Detroit Tigers: 5 free agents not worth getting into a bidding war over

The Detroit Tigers have a huge offseason ahead of them. They have an opportunity to become the class of the AL Central if they make the right moves. They just need some quality big league talent.

Sadly, as we've discussed many times already, the free agent class this offseason is less than ideal. There aren't a lot of options outside of Shohei Ohtani, and we would be shocked if the Tigers were in on him.

Many of these free agents are guys that we don't want the Tigers to sign anyway. We're going to go over those today.

We want the Tigers to spend, don't get us wrong. Just not on these five players. Let's get started.

Matt Chapman

The Tigers have a glaring hole at third base. They've had it since they let Jeimer Candelario go last offseason and did nothing to replace him. By far, the best free agent available to help fill that hole is Matt Chapman.

Chapman was a first-round pick of the Oakland Athletics in 2014. He came up in 2017 and racked up 2.6 fWAR in 84 games.

That number shot up to 6.3 fWAR in 2018. Not only did his offense improve, but his defense was stellar, and still is to this day. He's right up there with Nolan Arenado as the best defensive third baseman in baseball. Unfortunately, the offense hasn't quite kept up like the defense has.

He got off to scorching hot start with the Blue Jays in 2023. Through April 30, Chapman was slashing .384/.465/.687 with a 216 wRC+ and a .303 ISO. There were MVP talks with him earlier this season.

From this point on, Chapman struggled mightilty at the plate. Chapman hit just .205 from May 1 onward with 12 homers and an 84 wRC+. He struck out at almost a 30% clip.

Chapman's defense is outstanding. Nobody is going to take that away from him. But offensively, he's Javier Baez with more walks. I don't know about the rest of Tigers fans, but one Javy Baez is enough for me.

If the Tigers could get him on some sort of discount, then sure, go and get Matt Chapman. But he's definitely not worth getting into a bidding war over.

Julio Urias

This one is pretty obvious, so we won't spend too much time on it. If you're not familiar with the situation, we'll give you the "too long, didn't read" version.

Last month, Urias was arrested for domestic violence for a second time. He was arrested for the same thing in 2019. He received a 20-game suspension for it four years ago, and was placed on administrative lead by MLB after this most recent incident.

Urias may have thrown his last pitch in the big leagues. One domestic violence arrest is enough, but two? Yeah, even MLB likely won't be able to justify keeping him around.

This is an easy pass for us, and likely will be for the other 29 teams in MLB.

Blake Snell

Snell is likely the National League Cy Young frontrunner. He's coming off an excellent season with the Padres. He led the NL with a 2.25 ERA. He also had a 4.1 fWAR. Some of his peripherals suggest some luck was involved, but he still had a great season nonetheless.

Should he win the Cy Young, it would the second time he's won the award. He won it in 2018 with the Rays. He would become just the seventh pitcher in MLB history to win the Cy Young in both leagues.

This Snell guy is pretty good. So why don't we want the Tigers to sign him to an expensive deal? Well, he doesn't really fit what the Tigers are trying to do.

He's struggled with walks throughout his career. He walked almost five batters per nine innings this season. He does strike a lot of guys out, but the walks are concerning.

He's also had his fair share of consistency issues. There wil be times he looks like Cy Young award winner he is and likely will be again. Then there will be times where he looks like he should be a No. 5 starter.

Somebody is going to give Blake Snell a lot of money this offseason, but it shouldn't be the Tigers.

Jeimer Candelario

The Tigers opted to non-tender Jeimer Candelario after a lackluster season in 2022. Of course, we all know how this ends by now. The Tigers opt to do nothing to replace him at third base, Candy goes and has a nice season for the Nationals before getting traded to the Cubs at the trade deadline.

Candy signed a one-year prove-it deal with Washington last offseason, and for the most part, he proved it. He slashed .258/.342/.481 with 16 homers for the Nats before getting traded to the Cubs. He got off to a scorching start with Chicago before cooling off significantly.

From Aug. 15 through the end of the season, Candy hit just .155 with a 66 wRC+ in 112 plate appearances. Interestingly enough, he still had a .216 ISO.

I don't think Jeimer wants to come back here anyway. I think he served his time here, and is ready to move on to greener pastures. But even if he did, I'm staying clear of him.

The Tigers would be better off filling the position internally than bringing Jeimer back. Even if he'll take another prove-it deal, I'm not touching him. The league seemed to figure him out when he was in Chicago. I just don't trust him to make the adjustment.

There will probably be a team that gives Candelario a multi-year deal. The Tigers should stay clear.