Tigers have to make obvious first move to kick off their offseason bullpen rebuild

On Thursday, the MLBPA released a full list of the 144 players who officially became free agents after the conclusion of the World Series. The Tigers have six players on heading to the open market: Jack Flaherty, Tyler Kinley, Burch Smith, Gleyber Torres, Justin Verlander, and Jacob Waguespack.

Verlander has officially retired and has already made his first foray into a broadcasting career. Flaherty, Kinley, Smith, and Torres should all be allowed to walk to make room for younger and/or new players, but Waguespack, whose minor league contract the Tigers took on when the traded the Brewers for him, should be a real consideration for the front office and they (hopefully) start to explore ways to fix the bullpen.

After coming over to Detroit on June 10, the Tigers wasted almost no time at all promoting him to the major league roster. He threw 47 innings for a 2.49 ERA and 0.91 WHIP, quickly becoming one of the most trustworthy arms in an otherwise completely untrustworthy bullpen.

Given that he signed a one-year minor league deal with the Brewers ahead of the 2026 season, he's entitled to test the market again, but the Tigers should be mulling over a major league contract after his performance for the team in 2026.

Jacob Waguespack is a free agent, but the Tigers should be heavily considering offering him a major league contract

The Tigers haven't been able to claim success with a reclamation project in some time, even though they like to throw spaghetti at the wall as much as the next team. Plucking Waguespack, whose major league experience was broken up by a stint in NPB with the Orix Buffaloes (Waguespack is a former teammate of the Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto), out of obscurity within the Brewers organization is a testament to both Scott Harris and pitching coach Chris Fetter.

And what better way to show that the Tigers are committed to pitchers they helped shape or reshape than to keep them?

The key to Waguespack is his unique extension, giving hitters a dramatically different look than they usually do. He doesn't have the highest velocity fastball by any means, but it still did good work for him this year, with a .171 batting average against. His changeup was even better: .098 batting average against, accounting for just under half of his total strikeouts.

The Tigers found a diamond in the rough here, and they polished him off. He'll be incredibly affordable on the free agent market and Detroit gets first dibs on negotiating, so it should be a no-brainer.

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