Tigers sign oft-injured arm away from division rival in first Winter Meetings move

Eric Cole

Championship Series - Cleveland Guardians v New York Yankees - Game 1 / Patrick Smith/GettyImages

With the market now in full swing, Detroit Tigers fans have been anxiously waiting to see what the team has in store at the Winter Meetings. No one realistically thinks the Tigers are going to walk away with Corbin Burnes, but Detroit has been connected to a number of players this offseason and it felt like the team was likely to accomplish something at the offseason derby in Dallas.

At or near the top of the Tigers' offseason shopping list is starting pitching. While they haven't really been connected to the top arms on the free agent market, there has been enough smoke around the middle tier of starters to get one's hopes up.

Walker Buehler has been mentioned, as have Sean Manaea and Andrew Heaney. But we'll have to wait to get to that point as Scott Harris sets the table.

On Monday, the Tigers instead took a bit of a gamble and signed Alex Cobb to a one-year deal.

Tigers News: Alex Cobb signed at Winter Meetings in first move

So, the good news is that when Cobb is actually on the mound, he is usually a very productive pitcher. Since the start of the 2021 season, Cobb has posted a reasonable 3.75 ERA while striking out about a batter an inning while maintaining a respectable walk rate.

However, for those who haven't done the math on the number of starts there, Cobb has a well-documented history of injuries all over his body, including his back, hip, shoulder, and wrist, which have cost him a chunk of time in his career. Just last season, inflammation in his shoulder while rehabbing from hip surgery limited him to three (good) starts and got him traded to the Guardians at the deadline.

The dollars matter a lot here. If Cobb is taking a cheap deal in hopes of rebuilding his value with the Tigers, then great. If not and Detroit ends up not being able to sign another, less injury-prone arm because of this deal, it feels like a pretty significant risk for them to take, especially if they have real postseason aspirations in 2025.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.