Tigers' biggest offseason regret already rearing its ugly head this season

The Detroit Tigers had a bold finish to their offseason, fortifying their starting rotation with the additions of Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander. The bolder, if not riskier, decision from Scott Harris and Co. was to double down on the position players they already had on the roster. The offense ran out of gas near the end of last year, and while Kevin McGonigle's arrival was needed, it felt like more should have been done.

The early returns from the 2026 season are validating those fears. The Tigers don't have the worst offense in baseball through the first two weeks of the season; they are near the middle of the pack in nearly every advanced offensive metric.

But as the Tigers have stumbled out to a 4-9 record, there's a need to look under the hood. When it comes to the offense, the biggest trend is that the group hasn't taken a step forward. Part of the reason why Harris wasn't compelled to add another bat was that he believed in the progression of players like Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene.

Greene has a wRC+ of 76 through his first 57 plate appearances with no home runs. Torkelson hasn't been much better, a wRC+ of 92 through 48 plate appearances this season. For reference, McGonigle is doing his part, posting a wRC+ of 135 through the early days of his career.

Contrary to Scott Harris' belief, the Tigers probably could've used another bat

The variance between where McGonigle is and how low Torkelson and Greene are speak to the biggest problems surrounding Detroit right now. If the Tigers aren't hitting for power, largely supplied by the two veterans, the starting lineup, as a whole, leaves much to be desired. The Tigers' isolated power (subtracting batting average from slugging percentage) is at .118, and that is the fourth-lowest mark across baseball this season.

In other words, when Bleacher Report points to the Tigers' biggest offseason regret being the lack of another bat, the early returns would confirm that suggestion. Specifically, their issue was that the Tigers didn't add another bat to the infield.

To be fair to the Tigers, the top available free-agent bats in the infield this past offseason all played third base. Given McGonigle's arrival, spending $175 million on Alex Bregman never would have made sense. But the short-term deal that Eugenio Suárez signed with the Cincinnati Reds certainly looks appealing right now.

There's no need to specify where the Tigers should have added a bat; the reality is their starting lineup was begging for an external addition, regardless of the expected production they were going to get from McGonigle.