Tigers remaining quiet, uninvolved with top free agents is bad development for 2025

During his media availability at the MLB general manager meetings earlier this month, Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris did what coaches and front office executives have done for decades; he sent a message to his players, through the media.

"We have to stay hungry," Harris said (via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press). "We have to find ways to raise the bar for all of us. We are a really young team. The beauty of building a young team is young teams get better. Each of these guys as individuals are going to get better, and our entire team is going to get better."

Indeed, the onus is on each individual player from the 2024 Tigers to raise the bar in 2025. But if Harris is going to make such a demand of his players, he should be making the same demand of himself. The Tigers had a magical run in 2024, but still have several shortcomings that need to be addressed, and not every solution is going to come from within.

If Harris truly wants this entire team to get better, then he himself has to put in the work, beginning with the free agent market.

Tigers remaining quiet, uninvolved with top free agents is bad development for 2025

The Tigers have a number of glaring holes to fill on their roster if they wish to go on a deeper playoff run in 2025. They need to beef up their starting rotation behind American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. They need more right-handed bats. They need a long-term solution at first base. They could stand to add a relief arm or two.

And yet, when it comes to the Tigers potentially having conversations with any of the top available free agents at those positions, the rumor mill has been deafeningly silent. The Tigers should be one of the most aggressive teams scouring the market this offseason, but instead, they seem ... disengaged? It's disappointing, and a bad development for 2025.

Detroit's 2024 playoff run will be nothing more than a fluke if Harris doesn't make a considerable effort to improve this team during the offseason. If he wants the players to buy in and work on getting better as a team, then he needs to do the same.

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