Tigers fans really won't like Bleacher Report's 'unpopular offseason trade idea'

Whatever got into the Tigers at the start of August got into all of them, pretty much from top to bottom. Tarik Skubal had been excellent all year, but the rookie bats really got their moments in the sun in the last two months of the regular season into October.

But for all the talk of "pitching chaos" in October, we didn't give enough flowers to the Tigers bullpen. Jason Foley, Will Vest, Beau Brieske, and Tyler Holton combined after the trade deadline to be one of the most fearsome foursomes opposing batters could face, and Hinch was willing to use them every which way to keep hitters confused.

Through July, Detroit's bullpen ERA was 23rd in baseball. From Aug. 1 through ALDS Game 5, they were second.

Although Foley sort of lost the plot toward the end of their postseason run, this is a core four that the Tigers will want to keep intact in 2025 and build on in free agency. They have years of club control left and they're clearly capable of turning the bullpen into a juggernaut.

Bleacher Report, in their infinite wisdom, proposed "unpopular offseason trade ideas for each MLB team," and they listed Vest for the Tigers. Yeah, we'd say that one would be very unpopular!

Bleacher Report lists Will Vest as their "unpopular offseason trade idea" for the Tigers this offseason

It doesn't seem like the Tigers will be looking to engage in many trades at all, rather to buy and build on what they've already proven can be a winning squad. Even if there might be a lot more room in the budget this year, the Tigers are still the Tigers, and they're going to want to hang onto their players with a lot of team control (which is pretty much all of them) for the foreseeable future.

B/R suggested that the Tigers trade Vest for a hard-hitting prospect, but they've already got more than a few of those. Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle, Thayron Liranzo, and now Bryce Rainer are all a few years away from the majors, but it's still more likely that the Tigers would want to focus on developing the rookies they introduced this year and then supplementing them with veteran power bats via free agent signing.

Vest carried a 2.82 ERA in the regular season over 70 1/3 innings and gave up just a single earned run in the postseason. He's only in his first arbitration-eligible year and won't be a free agent until 2028. There's always room for reevaluation at the trade deadline next year, but for now, he's not going anywhere ... unless the Tigers get an offer they can't refuse. We don't see that happening, though.