Update on Tigers' Alex Cobb signing could make it historically bad free agency move

The Tigers' signing Alex Cobb last week could only be met with one reaction: "Huh?"

Detroit's quest for starting pitching this offseason started off well enough. They expressed interest in Walker Buehler, Kyle Gibson, and Andrew Heaney, all of whom were perfectly decent mid-tier options likely to take the kind of short-term deals the Tigers were hoping to dish out. They all came with a certain amount of baggage, but the Tigers already proved with Jack Flaherty that they could take a fixer-upper and turn him into one of the most highly-coveted pieces of the trade deadline.

Maybe those guys just didn't have a mutual interest in the Tigers, because Detroit ended up going with Cobb, on a one-year, $15 million deal that already feels like a regrettable contract. He doesn't have the same history of greatness behind him as Buehler, and he doesn't have the same healthy track record as Gibson and Heaney.

To make matters worse, Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press reported that the Tigers not only offered Cobb way too much money, they did it to keep him from retiring. Cobb went as far as to admit that he was "a bit surprised by the interest."

New Tigers starter Alex Cobb was on the verge of retirement before Detroit picked him up

Cobb only pitched 16 1/3 innings for the Guardians in 2023, and he went three seasons from 2019-2021 logging just 158 total innings. It hasn't been just one recurring issue, rather an assortment, but in 2024 it was a hip surgery, fractured nail, and a finger blister that kept him from pitching until August ... when he put up just two starts before going back onto the IL and managing just one more outing in September.

The Tigers had interest in Buehler, Gibson, and Heaney, but they switched tacks to drag an oft-injured pitcher away from the verge of retirement. If this signing was met with some confusion and skepticism from the start, which was then compounded by the high price tag, then all fans are left with now is complete incredulity.

It makes it even worse that the Tigers are seemingly calling it quits on acquiring more starting pitching after getting Cobb. Are they just going to hang onto hope that Roki Sasaki sees something in the organization and signs with Detroit against all odds? Will they basically audition three more starters at spring training? How is this a plan?