stretch coming out of the All-Star break, the Detroit Tigers have gotten back on track lately and solidified their position atop of the AL Central. The Tigers had a perfect opportunity to reinforce their roster and make a really strong push heading into the playoffs at the trade deadline, but it is unclear whether or not they actually pulled that off.

Most of the Tigers' deadline needs were on the pitching side with both the rotation and the bullpen needing some help. Adding an impact third baseman would have also been nice, but was probably a tad lower on list of priorities.

Now that the dust has settled, Detroit managed to acquire Charlie Morton, Kyle Finnegan, Paul Sewald, Rafael Montero, Chris Paddack, and Codi Heuer while shipping Matt Manning and Dietrich Enns out of town. While the quantity is there, it feels like the Tigers front office may be throwing darts at the wall with these moves, hoping a couple of them work out instead of having a real strategy.

Tigers deserve a C+ for their trade deadline moves in 2025 as the front office just didn't do quite enough

Failing to add an impact bat was a bummer, especially with how busy the trade deadline ended up being, although the best fit was probably Eugenio Suarez and everyone was bidding for his services. Scott Harris and Co. not adding any position player help, even for the bench, feels like a mistake even if the market didn't have ideal options for them.

The good news is that Harris did add plenty of arms. However, Morton and Paddack both sport ERAs around 5.00 and feel more like rotation filler than difference-makers at this point of their careers. The Tigers also added plenty of bullpen arms, but Finnegan is debatably the only one likely to move the needle much with the injured Sewald and the famously inconsistent (at best) Montero being wild cards.

In short, the Tigers didn't stand pat at the deadline, which was good. Unfortunately, the one area of the market that experienced little movement at all league-wide was starting pitching, which hurt a bit. Still, the front office should have pushed harder for quality at the deadline instead of stubbornly holding on to every single one of their assets.

Windows of contention are finite and the Tigers may be "better", but that improvement is pretty underwhelming compared to what it could have been, so C+ feels like an appropriate grade for now. Harris is by no means under fire at the moment, but he's now subject to criticism if things go sideways.

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