Tigers need to address elephant in the room with bullpen heading into 2027

The Tigers' revamped bullpen picture has already come together a bit, with the front office having already re-signed 2026 standout Jacob Waguespack and signed former Reds closer Emilio Pagán. They almost certainly need one more reliever, but they got a lot of work out of the way quickly.

Right now, the bullpen looks as follows: Tyler Holton, Brant Hurter, and Drew Sommers as primary lefty options, and Beau Brieske, Kyle Finnegan, Will Vest, Waguespack, and Pagán the righties. They have a decent amount of depth with Enmanuel De Jesus, Brenan Hanifee, Ty Madden, Jake Miller, and Andrew Sears all on the 40-man, along with Keider Montero and Drew Anderson potentially available in swingman roles.

However, there is an understated issue with the main core. None of those righties have options remaining, and three of them are on guaranteed contracts. That leaves very little margin for error.

Tigers fans have still been quietly holding onto hope that they might non-tender Finnegan; Brieske could face the same fate. Losing at least one of them would give Detroit liberty to move someone like Madden up into an Opening Day roster spot and give the bullpen a little more flexibility.

Tigers bullpen is coming together, but there's a wrinkle in the roster construction

The problem with non-tendering Finnegan is the same as it's always been: no one likes to eat money, but the Tigers really don't like to eat money. He's owed $8 million in 2027, and although that's not a huge amount of money, they probably wouldn't be able to get much back for him in a trade, either.

It's likely that they'll just chalk up his awful 2026 season to reliever volatility and trust him to get after it again next season. But, luckily, Vest's return, Pagán signing, and Sommers' ascent should move Finnegan out of high-leverage spots.

Still, there's no promising that Vest will look like himself when he returns from two surgeries, that the Tigers will be able to fix Pagán's fly ball tendencies, or that Sommers will be able to replicate his high-strikeout stuff next year.

That's where the need for flexibility comes in. The Tigers need at least one slot on the right side of the bullpen to be changeable. Brieske, though a key part of Detroit's 2024 pitching chaos run, is probably the most expendable option here and should be a name to watch by the deadline on Nov. 20.

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