Sean Manaea's contract with Mets shows Tigers couldn't be more lost in free agency

Mets and Red Sox fans got early Christmas presents on Monday, when new contracts for Sean Manaea and Walker Buehler were announced. The Tigers, of course, were on the outside looking in for both of them; even though they had expressed interest in Buehler, they ended up pulling Alex Cobb back from the brink of retirement and then concluded that was enough work on the rotation for the offseason.

It's been maddening for Tigers fans to watch mid-market pitchers, who all could've been better options than Cobb, come off the board. Manaea signed a three-year, $75 million deal, and Buehler got one year and $21.05 million, which confirms (once again) that the Tigers never really planned to be daring in free agency (even though there's still time for them to make a splash with Alex Bregman).

Cobb's deal is one year and $15 million, with $2 million in innings-based incentives. He's only the Tigers' third confirmed starter in 2025, while four others will try out for the last two spots in the rotation during spring training.

Both Manaea and Buehler could've been completely plausible options for Detroit, but it seemed like the Tigers just got scared and settled on the first guy who'd say yes.

Sean Manaea's new Mets contract makes Tigers' offseason approach look even worse

So far, Cobb is the lone major league addition the Tigers have made via either free agency or trade. There was so much hype around them coming off of their postseason run that speculation even connected them to the likes of Pete Alonso and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but Scott Harris seemingly refuses to budge from his old stances. The Tigers are still holding onto their prospects with a vice grip (perhaps even overvaluing them, in many cases), and are possibly still too scarred by the way things have turned out for Javy Báez to ever try to spend a large amount of money again.

Manaea put up a solid 2024 season in Queens, and Buehler will be a fixer-upper for Boston but still has years of accolades and postseason experience behind him. Cobb is 37 years old and was hurt for almost all of 2024. Were the Tigers really unwilling to stretch the budget for a single starter to $20 million? Seriously?

Fans are prepared to get on their knees and beg for the Tigers to lock up Bregman to save the team from another embarrassing, inactive offseason.